#GirlsEducationNowOrNever

Guided by the conviction that girls who missed-out education as children often struggle to lead a strong, healthy, empowered and productive lives as adult(wives/mothers). #GirlsEducationNowOrNever- an initiative of Girls Education Mission International seeks to intensify effort to enhance awareness and mobilize broad support towards girls’ education.

Every person regardless of race or gender has rights as clearly inscribed in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Convention on the Right of a Child and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) further establish that everyone regardless of gender fully enjoys access to basic services including Education. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also promotes inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunity for all. While local, regional and international treaties have provided the normative framework for women to advance their rights, it is imperative to emphasize that more needs to be done on access to education for girls. Despite evidence demonstrating how central girls’ education is to development, gender disparities in education persists. According to UNICEF “Around the world, 132 million girls are out of school including 34.3 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age and 67.4 million of upper-secondary school age. Only 66 % of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. At the secondary level, the gap widens; 45 % of countries have achieved gender parity in lower secondary school education, and 25% in upper secondary education.

One way of creating innovative impact is a transformative development strategy that activates schools, communities, public and private institutions to ensure girls are enrolled, retained and complete their education without absolute sense of gender-based barriers. GEM prioritize efforts that provide girls with opportunity to complete secondary school education and develop relevant knowledge and practical skills they need for personal and professional life. Investing in girl’s education transforms communities, countries, and the world at large, educated girls are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy empowered and productive lives. They earn higher incomes participate in decisions that most affect them and build better futures for themselves and their families.

#GirlsEducationNowOrNever is designed to:

1. Tackle barriers that deny girls access to school and quality learning.


2. Advocate with the Government to ensure gender-based responsive budgeting and ensure gender equality is prioritize in the national education plans and polices.


3. Promotes social protection measures, including scholarship award to improve girl’s enrollment, transition and retention and completion in secondary school.


4. Provide mentorship to address other- related barriers to education such as menstrual hygiene management in schools.


5. Focuses teacher training and professional development on gender-responsive pedagogies.

The program supports 100 girls annually.