From a single party rule to a multi-party democracy, Mongolia has sought to accommodate more of its people’s demands, particularly in the advancement of girls’ education.
In 2000, the average time spent by girls in school was 9.4 years, but by 2010, it had increased to 14.6 years. The government’s effort in funding the development of more rural classrooms and educational resources has been inspired by the hope of reducing the high rate of teen pregnancies, as about a third of the population lives in rural areas that lack access to reproductive healthcare and education.
Improving Girls’ Education in Mongolia to Spur Economic Growth
As with decreasing global poverty, decreasing discrimination against women is also an investment in accelerating economic growth. The United Nations Development Programme, along with its U.N. partners, has worked towards closing gender disparities, such as in primary education. Approximately a third of Mongolia’s labor force consists of livestock herders, but higher access to education has increased young girls’ opportunities to seek jobs in other sectors.
These efforts have been fruitful: the number of women working in non-agricultural sectors has increased from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent today. As reported in 2014 by the World Bank, women own or partially own almost 40 percent of Mongolian firms.
The State of Progress in Girls’ Education in Mongolian
Although Mongolia can now boast of its position at 53 out of 159 countries in gender inequality globally, the gender disparities in the workforce still run particularly deep, as exhibited through women’s limited access to economic opportunities, unequal salaries, and their higher rate of inclination towards unreliable, informal work away from entrepreneurial sectors. The full benefits of the progress made in girls’ education in Mongolia have been limited by such inequalities.
To maximize the advantages of increasing girls’ education in Mongolia, other factors that commonly require a woman’s time and attention should be considered. Females are traditionally assigned the role of nurturing family; therefore, increasing construction of more eldercare and childcare facilities would provide more girls the chance to prioritize their education or job. More access to early-childhood education will also yield the same empowering effect for women, especially those living in rural towns.
Teenage fertility is especially high in Mongolia, at 40.4 childbirths for every 1000 girls between the ages of 15 to 19. Unwanted pregnancies are also relatively high in this age range as 14.1 percent of pregnant girls have abortions. These factors, left often unattended, limit the educational opportunities that girls can now seek.
Location also plays a huge role in determining the level of access to education for young girls. About 55 percent of students achieve secondary education, but this holds true for only 45 percent of students in rural areas. Children from rural areas must often confront inhibitions to accessing education, such as seasonal challenges and poor infrastructure.
Support of Girls’ Educational Opportunities in the Sciences
In 2010 the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation, partnered with The Asian Foundation and the Zorig Foundation, introduced a university scholarship program for Mongolian girls that would pay for four years at the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology for 60 girls from low-income families. This program is geared towards providing girls with opportunities in the sciences since Mongolian girls are largely underrepresented in those fields.
Even though more than 60 percent of university students are female, there remains a large discrepancy in the number of men and women in the sectors related to science and technology. By focusing on improving education for girls in this subject, Mongolia is expanding its labor force to fields beyond agriculture, which has consistently faced major setbacks due to natural disasters.
In 2010, Mongolia suffered a dzud, which is a national disaster of a drought in the summer followed by a severe winter, and lost almost 20 percent of the nation’s herds. One-third of Mongolia, whose livelihoods rely on herding, could no longer afford university tuition for their children, so this scholarship program would succeed in providing an education for specifically poor, rural girls.
The country is currently focused on its development through its minerals sector. Major infrastructure projects in developing mines are underway, and skilled workers are in high demand. Investing in girls’ education, so that more girls may access a job in this sector, is also an investment in Mongolia’s economic development as the country gravitates towards a more stable means of income.
By accounting for these factors in improving gender parity, developments in areas such as location and rethinking traditional gender norms and attitudes, Mongolia can improve education for girls and yield more long-term sustainable change. As women are more likely to pursue tertiary education, Mongolia will only benefit from addressing these different factors in helping women achieve educational success, and subsequently, inclusion in sectors significant to Mongolia’s economic prosperity. The butterfly effect of these developments in empowering women will continue to ripple throughout Mongolia’s poverty-reducing progress.
– Alice Lieu
Photo: Flickr
How Access to a Preschool Education Reduces Poverty
How Preschool Education Reduces Poverty
A common stereotype has created a disparity of funding and attention between preprimary education and the levels above it. Firstly, many believe that preschool does not have an impact on future student outcomes. It is true that poverty has little effect on the cognitive abilities of a baby, but once children enter primary education, there are noticeable inequalities between wealthier students and poorer students such as trouble focusing in the classroom and behavioral issues. This inequality extends to foundational skills such as reading and writing.
Around the world, 130 million children in developing nations are enrolled in primary education but are illiterate. Providing access to preschool education in these developing nations will produce plentiful benefits for these children and continually increase literacy in students entering primary school. Preschool education reduces poverty by giving students the opportunity to develop rudimentary skills at younger ages, which allows these students to tackle more challenging concepts earlier than they would without a preschool background.
Aglaia Zafeirakou, a senior education specialist at the World Bank, found compelling evidence that students with preschool experience achieved more in each stage of their educational career. She observed that students who attended preschool, on average, scored higher on literacy, vocabulary and mathematics than non-attenders.
An additional 2009 PISA survey showed that in 58 of 65 countries, 15-year-old students who had attended at least a year of preprimary school outperformed students who had not, even after accounting for socioeconomic background. The impact of affordable preprimary education also extended into the primary schools themselves. Primary schools saw significant cost savings and increased efficiency in areas where an affordable preprimary school was available to families.
Improvements in Preschool Education in Developing Nations
The overwhelming evidence that shows that preschool education reduces poverty has empowered families of all socioeconomic backgrounds to demand preprimary opportunities for their children. NGOs and developing nations have valiantly responded to these demands and have improved the educational careers of millions of children.
Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania have all adopted policies that include preprimary education in the basic education cycle along with primary education. They have coupled this with significant investment and expansion in access to preprimary institutions.
Ghana, in particular, abolished preprimary school fees, which has drastically increased enrollment and attainment in its preschools. The efforts of these countries have inspired systematic change throughout the whole of Africa. The continent has seen an 84 percent increase in preschool enrollment between 1999 and 2015.
While this huge increase in enrollment will improve the educational careers of millions of students, there is still more work to be done. The impressive 84 percent increase was mainly due to significant institutional changes in seven African countries. Still, only two percent of children attend preschool in Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia and many of the poorest nations in Africa.
Bettering the Lives of Children Through Education
Some of the most impoverished developing nations are still struggling to provide the necessary access to preprimary education that others have. Fortunately, NGOs have contributed significant efforts to help supplement nationwide projects to increase access to preprimary education in developing countries.
For example, local NGOs in Bangladesh have helped build over 1,800 preschools across the nation. Bangladesh remains one of the poorest nations in the world, but with the help of NGOs, it can ensure better educational outcomes for its young children.
Preschool helps children develop the foundational skills to take on more challenging concepts in primary school. This effect reverberates at each stage of the educational journey, which makes students more successful in their careers as well. It is clear that preschool education reduces poverty, but the effects are best maximized by improving affordability and accessibility in developing countries.
– Anand Tayal
Photo: Flickr
Better World Books Promotes Literacy Across the Globe
The Mission Of Better World Books
Better World Books was founded in 2002 by three University of Notre Dame students who began selling textbooks online to earn extra cash. However, the business quickly became a social enterprise focused on literacy.
Better World Books does not approach philanthropy like typical companies. A focus on social and environmental good is at the heart of the organization’s business model, not an extra cause tacked on. The company’s mission integrates a focus on literacy and education, so much so that they offer paid time off to employees who are volunteering.
Better World Books collects books from book drives, college campuses and libraries, helping divert used books out of landfills and back into the hands of readers. Additionally, any books not sold are recycled in an attempt to be earth-conscious.
How Better World Books Promotes Literacy
For every book sold, Better World Books promotes literacy by donating a book to those in need. To date, the organization has donated 26,059,744 books to people around the world who do not typically have access to them. The company also gives grants and donations to projects that promote literacy, with a whopping $27,559,358 currently donated.
Better World Books promotes literacy with the help of three main partners: Books for Africa, Room to Read and The National Center for Families Learning. Each of these organizations has unique ways of promoting literacy and education worldwide which they are able to accomplish with the support of Better World Books.
Partnering for Literacy
Books for Africa’s mission is a simple one: bring an end to the “book famine” in Africa. Currently, the organization is the largest transporter of donated books to the African continent having shipped over 41 million books since the company began in 1988. Last year alone $2.5 million was used to send books to students all over Africa. The partnership that Better World Books has established with the organization has been impactful, allowing for more books to be provided to those in need.
Another partner of Better World Books, Room to Read, focuses on providing an education to children everywhere, specifically by increasing literacy and concentrating on gender equality. To date, 10.7 million children have benefitted from Room to Read’s programs, 8,703 teachers and librarians have been trained by the organization and 20.6 million books have been distributed.
Furthermore, Better World Books also partners with The Robinson Community Learning Center in South Bend, Indiana, The Prison Book Program and Ride for Reading. These smaller, domestic organizations were some of the first to benefit from Better World Books’ partnership and began the company’s interest in literacy.
With 750 million illiterate adults worldwide, the work Better World Books is doing is sorely needed. One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure that all youth and most adults are literate and numerate by 2030. With the help of Better World Books, that goal seems more than attainable.
– Sarah Dean
Photo: Flickr
The Wesley Foundation Alleviates Poverty in Jamaica
Even though Jamaica is now a predominately middle-class nation, poverty still resides in the more rural areas of the country where crime, lack of education, unemployment and natural disasters are common. As a way to combat these issues, the Wesley Foundation sends missionaries to alleviate poverty and make an easier life for civilians.
Why is There Poverty in Jamaica?
There are 14,000 Jamaican citizens living in extreme poverty, and in 2015, it was estimated that the unemployment rate in Jamaica was 13.5 percent. Unemployment runs high throughout the country, with some of the only jobs available being farming, fishing and tourism-based positions — the latter of which bringing in the most income.
Poverty also stems from high youth crime rates. Children living in poverty in Jamaica are often orphaned, a status which makes them targets for gangs and street violence. Jamaican children also face unequal opportunities in receiving secondary education. The high cost of secondary education makes a lot of children living in rural areas of the country unable to attend school, especially paired with the region’s frequent lack of adequate school supplies and teachers. These occurrences make it even more difficult for children living in poverty in Jamaica to receive a proper education.
According to The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, Jamaica is the third most unprotected country from natural disasters in the world. The country is affected by hurricanes, flooding, landslides and earthquakes. The development of towns in environmentally sensitive lands has increased with the growth of population and urban poverty, which makes an even larger number of people affected by natural disasters.
What is the Wesley Foundation Doing?
In an interview with University of Georgia student, Madison Fields, she recounts how she spent her sophomore spring break with the Wesley Foundation helping fight poverty in Jamaica in March 2018. The Wesley Foundation is an Christian organization that helps mold college-aged students to become closer to Christ through their efforts on different college campuses.
Fields and the other missionaries spent their time in Mandeville, Jamaica where they built sidewalks for students and teachers at Youth With a Mission (YWAM). YWAM is a Christian-based organization that provides learning facilities for children in different parts of the globe.
A Foundation of Sustainable Solutions
Fields said that the YWAM school in Mandeville is located at the base of a mountain — a spot where heavy rain runoff collects and causes major flooding, and students and teachers were often injured from walking to school in the deluged grass. To solve this issue, Fields and the other missionaries dug up the grass, mixed concrete with shovels and carried buckets of mixed concrete and water up a hill to where the school is. “The sidewalks definitely helped the teachers and kids walking from building to building,” Fields said. “It helps especially when it rains because it provided a sturdy area for them to walk on that doesn’t get washed away.”
The Wesley Foundation also helped subside poverty in Jamaica by contributing to “Homes for Help” — volunteers built a home for a single mother and her children, and renovated the roof of a school to withstand tropical storms. “The base was a concrete slab they originally had to put their pigs in but we used it to build the house,” Fields said. “And then at a school, we painted the roof with roof compound to keep it from weathering too bad and make it last longer.”
Through sustainable efforts such as these, the Wesley Foundation should continue to pave the way in creating positive global impact.
– McKenzie Hamby
Photo: Pixabay
Girls’ Education in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, primary school enrollment is almost universal. The school life expectancy for all children is 15 years. This achievement also includes girls’ education in Kazakhstan. The net enrollment rate for girls in primary school is 99.9 percent, and the progression of girls from primary to secondary school hovers around 100 percent. In fact, educational attainment for women in Kazakhstan is greater than that for men. In 2014, a study revealed that 28 percent of women went on to tertiary education as compared to 23 percent of men.
Difficulties with Girls’ Education in Kazakhstan
Despite the achievements in girls’ education in Kazakhstan, significant disparities begin to appear when looking at other factors.
Inequality in the Benefits of Education
Though education in Kazakhstan is available to boys and girls equally, the benefits of their education are not. In 2015, it was recorded that only 66.1 percent of women participated in the labor market. This is 10.9 percentage points lower than male participation. That same year, the gross national income per capita based on the purchasing power parity of women was 16,264 international dollars, as compared to the male gross national income per capita at 28,226 international dollars.
Women also predominantly work in traditional areas like education and hospitality while men have greater participation in higher-paying job industries. A significant portion of women are self-employed or working in minor managerial jobs within larger businesses.
It is evident that there is a large gap between how girls participate in education and how their participation translates to opportunities after they enter the workforce.
A Brighter Future for Girls in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan continues to move forward in providing equal opportunity for women through education. In 2009, a law was passed that establishes gender equality in many areas, including education. Beyond that, the government implemented a policy in 2016 geared towards decreasing discrimination through gender education. This is an attempt to teach children, both girls and boys, about gender stereotypes in order to end gender discrimination.
Nearly every child in Kazakhstan is able to receive an equal education, but educational reform continues to push for greater equality for girls so that they will have more opportunities in their future.
– Lindabeth Doby
Photo: Flickr
The Criminalization of Human Rights Work
In June, the Hungarian government passed a series of laws titled “Stop Soros.” The laws advocate for the criminalization of human rights work as they make the act of aiding undocumented immigrants illegal. Breaking this new law will result in up to a year imprisonment.
Hungarians have been made to fear immigrants overwhelming the country and changing its culture. Hungary’s action is in response to a new European Union (EU) migrant relocation plan. This plan would see the spread of more than 150,000 asylum seekers throughout EU member states, thus easing the strain on countries such as Italy and Greece.
Hungary is not the first country to legislate the criminalization of human rights work, however, it demonstrates the struggles NGOs face and the challenges that are being met across Europe in the face of the immigration crisis. It also substantiates the growing tensions between governments and the negative sentiment that groups have toward immigrants.
The Impact of the Criminalization of Human Rights Work
The act of aiding the victims of human rights violations is being delegitimized. By criminalizing aid to migrants, it deters people in need of assistance and those seeking to assist. The fear of prosecution is imminent. This further alienates the two populations, natives and refugees, and encourages the close-minded views of natives.
Violence against human rights workers has been on the rise. In 2016, 288 aid workers were targeted for violence, resulting in the death of 101 human rights defenders. In 2017, more than 300 human right workers were killed in 27 countries. The rise in targeted attacks against those speaking up against human right violations must not go unnoticed, yet many of the perpetrators go unpunished.
A Message of Intolerance
The criminalization of human rights work also sends a message to society of intolerance and creates an environment for xenophobic sentiments to fester. Hungary passed the law that largely targets immigrants from Muslim countries, such as Iraq and Syria. In 2017, Hungary rejected 2,417 asylum seeker applicants while granting protection to only 321 people.
Hungary fears the dilution of its Christian values. A fenced border was constructed to ensure no illegal entry into the country. There seems to be no regard for the safety of the migrants and refugees who are fleeing their homes not out of choice, but out of necessity. Hungary is not ready to become a multi-faith and multi-cultural country.
European Response
EU countries and NGOs have implored Hungary to not pass laws in contradiction to European law. In regards to Hungary, the European director of Amnesty International, Gauri Van Gulik, stated, “It is a new low point in an intensifying crackdown on civil society, and it is something we will resist every step of the way.” Others have voiced similar concerns. The primary solution to laws such as these being passed is to push back against institutional intolerance, which has been steadily on the rise among European countries toward refugees and migrants.
One of the major challenges to human rights is the lack of value and recognition given to it. There must be a promotion of a culture that publicly acknowledges the role of human right activists. The great increase in immigrants to Europe has tested the humane response to conflict and suffering. This may not be the last example of the criminalization of human rights work.
– Trelawny Robinson
Photo: Flickr
College Service Trips: A Mutually Beneficial Relationship
Every year, colleges and universities in the U.S. send students on service trips to the most impoverished nations on the planet. The students form teams and are sent with the intention of helping in small ways to create lasting impacts in the poor communities. What doesn’t get highlighted is the lasting impact that the poor communities have on the students.
Tyler Neville graduated from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications. During Neville’s freshman and junior years, he took part in one of the school’s annual service trips. The Borgen Project interviewed Neville about his experiences.
“My main motivation was my desire to travel. Service trips seemed a perfect blend of satisfying that while also managing to do some good for people,” Neville said. While providing aid to Guatemalans, he built a home for a family in need using “very basic construction methods.” Neville said the family was grateful. “They were quick to let us know how appreciative they were of what we were doing.”
Mutual Benefits of Service Trips
Neville’s experience convinced him everyone could benefit from a visit to a third world country. “To see people be so happy, caring, giving and generally wonderful with so much less than anyone I knew is a real eye-opening experience, and one that really changed how I viewed the world.” From his time in Guatemala, Neville formed a bond with the indigenous people strong enough to change his worldview.
Why Volunteer Abroad?
Sending college students to the world’s most impoverished areas has become a movement. The Huffington Post wrote an article giving tips to prospective student volunteers. It provides service trips as an alternative to the usual winter/spring break activities and lists reasons to get involved. “The main motivator is usually altruistic — it allows you to help a community or cause that can benefit from your support.” The article also listed personal benefits such as improving professional skills, learning about a new culture, making new friends and having fun around the world.
How to Get Involved
The Huffington Post article ends by giving advice on how to join a team and get involved. Organizations, like Global Volunteers, have begun to seek out college students as volunteers for efforts abroad. Global Volunteers is an international organization that sends volunteers abroad to combat global poverty.
Saint Joseph’s College features a Student Service Trips tab on its website where students can see how to get involved. It mentions Partners in Development (PID), an organization based in Ipswich, MA that coordinates the teams going abroad. It is not just college students that get involved with PID. Anyone who can afford the cost of airfare and the trip itself can join a team.
The service trip movement has gained traction due to its mutually beneficial relationship. Not only are the impoverished people provided with able bodies to help, but the students are provided with a lasting experience that changes their outlook on life and gives them skills that no classroom ever could. Neville said it best; “I believe one of the main goals of college is to expose yourself to varying viewpoints, cultures, opinions and experiences in order to broaden your worldview. The two service trips I was a part of provided all of those things in ample amounts.”
– Zach Farrin
Photo: Flickr
More High-Paying Jobs to Reduce Poverty in the Philippines
Poverty in the Philippines has declined from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015. A report released by the World Bank on May 30, 2018 titled ‘Making Growth Work for the Poor: A Poverty Assessment of the Philippines’ reveals the major factors that contributed to this decrease.
Factors for Poverty Decline in Philippines
However, though these positive developments helped reduce poverty in the Philippines, the rate of decline has been very slow compared to East Asian countries. Between 2006 and 2015, there has only been a 0.9 percent decline in poverty as per the international poverty line ($1.90/day), while the East Asian countries — including China, Indonesia and Vietnam — have shown 2-2.5 percent in poverty reduction.
Education, Employment and Disaster Relief
Lack of education is one of the main reasons for this slow decline. Since a majority of the poor lack an education, they lack access to better employment opportunities; this trend thus keeps the majority of citizens trapped in the poverty cycle.
Many poor households also have only one earning member in the family, who is generally employed as a laborer in the agricultural sector. Such households are often the poorest and remain extremely vulnerable to the frequent changes in production rates.
Another reason for poverty in the Philippines is the deterioration of the quality of employment over the years. A report reveals that although the Philippines has experienced economic growth, it has failed to maintain consistently high standards in various sectors. In addition, poor disaster management skills have often lead to failure of timely protection and evacuation of people.
The Need for Productive Employment
The U.N. clearly highlights the link between economic growth, high-paying jobs and poverty eradication. The group states that economic growth of the country as a whole on its own will not help in reducing poverty; rather, economic growth has to be combined with an increase in the number of “productive employment” made accessible to the poor.
As mentioned in the report, “The vicious cycle of inequitable investment in human capital and lack of well-paying job opportunities traps the poor in poverty generation after generation.” What is needed then is to transform the pattern of growth to make it more inclusive, and to provide better jobs to achieve higher and more stable incomes. The vice chairman of the labor committee, Senator Juan Edgaro Angara states that “jobs remain the key to poverty. If there is enough income, a permanent and decent job, the lives of Filipinos would be surely uplifted.”
The Public Employment Service Office of Philippines (PESO) held a job expo on June 2, 2018, at which around 103 people were hired on the spot. This gathering is considered to be one of the biggest job fairs in Visayas, Philippines and this year it presented people with around 33,000 positions. Sen. Juan Angara commended the expo and said that every province, city and municipality in the Philippines has its own PESO — this prevalence should ensure that every Filipino gets a job to help them rise out of poverty.
Just days after this job expo, another job fair was organized at Rizal Park, Manila on June 12, 2018, to mark the 102nd anniversary of Philippine Independence. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, around 30,000 jobs were offered which included 45 local, 25 overseas and eight government agency positions. Generally, though, it was the transportation and domestic construction sectors that offered a majority of the vacant positions.
New Initiatives to Alleviate Poverty in the Philippines
The Philippines has around 22 million people — or around one-fifth of its population — still living below the poverty line. The launch of AmBisyon 2040 by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is a long-term commitment to uplift the underprivileged sections of the society.
Functioning parallel to such an effort is also the Philippines Development Plan 2017-2022. Both these initiatives have set out ambitious goals to eradicate poverty in the Philippines by transforming the country into a prosperous middle-class society where “people will live long and healthy lives, be smart and innovative and will live in a high-trust society.”
To make this a reality, the government has taken up the task of reducing poverty by one percent every year to see a reduction of 13-15 percent by 2022. In addition to these two initiatives, the poverty assessment stresses the following to catalyze the rate of poverty decline:
Thus, with new initiatives and a greater focus on creating more well-paying jobs, the government hopes to reduce poverty in the Philippines and bring about a permanent change in the lives of the Filipino people.
– Shruthi Nair
Photo: Flickr
How Poverty Impacts Child Marriage in Guinea
In places like the United States of America, marriage seems to be an exciting event for a majority of people. A celebratory get-together with family and close friends, surrounded by food, music, dancing and all the “selfies and photos” one could dream up. However, marriage customs differ around the world depending on culture, family, tradition and even the economy. In Guinea, Africa, 76 percent of girls marry before turning 18, but this occurrence is far from just being a tradition; in fact, the high level of poverty impacts child marriage more than one might think.
People of Guinea
In Guinea, mining, minerals and fuel resources are what keep the economy alive and thriving. However, it is one of the poorest nations in West Africa and often struggles to share what wealth it does have with neighboring countries.
While the economy works to aid both citizens and refugees within the country, health concerns also take a toll on Guinea. Polio, Measles, Ebola and HIV/AIDS affect many women and children and can leave children orphaned or separated from family. Such a traumatic event can make them vulnerable to marriage at a young age.
Poverty and Child Marriage
Lack of access to resources such as education, literacy, health, well-being, job status and living in rural areas creates poverty and impacts child marriage, especially for young girls. In many situations, girls are considered an economic or financial burden — a status that often leads families to marry their daughters/sisters off for economic benefit. If economic resources are available for education, more girls may utilize their education as a means to aspire for goals beyond marriage.
Poor areas often lead to poor interactions and respect among individuals who oftentimes have to fight for survival against one another. Children married at young ages will frequently experience marital and gender-based violence as a result.
Government Involvement in Guinea’s Future
Like most countries, Guinea’s government plays a role in future change and helps discern the answer to the question: what is being done about child marriage in their country?
As of 2018, Guinea is now a part of the African Union Commission, which helps make child marriage a priority social issue. In 2015, the Guinea Civil Union code established that men and women must equally consent to a marriage, consent must be free and valid and the marriage must be part of the civil registrar.
Advocates For Change
Legislation also states that “promises of marriage” do not make a marriage mandatory. People under 21 years of age cannot enter into marriage without their father’s permission or someone who is an “acting father” for the household. However, legislation relating to marriage refusal is still in process, mostly due to sociocultural pressures.
Other groups, partnerships, NGOs and organizations — such as the Pan-African Women’s organization — work diligently to break social stigmas and provide more support and liberation regardless of sex, race, religion or political affiliation. These advocates also utilize relationship and collaboration development to help fight against and provide awareness on how poverty impacts child marriage in the region.
– Ashley Cooper
Photo: Flickr
Girls’ Education in Eritrea
Over the past few decades, one of the international community’s main goals is to ensure all people, regardless of location and gender, have access to at least a primary and foundational education. As the challenges of global poverty and the economy shift with the passage of time, education should be a top priority. For Eritrea, this means not just addressing the educational needs to support a modern country, but also addressing the educational gender-gap between male and female education.
Education in Eritrea
Historically, education in Eritrea was largely religious and meant to prepare young boys for work in religious vocations, while secular education was limited. This meant girls’ education in Eritrea was severely lacking. Further, the status of female education remained under-developed during Eritrea’s period under the Italian regime’s colonial rule, when Eritrean education was generally ignored.
Since Eritrea’s independence, the policy concerning education focuses on creating a knowledgeable workforce to support a modern economy and to fight back against poverty and disease. The country has also noted that its goals include access to a primary education for all children, regardless of gender. To focus on female education and literacy, the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) has been established.
As a result, girls’ education in Eritrea has steadily increased. Unfortunately, the numbers are still low: UNICEF reports only 43 percent of girls are enrolled in primary school education, while 50 percent of boys are enrolled. Enrollment in secondary school is much lower with about 25 percent of girls enrolled and 32 percent of boys. Fortunately, the literacy rates in Eritrea are higher with women at 87.7 percent compared to men at 92.6 percent.
Increasing Girls’ Education in Eritrea
While the government maintains a dedicated stance on girls’ education, the historical legacy of male and female education, juxtaposed with differing cultural attitudes towards women, make female enrollment a slow and difficult process. For many Eritreans in more isolated and rural areas, girls are still expected to work in agriculture and maintain domestic responsibilities. Methods to increase girls’ education in Eritrea should address these cultural attitudes and provide people with viable alternatives to alleviate domestic duties and farming.
The NUEW has made efforts to provide transportation for young girls. Because schools may be far from children’s homes, a method for addressing high drop-out rates and low enrollments is to provide students with bicycles. In a program conducted by the NUEW, among 60 girls given bicycles to reach a school over nine kilometers away from their homes, 55 of them were able to complete their studies. The NUEW also provided families with donkeys and water tanks, so that time could be freed for girls to study and attend class, rather than collect water for their families. These programs focus on saving time better spent on education, and future programs should follow suit.
While Eritrea has not yet closed the gender education gap, it is gradually inching closer to that goal. As the needs of a modern country increasingly demand more educated workforces, the focus on girls’ education in Eritrea will need to include tertiary education. Fortunately, the number of women graduating from universities is already growing rapidly. A decade ago, only 25 percent of university graduates were women. Today that number ranges between 40 to 50 percent, depending on the institution and field of study.
With more attention from the global community and new innovative projects, Eritrea should offer everyone their right to education. With under 50 percent of girls receiving a primary education, much work is still left to be done.
– William Wilcox
Photo: Flickr
Girls’ Education in Mongolia
From a single party rule to a multi-party democracy, Mongolia has sought to accommodate more of its people’s demands, particularly in the advancement of girls’ education.
In 2000, the average time spent by girls in school was 9.4 years, but by 2010, it had increased to 14.6 years. The government’s effort in funding the development of more rural classrooms and educational resources has been inspired by the hope of reducing the high rate of teen pregnancies, as about a third of the population lives in rural areas that lack access to reproductive healthcare and education.
Improving Girls’ Education in Mongolia to Spur Economic Growth
As with decreasing global poverty, decreasing discrimination against women is also an investment in accelerating economic growth. The United Nations Development Programme, along with its U.N. partners, has worked towards closing gender disparities, such as in primary education. Approximately a third of Mongolia’s labor force consists of livestock herders, but higher access to education has increased young girls’ opportunities to seek jobs in other sectors.
These efforts have been fruitful: the number of women working in non-agricultural sectors has increased from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent today. As reported in 2014 by the World Bank, women own or partially own almost 40 percent of Mongolian firms.
The State of Progress in Girls’ Education in Mongolian
Although Mongolia can now boast of its position at 53 out of 159 countries in gender inequality globally, the gender disparities in the workforce still run particularly deep, as exhibited through women’s limited access to economic opportunities, unequal salaries, and their higher rate of inclination towards unreliable, informal work away from entrepreneurial sectors. The full benefits of the progress made in girls’ education in Mongolia have been limited by such inequalities.
To maximize the advantages of increasing girls’ education in Mongolia, other factors that commonly require a woman’s time and attention should be considered. Females are traditionally assigned the role of nurturing family; therefore, increasing construction of more eldercare and childcare facilities would provide more girls the chance to prioritize their education or job. More access to early-childhood education will also yield the same empowering effect for women, especially those living in rural towns.
Teenage fertility is especially high in Mongolia, at 40.4 childbirths for every 1000 girls between the ages of 15 to 19. Unwanted pregnancies are also relatively high in this age range as 14.1 percent of pregnant girls have abortions. These factors, left often unattended, limit the educational opportunities that girls can now seek.
Location also plays a huge role in determining the level of access to education for young girls. About 55 percent of students achieve secondary education, but this holds true for only 45 percent of students in rural areas. Children from rural areas must often confront inhibitions to accessing education, such as seasonal challenges and poor infrastructure.
Support of Girls’ Educational Opportunities in the Sciences
In 2010 the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation, partnered with The Asian Foundation and the Zorig Foundation, introduced a university scholarship program for Mongolian girls that would pay for four years at the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology for 60 girls from low-income families. This program is geared towards providing girls with opportunities in the sciences since Mongolian girls are largely underrepresented in those fields.
Even though more than 60 percent of university students are female, there remains a large discrepancy in the number of men and women in the sectors related to science and technology. By focusing on improving education for girls in this subject, Mongolia is expanding its labor force to fields beyond agriculture, which has consistently faced major setbacks due to natural disasters.
In 2010, Mongolia suffered a dzud, which is a national disaster of a drought in the summer followed by a severe winter, and lost almost 20 percent of the nation’s herds. One-third of Mongolia, whose livelihoods rely on herding, could no longer afford university tuition for their children, so this scholarship program would succeed in providing an education for specifically poor, rural girls.
The country is currently focused on its development through its minerals sector. Major infrastructure projects in developing mines are underway, and skilled workers are in high demand. Investing in girls’ education, so that more girls may access a job in this sector, is also an investment in Mongolia’s economic development as the country gravitates towards a more stable means of income.
By accounting for these factors in improving gender parity, developments in areas such as location and rethinking traditional gender norms and attitudes, Mongolia can improve education for girls and yield more long-term sustainable change. As women are more likely to pursue tertiary education, Mongolia will only benefit from addressing these different factors in helping women achieve educational success, and subsequently, inclusion in sectors significant to Mongolia’s economic prosperity. The butterfly effect of these developments in empowering women will continue to ripple throughout Mongolia’s poverty-reducing progress.
– Alice Lieu
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