UN launches
new programme for girls’ education in West and Central
Africa
“The challenges we face in terms of access to education for girls in
this region are enormous, but they are achievable when we join all our
efforts,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill
Ambassador Yvonne Chaka-Chaka, the South African singer said at the launch
in Dakar, Senegal, of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), a wide partnership of UN
agencies, national and local governments and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).
Girls’ education and quality education in the region face many
challenges, from emergencies and HIV/AIDS, to deepening poverty and
persistent gender disparities. The result is that about one child out of
two is out of school, most of them girls from poor rural areas.
Over 80 per cent of children out of school have mothers with no formal
education, and region-wide only 86 girls are in school for every 100 boys.
“There is so much at stake, economically and politically for this
region, that we simply cannot trifle with the contribution of women and
girls,” UNICEF acting interim Regional Director Theophane Nikyema said.
“The sooner we give more attention to gender equality and equity, to
prepare the foundation for girls through a quality, empowering education,
the better for both the region and the continent as a whole,” he added.
The complexity of the issues preventing girls from accessing school
requires a diverse group of partners to address them with the goal of
moving girls’ education forward at every level and in every setting,
UNICEF said.
To reach the MDGs related to girls’ education by their target date of
2015, countries in the region must increase the enrolment rate by 3.5 per
cent per year, but the annual increase observed between 1980 and 2001 has
been only 1 per cent. The NGO Oxfam predicts that “at the current rate of
progress, gender parity will not be reached until 2038.”
UN agencies participating in UNGEI include UNICEF, the UN International
Labour Organization (ILO), World Bank, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the
Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Development Programme
(UNDP), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health
Organization (WHO).
Other key partners include national and local governments, ministries
of education, grass-roots organizations, local and international NGOs and
donor governments. Partnerships already struck with the African Union (AU)
and the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS) are critical
in mobilizing country action for UNGEI objectives
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