Lord Bates (Con)
I thank all noble Lords for taking part in this debate. I particularly pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Loomba for introducing this debate so effectively and comprehensively. He has great authority from his work over many decades in this area of levelling the playing field to help women and girls around the world. He was also quite right to refer to the fact that my noble friend Lady Northover, the lead Minister for DfID in the House of Lords, particularly wanted to be here, but due to a close family bereavement she is unable to be. I am sure that the whole Committee will want to send our condolences to my noble friend.
As the 2015 deadline for the millennium development goals approaches, it is right that we come together today to explore the core issues around the progress of education for girls and women. Progress on MDGs 2 and 3 has been made. Globally, more girls go to school; in sub-Saharan Africa, the net enrolment rate for girls rose from 47% to 75% between 1990 and 2011. Gender parity in primary enrolment has improved significantly in regions that started the decade with the greatest gender gaps. Literacy rates are on the rise, and gender gaps are narrowing.
However, under Millennium Development Goal 3, the target of gender parity in primary and secondary education has been achieved by only two out of 130 countries. Gender gaps in access to education have narrowed, but girls are still disproportionately absent from the classroom; 31 million girls are still out of school, and 70% of these are from the most disadvantaged communities in the world. In 10 countries, at least half of poor, rural girls have never been to school. Girls suffer double discrimination; first because they are poor and secondly because they are female.
I now turn to the points raised in the debate to give them maximum time because there were some excellent points and pertinent questions.
The noble Lord, Lord Loomba, asked a specific question about allocations of the gender fund which has been established. He mentioned his disappointment with the information from the website which showed that perhaps not much of it had been drawn down. Of course, the updating of websites is an essential part of communication; I looked into that and found that the figure was from April. As of now, £225 million has been allocated, and £25 million has been spent. This is an innovative process where people are bidding for funds and therefore to ensure that there are the correct checks and balances, the period during which those funds get distributed is longer than normal.
By 2015 the UK will have supported 11 million children in education in primary and secondary schools and 190,000 teachers. There are some very innovative examples taking place in the Punjab region, which will be of particular interest to the noble Lord. Stipends have been introduced for children to encourage them to take part in school. This means actually sending them the books and the pens and giving them some resource to enable them to attend school. That applies to 400,000 children in the Punjab area, which I think is a positive initiative.
I remember serving in the other place with my noble friend Lady Chalker when she was Minister for Overseas Development, before it was so fashionable. She served in that role with great distinction for eight years and it is thanks to her that much of the legacy continues. She mentioned Rwanda and Ethiopia and I listened carefully to her points, particularly about the importance of having supportive governance in place at a provincial level to encourage education and make it a priority. It reminds us that educating girls is only the first step towards empowering them to take greater control of their whole lives, and to then move on to becoming more economically active, to have a greater base and then to move into government, governance and institutions. It was well pointed out that as well as being educated, women are also educators; if you have an educated parent then you will have an educated child.
The noble Lord, Lord Browne, asked a specific question about disability. There is some progress there. The noble Lord highlighted—and with astute knowledge because of his experience—where the canards are in this particular debate, because the absence of reliable data is one of the things that the high-level panel noted needed a great deal more work. One of the new millennium development goals was a data revolution, and how you disaggregate that data to show gender differences and then disaggregate that further to show differences between disability. I would just mention two points to the noble Lord. First, DfID has a strong commitment to the education of people with disabilities and it seeks to ensure all new educational construction directly funded by DfID is accessible to people with disabilities. Secondly, it is also working with other organisations, including the World Bank and NGOs, to improve and get better data so that they can tackle this issue. One of the pieces of data which quite shocked me does not relate to a specific area, but says that the limited statistics that are available indicate that only 3% of adults with disabilities are literate in the poorest countries of the world, and only 1% of women with disabilities. The data issue is a key part and that is something which DfID is looking at.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, spoke powerfully about Syria in particular, and she used the words “the lost generation”, which is a great tragedy with so many refugees who are coming. On a recent visit, the Secretary of State established the lost generation fund of £30 million for children in Syria and the surrounding areas to ensure that they have better access to education. Therefore, we hope that the diplomatic efforts will be gathering pace, although that might take time. Of course, these are critical years for these children, some of whom I have seen myself in schools in the Bekaa area. She also mentioned access to good-quality education, which is important.
The noble Lord, Lord Crisp, mentioned completing education as well as making a point on data. He referred to his work with Sightsavers, which I know makes a huge difference around the world. Some 10 million children drop out from primary school education every year. The Girls’ Education Challenge will ensure that barriers preventing girls from benefiting from education are tackled at root by collecting data in a systematic way, by trying to track progress through the secondary school system and by asking those who qualify for the fund to collate data on the proportion of women marrying by the age of 15, attitudes towards age of marriage and choice of marriage partners. That data will help inform further work and further allocations.
My noble friend Lord Moynihan spoke about Olympic values, which of course have equality at their heart. As an Olympian of note, he has done a huge amount in this area. Last year, he rightly was awarded the Olympic Order of Merit for his work not just on the London Olympic Games but over many years on the international side and the development side. He works as a trustee of International Inspiration as well. He mentioned the Hunger Summit and the Hunger Challenge which came out of 2012. Before I came to the Moses Room, I read the new IOC president’s speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations yesterday to mark the Olympic Truce, which he and I worked on last year. He will have been heartened by that. It referred to the millennium development goals and the hunger pledges that were made, particularly towards Rio, which reminds us that education is body, mind and soul.
The noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, served in the Foreign Office as a Minister and knows this area well. She spoke about the importance of ensuring funds to help and support Afghanistan in particular. The point is that women and girls are up front and central in all DfID’s considerations. The funding of £47 million over three years which DfID has allocated to the Ministry of Education is being supervised with that very much in mind. Just yesterday, my noble friend Lady Warsi met with officials from Afghanistan on that very point.
The noble Lord, Lord Bhatia, raised a specific point on the experience of migrants in education in the UK. Perhaps I may write to him on that. I would be very happy to meet on the margins of this debate to take better note of that issue. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, spoke about reproductive rights, which of course is a key part of giving women control over their own lives and bodies. It is a critical area that we need to look at. She also recognised the work of Gordon Brown as the UN Secretary-General’s envoy, particularly on global education. All who saw the incredibly moving speech by Malala in the margins of the General Assembly really brought hope to us about the importance of education. The more that her voice is heard, the better.
It is right therefore that the Government place women and girls at the centre of their approach. All UK education programmes in developing countries prioritise the education of girls and, where needed, have specific interventions to address gender-specific barriers to educational opportunities. UK aid has so far supported 6.4 million children at primary and secondary level, of which 3.1 million were girls. Looking beyond 2015, the UK, through the Prime Minister and his co-chairmanship of the high-level panel, has been at the forefront of building momentum around the standalone goal for women and girls in the new development framework. However, this battle is far from won. We will continue to work with others to push this important agenda forward over the next two years.
To conclude, it is important that we focus on keeping NGOs, charities and the private sector engaged in developing projects that will expand education opportunities for women and girls. The noble Lord, Lord Loomba, began our debate by reminding us that education is the best gift you can give any child. Much has been done but more needs to be done.