NO GIRL LEFT BEHIND

The case for G7 financing

to educate girls in crises.

E XECUTIVE SUMMARY

G7 Summit — Galvanizing action on girls’ education

The G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec is a critical moment to bring focused political attention and financial
resources to addressing an urgent and unmet need - the education of the most excluded girls living in crises.
Prime Minister Trudeau has already committed to advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls
as part of his G7 Presidency. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for Canada to deliver on its feminist
agenda, by investing in the world’s most vulnerable girls. At the same time, investing in girls’ education in crises
will promote gender equality, peace and security, the rejection of extremism and a more prosperous future for all.

A G7 Declaration to Educate and Empower Girls in Crises, backed by strong financial commitments, will address
the most neglected, yet transformative issue in the world today. Over 30 Canadian and global partners have called
on Canada to prioritize this issue at the 2018 G7 Summit. The Prime Minister responded to this call, and has
publicly committed to prioritizing and investing in girl’s education in crises as a legacy initiative for the G7 in 2018.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Canada currently invests 7%

To turn political commitments
Of the US$1.3-billion total of its annual ODA budget on
into real impact on the ground,
G7 investment, the Government education. A CAD$500 million
the 2018 G7 should make a
of Canada should contribute increase would reflect the
catalytic investment of at least
CAD$500 million in new strength of Canada’s economy,
US$1.3-billion in new resources
resources to initiatives that and put Canada on an upward
over the next three years to
focus on removing gender-related trajectory toward meeting the
reach an additional 3.7 million
barriers to quality education. global target of 15% total ODA
children in crises per year.
dedicated to education.[1] [2]

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G7 DECLARATION TO EDUCATE AND EMPOWER GIRLS IN CRISES
The nature of international crises is growing
increasingly complex and protracted.[3] The world has
witnessed a relentless uptrend in forced displacement
in the last ten years, with the largest number of
forcibly displaced people since World War II.[4] As a
result, children in crises, disproportionately girls,
often go their entire childhoods living in uncertainty
and millions are either out of school or never able to
go at all.
• Families caught in conflict spend on average 26 years
as refugees or as internally displaced people.[5]
• 75 million children and youth, predominately girls,
are out of school in 35 crisis-affected countries.[6]
• Girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school
than boys during crises.[7]
• Nearly 50 million children were uprooted from
their homes in 2015 alone.[8]
The transformative power of girl’s education
UN Special Envoy for Education, Gordon Brown,
noted that without access to education, children are
more likely to become “the youngest labourers in
the factory, the youngest brides at the altar, and the
youngest soldiers in the trench.” [11]
Girls’ education in times of crisis is the most neglected,
yet transformative, solution of our time. It contributes
to peace-building, more gender-equal societies, and
builds prosperity for all.
• Girls with secondary school education are six times
less likely to marry as children.[12]
• Each extra year a girl stays in school increases her
income by 10 to 20%.[13]
• Girls with seven years of education will marry
four years later on average[14] and have fewer,
healthier children.[15]
• Evidence shows that equal access to education for
both male and female students would decrease the
likelihood of violent conflict by as much as 37%.[16]
Education provides a safe place. It offers a place to heal
from emotional and physical scars, restoring a sense
of hope for the future.[17] It’s a place for girls to learn
about their rights and how to protect themselves.[18]
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Because of their age and gender, girls are particularly
vulnerable in times of crisis or conflict. The dangers
girls face in these situations have the potential for
long-term, devastating consequences to their mental
and physical health and diminishes the opportunity
for a better future.
Girls who are deprived of their right to an education
are more vulnerable to violence, discrimination and
exploitation, including sexual violence, child marriage,
trafficking and adolescent pregnancy.[9] Gender
inequality, and the denial of girls’ right to education in
particular carries with it serious social and economic
costs for girls themselves, their communities and
nations.[10] The unique intersection of gender, youth,
the complexity and duration of crises, and the reality of
dwindling financial resources dedicated to education
makes girl’s education an urgent, unmet need.
Education is also the path to equality. It changes
harmful gender norms so that families, communities
and societies can move forward.[19]
Education leads to economic growth that works for
everyone. Girls who have the opportunity to pursue
a better future are empowered to end the cycle of
poverty.
Education is the way to a more peaceful and stable
world. It teaches the leaders of tomorrow to solve
problems without violence.[20]
Education is repeatedly reported as a top-priority
by families and children themselves, but it’s often
the first service to be suspended and the last service
to be resumed. It’s at such times that education is
especially important.
Despite the evidence, efforts to address education in
crisis are short-term, ad hoc, and grossly underfunded
compared to other humanitarian appeals. In recent
years, less than 2% of humanitarian funding has been
dedicated to education globally.[21]
2
APPENDIX — FINANCING EDUCATION IN CRISES
The funding required to support 3 years of education at $113/child per year, equals US$1.3 billion.

The costing analysis used in these calculations was taken from the Overseas Development Institute’s 2016 paper,
A Common Platform for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises. The figure is derived from a G7 fair share
analysis of Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) funding targets and was conducted based on GNI figures from 2014. It is based
on years 3, 4 and 5 of the original ECW resource mobilization targets.

Key assumptions to this calculation include:

a. While girls face specific barriers to education in crises, any increase in funding for education in crises by the G7 based
on of the above figures would benefit both girls and boys;

b. We are calling for gender transformative education, reaching both boys and girls, so that girls are not only empowered
through education but so that boys are also supported to challenge and change harmful attitudes that negatively
impact the girls and women in their lives, and beneficiaries of gender equality themselves;

c. Recognition that the cost per child is based on a standard set of education inputs commonly used in emergencies, but
would vary considerably by country and context;

d. Total education cost across affected countries averages $156 per child, with domestic resources on average contributing
at least $43 per child, and a resulting financing gap of $113 per child;

e. A ‘crisis premium’ that builds in between 20-40% additional costs to take into account crisis-specific logistics, security
or protection costs, among others;

f. As girls face specific barriers to education in crises and the costing analysis used for these calculations was not
disaggregated by gender, it is estimated that that the funding required to support a girl through a year of education
could actually be higher and thus the true cost may be higher;

Detailed methodology and calculations:

In its 2016 paper, ODI recommended a 5-year resource mobilization plan for the Education Cannot Wait Fund. The total
target for the 5 years is $3.85 billion, and includes funding not only channeled through ECW, but other funds that are
catalyzed by ECW investments. The road map, starting at $154 million in year one and rising to $1.5 billion in year 5, is an
ambitious and credible globally-agreed plan to mobilize new finances for education in emergencies.

The five-year fair share targets for the G7 countries were then extracted from the overall figure. The G7 accounted for
73% of the total donor GNI and therefore fair share analysis would suggest the G7 should contribute $2.8 billion of the
$3.85 billion.

To ascertain the total cost of funding each girl affected by conflict and crisis to receive education, the total figure was
multiplied by the ratio of girls to boys out of school due to conflict and crises. 39 million / 75 million * 100 = 0.52.

To calculate the number of children whose education would be supported per year, the total funding target was divided
by the per pupil funding gap multiplied by the number of years. For example, for a five-year funding ask of the G7,
$1.476 billion / (113*5).

This produced several different potential funding asks depending on the number of years the ask is for. As we are
currently in year two of the proposed five-year ECW resource mobilization plan, and it was decided that a figure
for three years was necessary to provide predictable multi-year funding for education in crises, it was agreed that a
figured based on the final three years would provide an appropriate catalytic investment.

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ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Since 2002, education’s share of official development assistance globally has fallen from 13% to 10%, although ODA
itself rose by 24% - widening the gap between education and other development priorities. In line with these global
trends, Canadian ODA to education significantly decreased between 2010 and 2014.

2. To demonstrate financial leadership in education, Canada should invest new and additional resources to avoid displacement
of other development and humanitarian priorities and increase the current International Assistance Envelope. This should
be over and above the additional CAD$2 billion over five years, that was recently announced in Budget 2018.

3. UNOCHA, December 2017. Weblink: http://interactive.unocha.org/publication/globalhumanitarianoverview/

4. lbid.

5. UNHCR. 2016. Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015. Weblink: www.refworld.org/docid/57678f3d4.html

[Accessed: November 2017]

6. Global Partnership for Education. 2017. Education Challenges. Weblink: https://www.globalpartnership.org/education/

education-challenges [Accessed: June 2018]

7. Education Cannot Wait. The Situation. Weblink: http://www.educationcannotwait.org/the-situation/ [Accessed June 2018]

8. Leaving No One Behind, UIS/UNESCO, GEMR, Policy Paper 27, (July 2016)

9. UNFPA. 2015. State of the world population 2015: Shelter from the Storm. Weblink: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/
files/sowp/downloads/State_of_World_Population_2015_EN.pdf [Accessed: November 2017].

10. Make it Right: Ending the Crisis in Girls’ Education, UNGEI, http://www.ungei.org/MakeItRight_Report_07.pdf

11. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/permanent-emergency-education-fund-by-gordon-brown-2016-
05?barrier=accessreg

12. UNICEF. 2014. Girl’s Education. Weblink: https://www.unicef.org/media/media_45452.html [Accessed: June 2018]

13. Plan Canada International. Girls’ Rights Fact Sheet. Weblink: https://plancanada.ca/girl-facts [June 2018]

14. lbid.

15. lbid.

16. UNICEF. 2016. Education Inequality and Violent Conflict: Evidence and Policy Considerations. Weblink:
https://www.fhi360.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/resource-epdc-brief-edu-inequality-violent-conflict.pdf
[Accessed: December 2017].

17. Children in crisis can experience a “toxic stress” response to adversity that has short and long-term impacts on their
health, behaviour, relationships, and abilities to learn. By providing a safe space, coupled with strong social support from
peers and trained teachers, schools help to fill a critical gap in mental health care provision in times of crisis.

18. Education serves as a powerful mechanism to protect all children from sexual exploitation and recruitment into armed
or extremist groups, which too often provide the only foreseeable path to a future. Schools are a place for girls to
make sense of what is happening around them, learn about their rights and how to protect themselves from abuse and
how to build resilience to help prevent and mitigate the impact of future crises.

19. Education is fundamental for engaging men and boys as agents of change and beneficiaries of gender equality themselves.

20. Education that provides free, inclusive, quality and gender-responsive life-long learning opportunities, strengthens social
cohesion, breaks the cycle of violence and conflict and promotes peace and reconciliation. When children are surrounded
by positive social connections with peers and teachers, they learn not to replicate the violence they may have experienced.

21. https://fts.unocha.org/global-funding/overview/2016

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