The Global Partnership for Education (GPE or Global Partnership), founded in 2002, is the only multilateral partnership dedicated to provide coordinated action to develop better education systems that can deliver a quality basic education to all children in the world’s poorest countries.  The Global Partnership has grown from 7 to 59+ developing country partners over the past decade and also comprises donor governments, international organizations, civil society, the teaching profession, and the private sector and foundations.               

The Global Partnership commits, to increase the primary completion rate of girls in GPE eligible countries[1] from 74% to 84% between 2015 and 2018, meaning 2.5 million more girls completing primary school. It will achieve this by financing national education sector plans that prioritize girls’ education.  

In addition, over this same four year period, GPE’s support to developing countries will secure a 10% increase in the lower secondary school completion rate for girls, from 44% to 54%, meaning 2 million more girls completing lower secondary school. Overall, the number of children who complete primary education annually and demonstrate core reading and numeracy skills will increase by 25%, from 16 million in 2014 to 20 million in 2018.

Ensuring that “all girls in GPE supported countries successfully complete primary school and go to secondary school in a safe and supportive learning environment” is a strategic objective of the Global Partnership for Education. The ramifications of improving access to learning extend far beyond the education sector.

Globally, of the 58 million children out of school, 31 million are girls. These girls are more likely to face early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, poor employment prospects and poorer health for themselves and their children. The benefits of education girls are grounded in evidence: a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of 5; if all girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia had primary education, child marriage would fall by 14%. Education, especially at the secondary level, equips girls with the knowledge and skills to more effectively participate in political, economic, and social progress of their societies. Education empowers girls.    

Over the past 12 years, the Global Partnership and its partners have helped enroll approximately 10 million girls in school; 8 million of whom have entered school between 2011 and 2014.  It will continue to place priority on increasing access for girls over the next four years. 

In January 2015, the Global Partnership will launch a new results-based funding model to incentivize GPE’s 59+ countries to collect more and better data about girls’ access to quality education and their learning outcomes. The data will include reliable information about factors, such as family income, geography, disability, ethnicity, language and more, that affect whether girls have access to quality schooling.   Based on such data, GPE’s developing country partners will be better equipped to identify where the needs are greatest and whether policies and interventions are working. Moreover, they will be encouraged to put into place strategies to improve equity, which means fair and impartial treatment of all children, irrespective of where they live, whether they are boys or girls or whether they are disabled or not.