This statement was prepared on behalf of the Women’s Major Group (WMG) on 9th July 2019 at HLPF 2019.
Review of SDG implementation and interrelations among goals: Discussion on SDG 4 – Quality education
Thank you Madam Moderator.
My name is Shamala Chandrasekaran from the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and the Women’s Major Group.
Madam Moderator, women and girls particularly from LDCs and MICs, face many obstacles in accessing and completing education. There are also systemic and structural barriers which include early marriage and pregnancy, gender-based violence and discrimination.
We believe that social protection policies and public services that recognise and support women’s productive and reproductive lives, reduce and redistribute unpaid domestic and care work, are key for women to improve their income, reduce time poverty, help poor households meet basic needs and ensure improved performance of girls in school.
Failure to ensure social protection, as well as the high cost of education, have hindered implementation of SDGs at all levels. SDG 4 should, therefore, be considered as a key component of a set of core competencies that require sustained learning and updating. Education needs to be innovative and diversified, including informal, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), TVET and lifelong learning should be promoted to ensure that no one is left behind, especially young women and girls.
With this, we call for:
1. Promotion of equal opportunities in learning and education to boost employment and the empowerment of women, economic prosperity and their contribution to the well-being of girls.
2. Ensure access to SRHR services and information for young people, especially girls, through policy integration and implementation to reverse key health barriers to achieving SDG4 with involvement of youth themselves.
3. Ensure policies and legislation that enhance completion of girls’ education and remove systemic and structural barriers that limit attainment of quality education.
Thank you Madam Moderator.