A Call to Invest in Girsl Education by ICN

On the occasion of World Population Day and this year's theme , Investing in teenage girls , the International Council of Nurses (ICN) draws attention to its Girl Child Education Fund (GCEF) and calls for investment in girls’ education . Five reason s to invest in girls’ education :

1. Improve the health of future generations : Young women who are educated have children later and have fewer children. They are able to earn more, and their sons and daughters are more likely to be healthy and educated. 

2. Reduce child mortality : Each additional year of female education reduces child mortality by 18 per thousand. 

3. Increase economic growth : According to some estimates,  1 percent increase in the level of women’s education generates .3 percent in additional economic growth. 

4. Increase wages : t he return on one year of secondary education for a girl correlates with as high as a 25% increase in wages later in life. 

5. Reduce HIV/AIDS infection: Uneducated girls are more likely than educated girls to contract HIV/A IDS, which spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among girls that have even some schooling. 

According to UNICEF (2015)  , an estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 32 million girls of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2013. Sub - Saharan Africa has the lowest proportion of countries with gender parity: only two out of 35 countries. 

“ The World Bank 7 adds that “In many countries, the number of girls completing upper secondary school is so low that it is not possible to know how many are in or out of higher grades.” 

As the largest group of healthcare professionals in the world, and as a female - dominated profession, nurses know that by investing in women and girls, we invest in families, communities and health. Founded in 2005, the ICN/FNIF Girl Child Education Fund (GCEF) supports the primary and secondary schooling of girls under the age of 18 in developing countries whose nurse parent or parents have died, paying for fees, uniforms, shoes and books. The GCEF i s currently supporting 103 girls in four countries in sub - Saharan Africa: Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia. To donate to the Girl Child Education Fund ’s annual fund or endowment fund, please go to www.gcef.ch