Conclusion 5

The FCDO’s commitment to supporting women and girls, particularly through education, is welcome. However, reductions in aid have been shown to disproportionately affect women and girls. Girls’ education is often more vulnerable when families face hardship and particularly during conflict or crises such as COVID-19. Many of these girls will never be able to return to school. Therefore, it is vital that the conditions that allow girls to attend to school for longer are addressed as well as the education systems themselves. General and reproductive healthcare, WASH access, caring responsibilities, child labour and early marriage all affect girls’ education, because new schools do not help girls if girls cannot attend them. Programmes that enable girls to access education must be adequately supported in line with the FCDO’s general commitment to supporting women and girls. The FCDO should focus education spending on the most impactful programmes for poverty Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals 53 reduction. This can be enhanced by complementary investments in social protection that reach the most vulnerable households, which are otherwise most likely to take girls out of school when crises occur.