Global Platform for Gender Equality and Girls’ and Women’s Empowerment in and through Education

The Global Platform aims to drive transformative leadership, accountability, innovation, data and financing to advance gender equality and girls’ and women’s empowerment in and through education.
Girls in school gender equality platform

The Platform is a multi-stakeholder forum that includes government representatives, leaders, partners, champions, and a broad array of stakeholders and activists.

Objectives 

The expected outcomes of the Platform are:

  • accountability: education stakeholders are equipped with data and evidence to hold partners accountable on progress against their commitments on gender equality in and through education
  • action: leaders and decision-makers take proactive and transformative measures to address the key barriers to gender equality in and through education, focusing on the most marginalized
  • learning: high-impact transformative solutions and learning on gender equality in and through education are documented, evaluated and shared

The Platform will be operational for 4 years, until 2026.

Global Platform for Gender Equality, in and through Education

Key data

250 million
children and youth

are out of school globally, of which 122 million are girls and 128 million are boys

99 million
illiterate youth

of which 56% are women

95 young men
complete upper secondary school

for every 100 young women

Strategies and activities 

Global Platform members are convened annually between 2023 and 2026 to track action against the gender-related TES and other commitments, identify gaps in service provision and finance, and drive evidence-informed action – with a focus on the most marginalized.

Key activities

Platform members advocate for and provide capacity development to promote gender-transformative education policies, plans, management information systems, curricula, learning resources and teacher training.

The Platform’s Global Accountability Dashboard 

Special attention is paid to promoting ‘South-South’ learning and sharing, and to supporting civil society and youth activists.

Participating countries 

  • Countries with strong gender disparities in educational participation and outcomes, and strong leadership and examples of scalable actions on gender equality in and through education.
  • Major donors championing gender equality and girls’ and women’s empowerment in and through education

Conveners 

The Platform is convened by UNESCO and UNICEF.

Partners 

Key partners include:

  • governments (in alphabetical order: Canada, France, Germany, Namibia, Norway, UK – list not exhaustive)
  • civil society organizations (in alphabetical order: Brookings, Echidna Giving, Equal Measures 2030, Girls Education Challenge, Malala Fund, Obama Foundation, Plan International, Population Council, SDG4 Youth, UCL Institute of Education – list not exhaustive)
  • multilateral organizations (in alphabetical order: African Union, Global Partnership for Education, OECD, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNGEI, UNICEF, UN Women, World Bank – list not exhaustive)

How to engage

The Platform is open to participation by all governments, development partners and civil society organizations that are committed to the Transforming Education Summit’s Call to Action on Gender Equality and Girls’ and Women’s Empowerment in and through Education.

For more information about the Global Platform for Gender Equality, contact: gender.ed@unesco.org

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