Invest in Girls’ Education: Invest in Our Future

11 October 2025, New York – On today’s International Day of the Girl Child, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our strategic partners call for substantial new funding to ensure every girl impacted by crises is able to access 12 years of quality education.

Worldwide, 133 million girls are out of school today. In countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the State of Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine, armed conflict, forced displacement and climate impact keep girls out of school. In Afghanistan, where oppressive policies deny girls their equal rights to education, the challenges are even more dire.

Education for girls is their right. It also leads to better lives, higher incomes and reduced child marriage. If all girls completed their secondary education, countries would gain between US$15-$30 trillion in lifetime productivity and earnings, according to the World Bank.

ECW investments across the globe are making a difference in the lives and life-long trajectories of millions of crisis-impacted girls. Of the 14 million children reached through ECW’s investments, 50% are girls.

ECW and its partners’ holistic support is improving enrolment and attendance, accelerating transition rates from non-formal programmes into formal school, and building the academic and social-emotional skills girls need to thrive. ECW’s latest Annual Results Report documents deepened investment in equitable access and learning; three in four programmes show gender-equitable improvements in participation.

In Uganda for example, an ECW-financed programme is showing strong improvements in foundational literacy for conflict and crisis-affected girls. At the lower primary level, the proportion of learners demonstrating basic reading skills rose from 18% to 34%, with girls outperforming boys. At the upper primary level, reading competency nearly doubled, with girls and boys achieving near parity.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must accelerate and sustain financing for girls’ education.

Girls’ education is the single best investment we can make in building a better world.