Failure to educate girls costs developing world US$92bn a year

The failure to educate girls costs developing countries US$92bn a year

6 May 2008: Failure to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys costs developing countries almost US$100 billion each year in lost economic growth, according to research by Plan.

‘Paying the Price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls’ reveals that gender gaps in secondary school achievement in 65 developing and former Eastern Bloc countries cause them to miss out on annual growth of US$92 billion.

This is only slightly less than the total US$103 billion spent annually by the industrialised nations on overseas development aid. 

Poor performers

Countries in South Asia and West Africa have the worst record on educating girls to secondary level. India alone misses out on potential economic growth worth around US $33 billion each year.

26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa fail to educate girls to the same standard as boys. By contrast, just 2 countries in Latin America fail to do so.

Heavy cost

Tom Miller, Plan chief executive officer, said: “Education is a real investment which reaps real rewards not just for the individual child but for society as a whole. Failure to educate girls to the same standard as their brothers has been rightly criticised as unjust and damaging to girls.”

Plan action

Plan invests more in education than any other programme area and works to ensure children and adults in the communities it works in get the basic learning and life skills they need to realise their full potential.

Last year, Plan trained 80,799 teachers, built or rehabilitated 7,533 child-friendly schools and worked with thousands of communities to promote girls’ education.

Download the report:

Paying the price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls (1.2mb | 12 pages)

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