Global uncertainty threatens to overshadow this year’s G20 — and Chancellor Merkel acknowledges the need for urgent and effective action for a more equitable and inclusive world. But how does the G20 propose to achieve this without investing in girls’ education? How can the world move beyond providing girls with a basic education to a full 12 years of school, enabling them and the communities around them to thrive?

Malala Fund calls on G20 Leaders to stop neglecting education and mainstream support for a full primary and secondary education throughout its work streams, with particular focus on the poorest girls.

Recognising the vital link between girls’ completion of 12 years of education and women’s economic empowerment, successive G20 presidencies should build on existing initiatives like the 25% by 2025 Commitment and the German E-skills for Girls Initiative with a dedicated focus on closing the global gender gap in upper secondary education.

The 2017 G20 should:

• Call attention to the crisis in education financing by committing to close the global education funding gap, doubling international financing for education by 2020.
• Support the full financing of multilateral mechanisms for education including the Global Partnership for Education ($3.1 billion over three years) and Education Cannot Wait ($3.85 billion by 2020).
• Support reforms in the global tax system to enable developing countries to expand their tax base to increase domestic budgets for education in low- and middle-income countries to reach at least 5.8% of GDP, spending 20% of budgets on education by 2020.
• Mandate the UN and multilateral banks to establish an innovative financing mechanism for education by next year’s G20 summit designed to leverage new finance for education.
• Integrate an increased focus on education into the proposed G20 Africa Partnership.

Targeting finance at the most marginalised girls:

Increases in international finance should be aligned with nationally-owned education sector plans and disbursed to reduce gender inequality in schooling and learning outcomes. G20 countries could channel support through the proposed G20 Africa Partnership. This support could include:

• Eliminating fees and providing cash transfers to the poorest girls to cover additional school-related costs like transport.
• Recruiting female teachers and investing in gender-sensitive teacher training and curricula, particularly in regions with restrictive gender norms.
• Making schools safe for girls through investments like transport for school journeys and gender-segregated, functional toilets.
• Implementing policies on school-related gender-based violence and effective interventions to combat it.

Malala Fund calls on relevant G20 members to:

• Increase their ODA spending to meet the 0.7% GNI target and allocate 15% of this to education.
• Align ODA spending to support equity and reaching the most marginalised with an indicative benchmark of 70–80 % of education aid in support of basic and secondary education, including in some instances the reallocation of funds for post-secondary scholarships and in-country student costs.
• Allocate a minimum of 30% of ODA education spending to multilateral mechanisms including support for the full replenishments of the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait.
• Increase domestic spending on education to 6% (lower-middle-income members) or 6.3% (upper-middle-income members) of GDP.
• Commit to a phased removal of tuition fees throughout the full secondary cycle, targeting the poorest girls first.

Check out the rest of the report:

Introduction: How G20 investments in girls’ education improve our world

Part 1: The evidence for investing in girls’ education

Part 2: How well does the G20 support secondary education for girls?

Part 3: Recommendations

Full PDF of “Safer, Healthier, Wealthier: How G20 investments in girls’ education improve our world”