1. WHAT EFFECT WOULD GENDER EQUITABLE EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HAVE ON OUR WORLD.

2. GENDER EQUITY AND EDUCATION  Education leads to greater choices. But 115 million children of primary school age are denied this right.  Education, especially for girls, has social and economic benefits for society as a whole.  Educated women have more economic opportunities and engage more fully in public life.  Women who are educated tend to have fewer and healthier children, and they are more likely to attend school.

3. GENDER EQUITY AND EDUCATION  Gender equality in primary school enrolment has been nearly achieved in most developing regions. However, Southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia lag behind, with ratios that remain low in spite of progress between 1990 and 2002. These regions will most likely miss the target of closing the gender gap in primary education by the end of 2005.  Education also increases the ability of women and girls to protect themselves against HIV.  All of the above benefits are essential to breaking the cycle of poverty.

5. FACT #1 More often, girls tend to lose out. In some of these countries, only 75 girls are in school for every 100 boys.

6. IT’S NOT A FAIR WORLD If both girls and boy have equal access to education then they both can pursue their ambitions and to become wiser with their money. Both girls and boys  However, targeted interventions can go a long way towards getting girls into school, and encouraging them to stay there. These include:  Providing safe transportation to and from school  Providing separate toilets for girls and boys  Avoiding gender stereotyping in the classroom 3 3

7. ADULT LITERACIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

8. FACT #2 Almost two thirds of the world's illiterate are women.  The proportion varies widely by region, from 55 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean to 77 per cent in Central and Eastern Europe.  The gender parity Index (GPI) for literacy ranges from 0.63 to 0.77 in Southern and Western Asia, the Arab States and sub-Saharan Africa to above 0.90 in the rest of the world.

9. #TrueFact: Over 70 per cent of the world's illiterate adults (562 million persons) live in nine countries. About half live in India.

11. WOMEN WORLDWIDE  Women represent the majority of the working poor in all regions.  Out of the 550 million working poor in the world, an estimated 330 million, or 60 per cent, are women. 12 12  Several factors contribute to this situation, including the undervaluation of women's work and women's intermittent career paths, due mainly to their role as caregivers in the family and their greater need to balance work and family life.  In some countries, there are also legal restrictions or prohibitions against women engaging in certain types of work.