Investing in women and girls’ education today – empowering positive change tomorrow
© UNESCO
New York: On 15 March 2017, Ms. Marie Paule Roudil, Director of UNESCO New York, joined the panel discussion entitled “Girls’ Education – Best Return on Investment” at the 2017 Women’s Empowerment Principles Forum, held during the 61st session of the Commission on Status of Women.
The event organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation with UN Global Compact, United Nations Office for Partnerships and UN-Women, brought together business leaders, representatives of international entities, diplomatic community, women’s organizations, civil societies and academia.
The session aimed to discuss how to advance girls and women’s empowerment in the changing world of work, as well as to explore how private sector can contribute to the joint implementation of successful projects.
Other panelists of the session were Ms. Laura Lane (President, Global Public Affairs, UPS), Mr. Jason Walters (Director, Sustainability, Pearson) and Ms. Mariana Costa Checa (CEO and Co-Founder, Laboratoria, Latin America). The discussion was moderated by Ms. Meg Jones, Chief, Economic Empowerment, UN-Women.
In her remarks, Ms. Marie Paule Roudil outlined that despite significant progress made towards realization of women’s rights since the adoption of 2030 Agenda, many girls and women still face various barriers to have an access to education.
According to UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, women still represent 63% of world’s illiterate adult. There are 61 million girls who are not in school today, and the number for adolescent girls is even higher.
Presenting UNESCO’s vision to ensure access to education for all, Ms. Roudil urged to invest in education of women and girls as “empowering women and girls is the way to empower families and society, nurture creativity, sharpen productivity and build more just, inclusive and peaceful world”.
Education is connected to employability but also to peace and security: girls and women shoulder the heaviest burden of conflict and crisis situations. Still countries with more educated women have much lower rates of disaster fatalities. “Thus sustaining peace and sustainable development are simply unthinkable while such inequality persists”, Ms Roudil outlined in her statement.
With this view, UNESCO launched the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education in 2011, guided by the conviction that by educating girls and women, we can break persistent cycles of poverty and in turn foster greater social justice.
The partnership addressed adolescent girls’ transition in secondary education as well as adolescent girls and women’s literacy. UNESCO’s partners in these efforts include governments, international organizations such as UN-Women, UNFPA, World Bank, private sector and civil society organizations.
Since its inception, UNESCO has been a strong advocate, promoter and defender of the right to quality education for all, especially for girls and women. Gender equality and education are fundamental human rights, which stand at the core of UNESCO’s mandate, and integral parts of the Agenda 2030.
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