By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Apr 18 2005 (IPS)

If you truly want a significant return on your investment, first of all invest in education, and particularly invest in making sure girls obtain an education, recommends Carol Bellamy.

Bellamy, however, is not a financial markets expert. On the contrary, she works in the humanitarian field, where she has been the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the last ten years.

In any event, her recommendations have been followed by many, including the government of Norway, which devotes between 50 and 60 million dollars a year to promoting primary education around the world.

"It is money very well spent, and we plan to continue doing it," said Wegger Strommen, Norway’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Bellamy, who will be replaced at the helm of UNICEF later this month by former U.S. secretary of agriculture Ann Veneman, stressed that education is about more than just learning.

"In many countries it’s a life-saver, especially where girls are concerned," she noted. "A girl out of school is more likely to fall prey to HIV/AIDS and less able to raise a healthy family."

Bellamy made her comments at a press conference Monday at the launch of a new UNICEF report: "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Gender Parity and Primary Education".

The report focuses specifically on two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2000: achieving universal completion of primary education by the year 2015, and eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by the end of this year.

"After ten years at UNICEF I am absolutely convinced that MDGs 2 and 3 – education for every girl and boy, and the equal fulfilment of the rights of all people, regardless of gender – are the lynchpins of the whole MDG enterprise. If we do not succeed on these two goals, we will not succeed on any others," said Bellamy.

The report indicates that significant progress has been made on both counts. Around 86 percent of the world’s primary-school-aged children are currently in school, up from 82 percent four years ago.

As a result, Bellamy noted, "we believe it is safe to say that the number of children who should be in school but are not may have dropped below 100 million for the first time." The estimated figure in 2001 was 115 million children.

She also stressed, however, that the report makes it clear that the current rate of progress is too slow. To reach the goal of ensuring that all boys and girls are in primary school by 2015, "accelerated efforts" will be needed in many countries and regions.

Of the 180 countries for which data is available – 91 in the developing world and 34 industrialised nations – a total of 125 could reach the gender-parity target in primary education by the end of this year.

There are three regions, however, where disparities are still deeply marked, namely the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and West and Central Africa.

The countries that are on track for meeting the gender parity target in 2005 include Peru, San Tomé and Príncipe, Suriname, Vietnam, Ghana, Colombia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Those still farthest from the goal are Yemen, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, the Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Guinea and Pakistan.

Gender parity in education is considered to be of such crucial importance for meeting the MDGs that it is the only target with a shortened deadline of 2005, as opposed to 2015 for the others.

UNICEF projections based on school attendance for 81 developing nations show an overall gender parity index of 0.96 for 2005, meaning that for every 100 boys in primary school there are 96 girls.

According to the agency’s new report, this "technically puts the world on track to meet the goal of gender parity in primary education." In practice, however, there is "a long road still to travel," since globally, around 54 percent of the children not attending primary school are girls; in other words, for every 100 boys in this situation, there are 117 girls.

Bellamy stressed that international aid for education needs to be "drastically increased," noting that an extra 5.6 billion dollars per year will be required to achieve the goal of universal primary education.

Only five countries – Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden – have fulfilled the pledge made by the developed countries to devote 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to official development assistance.

"Education is not an optional add-on, to be funded if and when the economy improves – it is a human right," the UNICEF report emphasises.

As for the goal of universal primary education, the report concludes, "It is realistic, it is affordable, it is achievable. And it is our children’s birthright."

Excerpt: