The best investment

In the last four months, the new government has talked about four different challenges. In his maiden speech, the Prime Minister spoke about malnutrition and stunting, an area that often gets ignored in public or political discourse. Soon after there was discussion from the top about hygiene — another area that rarely gets mentioned. Then of course there is the issue of local empowerment and economic sustainability in our rural areas — something that came up during the 90 day speech. Most recently, there has been a renewed interest in the issue of family planning and population control. Interestingly enough, while these may be disparate areas, there is something that connects all four of these pressing challenges (and many, many more). It is also the best investment that the government can make at the national, provincial and district level. The investment: girls’ education.

When it comes to tackling some of our most pressing social, economic and development challenges, the common denominator, and the strongest predictor is girls’ education. Studies in economics, sociology, public health and developmental studies have consistently shown that the return on investment for girls’ education is among the highest when it comes to long-term development, peace, security and socio-economic well-being. For example, it has been shown that in farm communities in Kenya where girls and boys got equal education, the crop yields were 22 per cent higher than in communities where girls did not go to school. Data from the World Economic Forum and the World Bank shows that in many low-income countries, societies where girls have no education are likely to have three times more children than those who have a high school diploma. The 2016 Global Nutrition Report shows a causal link between girls’ secondary school education and stunting reduction. Studies in countries ranging from Indonesia to Mali, Zimbabwe to Guatemala show girls education directly linked to better vaccination rates, lower infant mortality, improved maternal health and significantly higher child nutrition.

The impact goes beyond health and family planning. There is a direct link to economic empowerment and better wages over the course of a lifetime. As has been shown in the study published by Center for Global Development in 2008, an extra year of education for girls increases their lifetime wages by 10-20%, which is also on average 5% more than the benefit of each extra year of education on wages by boys. Engagement with issues on social justice, politics, demanding equal rights for all and protecting the environment have also been well documented.

There is, however, a caveat here that cannot be ignored. It is not just about opening another school nor having another building with no resources. The key and most essential ingredient (as pointed out by the Brookings report in 2017) is quality education. Poor quality education, or institutions that only provide lip service to girls’ education are more likely to push them out, rather than bring them within the folds of education.

It is not to say that education of boys, and men, isn’t important. God knows when a sitting minister gets on Twitter to take uncouth and misogynistic cheap shots at a respected senator from the opposition, one wonders whatever happened to basic human decency? How did our system fail? I cringe when another federal minister (in this case of water and power) tells a female panelist that she should get back to the kitchen. Neither, by the way, has the decency to apologise.

We have a long way to go before we, the ego seeking and insecure men, can tackle our deeply ingrained misogyny. We have to fight both misogyny and create a path to inclusive development that works for all. When that happens, any reminders or injunctions to promote the positive image will not be necessary.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2018.

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