Gender and Education
USAID works to break down gender-related barriers to education so children and youth, in all their diversity, have equitable access to quality learning opportunities from pre-primary through higher education.
Sustained global efforts have resulted in substantial progress toward quality, equitable, and inclusive education around the world. Yet, learners and educators—in all their diversity—continue to be marginalized on the basis of gender and sexuality; especially girls and women, and gender and sexual minorities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) youth. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality, jeopardizing progress and disproportionately putting these marginalized groups at a disadvantage.
USAID works to advance gender equality in and through education, around the world with diverse, context-specific strategies, including:
- Helping the most marginalized learners, especially girls, women and LGBTQI+ people, stay safe and connected to learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Preventing and responding to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) which affects learners and educators of all gender identities and expressions, including boys and men.
- Ensuring that educational materials and instruction empower learners of all gender identities and expressions.
- Providing safe learning opportunities for women and girls facing adversity, conflict, and crisis, particularly those who are displaced.
- Promoting gender in the generation, reporting, and use of data and evidence.
- Holistically supporting adolescent girls to overcome their unique set of challenges.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID is proud to endorse the G-7’s Declaration on girls’ education: recovering from COVID-19 and unlocking agenda 2030.
USAID also proudly endorses two new, ambitious milestone objectives for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4):
- By 2026, 40 million more girls in school in low- and lower-middle-income countries; and
- By 2026, 20 million more girls reading by age ten or by the end of primary school in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
