Females: Education

(asked on 22nd June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to eliminate systemic and gendered barriers that prevent girls from accessing and completing education, globally.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 30th June 2021

Meeting under the UK Presidency, G7 Foreign and Development Ministers endorsed two new, global, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 milestone targets on girls' education, which we are calling on the world to help deliver. Ministers also endorsed a girls' education declaration, which specifically states the G7 will work in collaboration with developing country partners, multilateral institutions, civil society, girl-led groups, and youth leaders, to remove the obstacles to education that stand in girls' way. This includes addressing the social, environmental, and institutional barriers to education such as reducing violence in and out of schools, reducing harmful cultural practices such as child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and amending restrictive policies or legislation which prevent girls thriving in school.

For example, FCDO's support to international efforts to end child marriage has contributed to a 15% reduction in the global prevalence of child marriage over the last decade, averting 25 million child marriages. The UK is proud to be a global leader in efforts to end violence against women and girls. Through our What Works to Prevent Violence Programme, we pioneered approaches worldwide that have shown reductions in violence of around 50%, proving violence is preventable.

Reticulating Splines