The Toughest Places For A Girl To Get An Educating girls can change the world

Girls who get a complete, quality to sit in a classroom where a teacher education are more likely to be healthier never arrived, or where there were no and better prepared to enter and textbooks or other materials that help succeed in the workforce. Education can students learn. Because of this, in 2017, give girls more opportunities to advocate nearly half a billion women worldwide for their own rights, contribute to their still cannot read.2 families and communities, and grow local and global economies. To make sure every girl has the chance to get a good education, we need to But over 130 million girls didn’t go to understand where girls are being school today.1 Millions more braved long left behind. That’s why ONE has created distances, often in dangerous conditions, the Toughest Places for a Girl to Get to get there. Other girls arrived at school an Education Index.

The Index: 10 Toughest Places for a Girl to Get an Education

COUNTRY SCORE (OUT OF 100)3

1 SOUTH 15.93 2 1 7. 75 3 21.50 4 23.51 5 2 7.1 6 6 29.28 7 30.35 8 33.03 9 36.20 10 36.79

2 GIRLS FACE SOCIAL, THERE ARE GAPS Index cultural and economic in global education data, 4 barriers to accessing 6 so we don’t have all Insights: and staying in school. the information we need to get In most of the 10 toughest all girls into school and learning. Index findings reveal that to countries, over half of girls Traditional sources don’t make meaningful progress are married before their 18th give us data on, for example, in getting all girls into school birthday.4 On average across how many girls complete and learning, we need to the 10 toughest countries, primary school in or pay special attention to one in four girls are child how much the government the poorest countries and labourers.5 In eight of the spends on education in . those experiencing conflict – 10 toughest countries, about Of 193 UN member states, especially in Africa. one in three children are 37% were missing data for stunted from poor nutrition.6 four or more indicators for the period 2010 to 2016. Just 58 of THE TOP 10 toughest 193 UN member states (30%) countries for a girl MORE MONEY had complete data across the 1 to get an education are is needed – but is not indicators included in our index. all fragile states and among 5 enough – to ensure the poorest in the world. girls get a quality education. Niger and Ethiopia report EVEN WHEN countries’ spending over 20% of their overall scores are NINE OF THE 10 domestic budgets on education 7 fairly high, they may toughest countries (exceeding the Global mask regional disparities. 2 are in Africa. Partnership for Education’s For example, while as recommended target) but a whole doesn’t make our list of still perform poorly on other the 10 toughest countries, at a POVERTY IS SEXIST. indicators and are among our regional level North East Nigeria Within the toughest 10 toughest countries. is a tougher place for a girl to 3 10 countries, girls are To achieve meaningful change get educated than other regions 57% more likely than boys to and improve the quality in the country. In Nigeria’s be out of school at the primary of girls’ education, policy South-South geopolitical zone, level (from about ages 6–11), reforms are needed alongside 5% of girls have never been to and this disparity only gets increased financing. school, whereas this figure worse as girls get older (83% increases more than 10-fold at upper secondary level). (to 52%) in the North East.7

A Focus on Africa

To improve girls’ education globally, we need to pay special attention to Africa. No African countries are among the best- performing 25% of all countries ranked, and only four African countries (7%) are in the best-performing 50% of ranked countries. Overall, African countries had a median score of 52, compared with the Americas at 79, Asia also at 79 and Europe at 87.

3 But there is hope.

WE ALSO FOUND THAT:

POOR COUNTRIES aren’t destined to perform poorly. has the world’s lowest national income per capita at $286 USD, but it outperforms 1 18 other wealthier countries.

WHEN MORE GIRLS are in school, countries’ adolescent fertility rates are likely to Regional be lower. This has knock- on benefits, as women who Differences wait until adulthood to have children are less likely to in Nigeria experience risks and are often better able to Nigeria ranked as the 27th provide for their children. toughest place for girls to get an education. But this ranking hides regional disparities. In 2 North East Nigeria, for example, the violent extremist group BEING IN SCHOOL MATTERS: Boko Haram (which translates our research shows a strong as ‘western education is relationship between girls’ forbidden’) poses increased primary school completion obstacles to girls completing rates and their rates.8 their education. Boko Haram On a global level, addressing kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in the gender gap in education Chibok in 2014. As of 2016, over could yield between $112 billion 1,000 schools in the region had and $152 billion USD a year in been damaged or destroyed developing countries.9 and 1,500 schools had closed.10 This means that while Nigeria as a whole doesn’t make our 3 list of toughest countries, at a regional level North East Nigeria is a tougher place for a girl to get educated than other regions in the country. In Nigeria’s South-South geopolitical zone, 5% of girls have never been to school, whereas this figure increases more than 10-fold (to 52%) in the North East.11

4 Zeroing in on the Toughest 10 Countries

MALI: CHAD: Chad is CENTRAL AFGHANISTAN: In Mali, less than ranked as one of the AFRICAN As of 2014, half (38%) of girls 5 worst-performing REPUBLIC: Afghanistan had have completed countries in the In the Central the highest level of primary school. World Economic African Republic, gender disparity in Forum’s 2016 Global there is 1 teacher for , Gender Gap Report, every 80 students with only 71 girls GUINEA: indicating that (as opposed to in primary school In Guinea, women women and girls in 1 teacher for every for every 100 boys.12 (aged 25 and above) Chad face a broader 12 students in the have on average range of legal, social and for attended school for and economic every 15 students in less than 1 year. barriers. the ).

ETHIOPIA: In Ethiopia, 2 in every 5 girls marry before their 18th birthday, and nearly 1 in 5 marries before age 15.13 BURKINA FASO: Just 1% of girls in Burkina Faso complete : secondary school. 73% of girls in South Sudan don’t go to primary school. LIBERIA: Nearly And South Sudan’s two-thirds of NIGER: Only 17% government spends primary school- of girls and women just 2.6% of its aged girls in Liberia (aged 15–24) in total budget on are out of school. Niger are literate. education.

5 A Global Opportunity

Ensuring all girls get the education they the proposed International Finance deserve will take a global effort – and will Facility for Education. GPE operates in require increased financing and policy all the 10 toughest countries and has reforms. ONE is advocating for: a proven track record of success.14

ƍƍ Governments to work towards ƍƍ National governments to implement allocating 20% of transparent national an education policy agenda that will break budgets to education. Only two of every barrier to girls’ education, invest in the 10 toughest countries for a girl every teacher, monitor every outcome and to get an education meet this target connect every classroom. proposed by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The year ahead presents critical and unique opportunities for global ƍƍ Donor governments to increase education progress, including the GPE global education financing. This includes replenishment in 2018. More details on fully funding existing multilateral our proposals can be found in ONE’s 2017 mechanisms such as the GPE and report Poverty Is Sexist: Why educating Education Cannot Wait, and establishing every girl is good for everyone.

How the Index was Compiled

To create the index, we chose 11 spending on education as a percentage of factors that reflect girls’ access to and total government expenditure. completion of school, the quality of education in a country, and the broader Of 193 UN member states, we excluded enabling environment. The factors countries that were missing four or selected with available data are: rate more data points (out of 11) to allow for of out-of-school girls of primary, lower reliable comparison. This left us with a secondary and upper secondary age; list of 122 countries. Data was primarily school completion rate for girls of primary, drawn from UNESCO’s Institute for lower secondary and upper secondary Statistics (UIS.Stat) database. We filled age; mean years of schooling for women gaps in administrative data with data aged 25 and over; female literacy rate for from household surveys, either available aged 15–24; percentage of through separate indicators on the UIS. primary school teachers trained; pupil– Stat site or through the World Inequality teacher ratio in primary schools; and Database on Education (WIDE).

6 A Note on Data Gaps

The countries missing from these the 193 original countries (30%) had rankings are just as important as the complete data. Among the countries ones you see ranked. Of 193 UN member with insufficient data to include in the states, 37% were missing data for four or index are , , , more indicators for the period 2010–2016. Somalia and .15 Our analysis of data This left us with 122 countries, and over gaps underscores the need for improved half (52%) of these were also missing education sector data, particularly data points. This meant that just 58 of gender-disaggregated data.

End Notes

1. This includes primary, lower and upper secondary 8. ONE conducted a simple regression analysis to find school; UNESCO, 2016, Leaving no one behind. that 78% of girls’ literacy rates can be explained by girls’ Policy Paper 27. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/imag- primary completion rates within a given country. es/0024/002452/245238E.pdf. This analysis is limited in that it did not account for primary completion rates as a proxy for other variables, 2. Out-of-school and illiteracy rates from UNESCO Institute like household income. for Statistics, 2017. http://data.uis.unesco.org/. 9. ONE Campaign, 2017. Poverty is Sexist: Why educating 3. Using 11 indicators (such as out-of-school rate, literacy every girl is good for everyone. https://s3.amazonaws. rate), we first normalised countries’ scores according to com/one.org/pdfs/making-the-connection-report-en.pdf. each individual indicator. Once countries’ scores were computed for each individual indicator, we calculated 10. UNOCHA, 2016, Nigeria Humanitarian Needs Overview the average of these scores to get countries’ overall 2017, http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/re- scores (weighting each indicator equally). All indicators sources/ocha_nga_2017_hno_13012017.pdf. are coded positively (that is, higher scores indicate better performance). 11. UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, 2013, World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE). 4. Child marriage rates from UNICEF, 2016, Global http://www.education-inequalities.org/. Databases: Child Marriage, based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 12. EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2013-14, (MICS) and other nationally representative surveys, http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/ 2008–2014. https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protec- HQ/ED/GMR/pdf/Afghanistan_Factsheet.pdf. tion/child-marriage/. 13. Girls Not Brides, ‘Ethiopia,’ accessed August 28, 2017, 5. Child labour rates from UNICEF, 2016, Global Databases: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/ethiopia/. Child Labour, based on DHS, MICS and other nationally 14. Global Partnership for Education, ‘ representative surveys, 2009–2015. https://data.unicef. Partners,’ http://www.globalpartnership.org/about-us/ org/topic/child-protection/child-labour/#. developing-countries. 6. UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and World 15. Though the data underlying the index does not allow us Bank Group, 2017, Joint malnutrition country dataset. to confirm, missing data in Canada, France and http://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/malnutrition/. Germany may be explained by the fact that out-of- 7. UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, 2013, school rates are so low, or completion, literacy, World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE). http:// and teaching training rates are so high that countries www.education-inequalities.org/. have decided not to prioritize measuring them.

7 To explore the index in full visit: one.org/index

To join our campaign on girls’ education visit: one.org/sexist