6 Global Funds to Ensure Girls’ Education
“Providing secondary education to girls can transform communities, countries, and the whole world”. – Malala Yousafzai
Gender equality in education benefits every child. It contributes to more stable and resilient societies where all individuals, including girls and women, get the opportunity to achieve their potential. Educating girls strengthens the economy, reduces inequality, and eradicates poverty. This is the reason why we should educate more and more girl children from all parts of the world.
In underserved communities, education for girls is more than just having access to school. It is about opposing their parents’ opinion of getting married as soon as they start menstruating, asking for support in whatever career they choose, and fighting a battle for their freedom and choices at all stages.
Unless leaders step up and invest adequately in Girls’ Education, there is a high risk that many more girls will miss school in the coming years. Increased investment in girls’ education and leadership will play an essential role in ensuring girls and women are empowered enough to demand their rights, challenge the status quo, and hold decision-makers accountable, including the systems and norms which reinforce gender injustice around the world.
If we start working at the root cause of gender inequality in education, then we can achieve a higher enrollment and attendance for girls. A lot of things need to be done starting with improving the school’s infrastructure and quality of education, in order to improve learning outcomes for all the girls.
Financing girls’ education is critical and that is why a number of funds have been set up to ensure girls’ education is appropriately funded. The work that they fund doesn’t just ensure quality education for girls at school but also includes supporting and influencing communities, governments, family members, and children to bring an end to gender inequality in education.
1.. GIRLS’ OPPORTUNITY ALLIANCE
“The future is bright if we drive awareness and action around adolescent girls’ education.”- Tiffany Drake (Executive Director, Girls’ Opportunity Alliance)
The Girls Opportunity Alliance is an initiative of the Obama Foundation in collaboration with the American crowdfunding platform, GoFundMe. The Fund aims to financially support the grassroots leaders who are working at the forefront to make a difference in the lives of adolescent girls. It was launched with the belief that by empowering adolescent girls around the world through education and allowing them to achieve their full potential, we can make a way to transform communities.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance also encourages young people around the world to join hands to increase support and awareness for community programs that can make a big difference.
2. MALALA FUND
“We are working for a world where every girl can learn and lead! – Malala”
The Malala Fund believes that providing secondary education to girls can transform many communities and countries. According to them, It is an investment for the world’s future that will help build our economic growth, create a healthier workforce, and will ensure a peaceful future for everyone. Since 2013, Malala’s Fund has operated at local, national, and international levels to ensure the availability of required resources. It also supported policy changes that improve access to education for girls.
There are a lot of threats to girls’ education like poverty, child labor, early marriage, gender discrimination, and many more. Malala Fund aims to eradicate every single obstacle that stands in the way of young girls’ education today. For this reason, they mostly work in developing countries like Afghanistan, Brazil, India, etc.
“Going an extra mile to get the girls into school. We ensure they stay there and learn something effective because an educated mother is 500 times more likely to educate her children. – Safeena Hussain”
Educate Girls, along with UBS Optimus Foundation (UBSOF) and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) , launched the World’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education. This 3-year (2015-2018) project tied funds to pure outcomes and was intended to be a proof-of-concept.
It was launched to target out-of-school girls in underprivileged communities worldwide. Through Educate Girls, it mainly adopted the rural areas of Rajasthan in India.
The DIB had two major objectives. The first is to increase the enrolment of girls in schools and improve their learning outcomes in rural Rajasthan. The other is to develop and demonstrate a financial mechanism that incentivizes ambitious results.
It identified a particular problem and offered a solution for it. The problem was that despite the Indian Government’s substantial commitment to education, a lot of girls in India are still out of school despite being eligible. The largest illiterate population in the world is in India. Rajasthan has particularly poor school access for girls as compared to the other parts of the country.
It was initiated to boost Educate Girls’ impact, with a target to enroll and improve the quality of education for poor girls all over Rajasthan. Currently, it is utilizing a community-based approach to provide young girls with quality education. Educate Girls’ community also encourages others to positively influence and communicate the value of girls’ education within rural Indian communities in Rajasthan. This approach aims to motivate the government to create tailored teaching programs that provide girls access to quality education.
4. GIRL RISING – GLOBAL EDUCATION FUND
“Gender Equitable Education system benefits every child. – Holly Gordon”
Girl Rising works with governments, various communities, and partners to remove all these barriers for girls’ education and promote gender equality in education even in the most challenging settings.
Girl Rising provides support through its Global Education Fund to fight against various discriminatory gender norms and harmful practices that deny young girls access to school and quality education. It is helping schools and governments in adapting assessment data to eliminate gender gaps in learning. It is also trying its best to ensure that budgets are gender-responsive and that the government’s plans and policies prioritize gender equality and girls’ education.
5. GIRLS’ EDUCATION CHALLENGE FUND (GEC)
“No girl deserves to stay behind. Aiming to help over a million of the world’s poorest girls improve their lives through education.” – Vishwanath Jha (Core team, Parvaa GEC)
The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) aims to improve educational outcomes for girls by triggering and scaling up their confidence to study and aim for better lives for themselves. The Fund was launched by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as a 12-year commitment to reach the most marginalized girls in the world through quality education and learning. The focus of this Fund is not just to ensure that the girls have the access to learning opportunities, but also that the girls complete their school so that they are empowered enough to transform their social and economic life.
The Fund also ensures that systematic projects are selected to implement new and effective ways to get girls in school, keep them there, and make sure they receive a good quality education in ways that are sustainable beyond GEC funding. Its second phase, “Leave No Girl Behind” aims to deal with discriminatory social and gender norms that contribute to leaving girls out of school and behind in life.
Sadly, in many parts of the world, parents believe in spending on their daughters’ weddings rather than on their education. Many girls have to give up their dreams just because of some patriarchal beliefs that they are a responsibility for their family that should be transferred as soon as possible.
When a girl is sent to school, she grows into a woman having more say in her life and an increased sense of her worth and capabilities. Educated women are always less likely to be subjected to domestic violence and they participate more in decision-making in households. Educated girls are confident and strong mentally, socially, and intellectually.
We at Educate Girls believe that every child should get an education regardless of their family background and the community to which they belong. Girls living in backward areas strive to get educated in order to seek better livelihood and meaningful life. All the above-shared funding resources help organizations to make educational projects more sustainable.
Educate Girl’s mission is to leverage existing communities and government resources to ensure that all the girls from the backward areas are in schools and are learning well. We always aim to achieve remarkable transformation for all the girls in India where all children have equal opportunities and access to quality education. Strongly aligned with the ‘Right to Education Act’ of India, Educate Girls is committed to the Government’s vision to improve access to primary education for children, especially young girls.
Every girl no matter where she lives or what her circumstances are has a right to learn. Every leader, no matter who he or she is, has a duty to fulfill and protect this right and make the resources available to every girl child. What we as individuals can do is donate a little from our side to support the education of young girls.
Get up, help educate a girl, empower a woman, inspire a community, and change lives!
