Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2020 to Question 8427 on Developing Countries: Education, how many girls supported through the Girls' Education Challenge are aged (a) 5 to 12 and (b) 13 to 18.

The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) Phase 2, launched in 2017, aims to reach 1.5 million marginalised and highly marginalised girls.

GEC projects are currently reaching approximately 468,000 girls aged between 5 and 11; approximately 732,000 girls and young women aged between 12 and 19; and 85,000 young women aged between 20 and 24.

A further 15,000 girls aged 10-19 are supported by a project in Mozambique which does not record age breakdown.

Up to 190,000 girls are also being supported through GEC ‘Leave No Girl Behind’ projects, focused on highly marginalised adolescent girls who have dropped out of or never attended school. These projects started delivering in 2019 and data is being collected during 2020 on the numbers and characteristics of the girls reached. The vast majority of these girls will be 12 years or older, given the focus on adolescent girls.