Girls' education
“Why does where a girl is born still determine whether she goes to school?”
Root causes (expand to see solutions)
What keeps a girl out of school is rarely just one barrier, and it shifts from one place to the next:
What's at stake
A girl out of school is far more likely to marry and give birth as a child, with serious health risks for her and the baby. She will earn less for life, and her own children are more likely to grow up poor and out of school.
The global picture
Sub-Saharan Africa
High severity
Where girls are least likely to finish school, many married off young.
Where schools close or are banned outright, girls are the first kept home; in Afghanistan alone 2.2 million are barred from secondary and higher education.UNESCO, 2025