SI UNESCO Representative Dominique Mertz attended the annual review of the Global Partnership for Female Education at the end of May. She reviews some of the innovative private sector partnerships which are providing schools and resources in some of the poorest countries.

The Global Partnership was launched in
2011, armed with the conviction that education for girl’s and women has the
power to break cycles of poverty and achieve greater social justice. The challenge
is daunting: 508 million of the 792 million illiterate adults worldwide are
women. Furthermore, although the total number of illiterate adults is decreasing
worldwide, the proportion of women remains constant at around 64%.

Over the past 12 months, the Partnership’s
main focus has been on Africa, where a number
of projects have been launched. In Senegal, for example,
a programme funded by “Procter and Gamble” has opened 160 class rooms in seven
regions and trained 100 literacy trainers who are teaching 3,000 women.

Another project funded by the “Packard
Foundation” is working with 13 schools in Ethiopia and 15 in Tanzania on activities
aimed at preventing girls from dropping out of school.

In Kenya and Lesotho, the “Varkey GEMS Foundation” is
working with UNESCO on gender-sensitive teacher training with the aim of
encouraging more girls to attend school, and increase their participation in
mathematics, science and technology education.

Participants attending the Global
Partnership’s first anniversary reviewed these and other activities currently underway,
and looked at ways to scale up their action and further strengthen the
Partnership to keep the momentum initiated by its launch 12 months ago.

Key-note
speeches were given by:

Mrs
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Ms
Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women

H.R.H.
Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, UNESCO
Special Envoy for Literacy for Development.

Mr
Etienne Faichou, Minister of Primary and Civic Education, Chad.

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