UNGEI: The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) was launched in April 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Its goal is to narrow the gender gap in primary and secondary education and to ensure that by 2015, all children complete primary schooling, with girls and boys having equal access to all levels of education.
UNGEI, the EFA flagship for girls' education, is a partnership that embraces the United Nations system, governments, donor countries, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector, and communities and families. UNGEI provides stakeholders with a platform for action and galvanizes their efforts to get girls in school.
Sustainable development and the eradication of poverty will only be achieved with quality education for all - girls and boys alike. Since girls face much greater obstacles, special efforts are needed to get them in school and ensure that they complete their education.
If girls remain uneducated, they are likely to become women who are illiterate, impoverished and less likely to raise healthy and educated families. Society cannot afford to allow another generation to forego its potential. That's why the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the goals of Education for All (EFA), call for gender parity and equality in education.
UNGEI's vision is a world where all girls and boys will have equal access to free, quality education.
