The campaign will  benefit about 700,000 students who currently participate in WFP’s school feeding program. Children will receive tablets to deter intestinal worms, which rob undernourished children of necessary nutrients and inhibit their growth. Deworming involves providing each child with one deworming tablet per year to eradicate an active infection or prevent eggs from turning into an active infection.

In addition to deworming tablets, children will receive a vitamin nutritional supplement to improve overall health. The campaign will also attempt to raise awareness among students and teachers of the 2,000 participating schools to promote health, nutrition, and good eating habits.

WFP has helped provide a hot meal each day to 685,000 children in Haiti during 2012-2013 the school year. They currently serve school meals in 60 countries to around 22 million children.  WFP school meals are usually provided at breakfast or lunch, or as a high-energy snack. Some students also receive take-home rations to compensate families for the cost of sending children to school. In 2012, 1.3 million girls and 500,000 boys recieved take-home rations from WFP.

School feeding has been shown to improve students’ concentration and attendance rates while supporting local farmers and tackling malnutrition and family food insecurity. The program also benefits girls, who are often typically excluded from schooling, by providing an incentive for families to send their daughters to school.

“We have a proverb in Haiti”, explains Danielle Selicour, the headmistress of the Joseph et Bertha Wigfall School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, “‘Sak vid pa kanpe’, which means an empty sack cannot stand up. By this we mean that when your stomach is empty you are not able to do anything. I have worked at this school for over 36 years and we have been receiving WFP school meals for as long as I can remember.  But it is not just the food that is important; it is also the health of the school children. The parents here are really happy because for the first time since the earthquake we are also giving deworming medications. This improves the children’s health as well as providing them with a hot meal at school.”

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The panel, echoing previous calls for higher education reform in Myanmar, targeted tertiary education as a necessary step in solidifying both a democratic transition, and better educational performance. Kamal Ahmad, founder of the Asian University for Women, based in Bangladesh, argued “You have to have a decent secondary education. You to have a decent higher education because where will the teachers come from? Who will develop the curriculum? Who will provide leadership?” A focus on higher education is aimed to ameliorate the “lost generation” created by the junta’s repression of schools and especially universities.

Also at issue is the persistent problem of gender discrimination in Myanmar schools, where women are held to higher entrance standards than men. One young woman reported that “To go to the Institute of Medicine, girls have to score higher than boys. A girl needs to reach 420 out of 500 points [on the entrance exam]. Boys can get accepted if they have only 390 to 400 points.”

There are international funding efforts to assist Myanmar’s educational system. Last month, the World Bank renewed its development commitment to Myanmar. The commitment “includes funding of around $200 million… to help Myanmar make progress towards MDGs [the UN’s Millennium Development Goals]” including education, said Word Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

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Literacy programs for Afghan security forces began in 2009 to complement the US-led military instruction. Since then, literacy programs have qualified 233,600 students at first-grade level, 98,700 at second-grade level, and 76,800 at third-grade level. “Literate forces are easier to train, more capable and effective, and better able to understand human rights and the rule of law,” the Inspector General’s report added. “Further, literate soldiers and police can account for equipment and weapons by completing paperwork and reading serial numbers.”

The CIA estimates that the literacy rate among Afghan men stands at 43.1 per cent (just 12.6 per cent among women)—low numbers despite recent improvements in school facilities and girls’ education. The US had intended to hand the programs over to Afghans by the end of the year, but the report says that the Afghan government and ministries have been “slow to fulfill their stated commitments.” The International Security Assistance Force says that NATO forces are now keeping tighter controls on funding for the programs, and with improved oversight have saved some $19 million.

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This is a step forward for Uganda, which ranks among the lowest nations in the United Nations Development Programe human development rankings. And though getting students into class is a starting point, some are stressing that quality is more important than quantity. “If we are seeing both sexes at par, how many of those can read and write?” asked MP Rosemary Sseninde. “I think we must appreciate that we are making strides. We are determined to address all the challenges, like improving facilities, access to scholastic materials and ensuring that classrooms are not overcrowded,” said Jessica Alupo, Uganda’s Education Minister.

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Lashari says that sex education was the villagers’ idea. Parents are informed of the curriculum before enrollment, and none has objected yet, according to Lashari. The lessons also cover issues of marriage, including marital rape. “Our teacher has told us everything that we’ll have to do when we get married. Now we’ve learned what we should do and what we should not,” said Sajida Baloch, 16. In Pakistan, where marital rape is not a recognized crime, teaching the girls about the problem is a novel idea. “We tell them their husband can’t have sex with them if they are not willing,” Lashari said.

Sex education remains a largely taboo topic in Pakistan—Arshad Javed, a doctor in Lahore who has written three books on sex education says he sells 7,000 copies every year, but that none are bought by schools. “It is against our constitution and religion,” said Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, representing 152,000 schools nationwide. “What’s the point of knowing about a thing you’re not supposed to do? It should not be allowed at school level,” he claimed. However, according Tahir Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema council alliance of moderate clerics, “If the teachers are female, they can give such information to girls within the limits of sharia law.”

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The program was abruptly halted when teachers went on strike in January after not being paid, leaving children without schools once again. The teachers were promised a salary of $200 a month but had only received $300 since the program first launched in September, resulting in a strike impacting 50,000 primary school children at the 12 new schools established through the campaign.

This is not the first time the new program has faced challenges. The initiative, which aimed to enroll one million children in its first year, got off to a slow start after a lackluster marketing campaign. It also faced criticism from teachers after the government failed to deliver a national curriculum to be used as a basis for instruction. In addition, parents and teachers voiced safety concerns after the country’s al-Qaida militant group warned that the schools were legitimate targets for attack.

Despite the challenges, many agreed that the program was providing hope for the many Somali families that could not afford private school tuition. In June of 2013, the first national education conference was held in Mogadishu where the Somali prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon, promised that the government would give education the same priority as defense, asserting that  it was the constitutional right of each child to receive education free of charge.

The Go 2 School program was launched in September with much excitement at public ceremonies in Mogadishu, Garowe and Hargeisa. UNICEF continues to urge funders to support the Go 2 School campaign, while Maryan Qasim, former Minister for Human Services and Public Services in Somalia, urged teachers to have patience with the government and commence their teaching duties.

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There are more than 3.8 girls in Pakistan who are out of school, and those in school are more likely to drop out than boys. The program’s goal is to reduce the gender gap between girls and boys—which currently stands at 10 per cent—down to five per cent within three years. A 2002 study, the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, found that a huge disparity in access to education between boys and girls: 34 percent of sampled rural areas reported no access to a girls’ primary school, compared to 15 per cent for boys.

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The UNFPA’s report, entitled State of the World Population 2013: Motherhood in Childhood, has found that while adolescent pregnancy is a significant issue in developed countries, the biggest challenge comes in tackling the problem in the developing world. Young girls in developing countries often suffer health complications during pregnancy, and are at twice the risk of pregnancy-related death or disability as older women.

Other consequences of early pregnancy often include the end to a girl’s education. Pregnant girls often face social stigma and are forced to leave school, or leave of their own volition during pregnancy or childbirth and never return to continue their education. This not only impacts young women’s future employment prospects and economic earning potential, but on a widespread scale can actually affect the GDP of nations.

The UNFPA’s report cites the example of India, where, if the country’s adolescent mothers had been able to delay pregnancy until their early 20s, an additional $7.7 billion in economic productivity could have been added to the economy.

According to Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA’s Executive Director, society often blames adolescent girls for choosing to become pregnant, however in reality, the cause is an “absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control. It is a consequence of little or no access to school, employment, quality information, and healthcare.”

To tackle the problem of early pregnancy, the UNFPA recommends a “holistic” approach that includes adjusting the general attitudes and actions of a society. Specific recommendations include supporting girls’ education, preventing child marriage, increasing access to sex education and contraception, promoting gender equality, and providing support to adolescent mothers.

The UNFPA’s full report can be found here.

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The Ethiopia-based ACPF investigated and reported on the trends of 52 African governments since 2008, focusing on 44 indicators measuring child protection, provision for children’s basic needs, and participation of children in decisions that affect them. South Africa, Tunisia, and Mauritius topped the list of most child-friendly countries, having put in place child protection laws that resulted in better outcomes for their young citizens. Chad, Eritrea, and the Central African Republic were last, and ranked among the worst places for children to grow up.

According to former Mozambican president Joaqim Chissano, one of the greatest gains for African children over the last five years has been in education. “Achievements on the education front- and particularly the dramatic increase in access to primary education, especially for girls- are commendable,” he said in the report. However, he noted that secondary school enrollment for girls remains low, limiting access to university education and many employment opportunities.

Additionally, researchers noted no clear association between a country’s wealth and its child-friendliness score. Several countries with a low GDP per capita, like Rwanda and Lesotho, outscored others with a higher GDP per capita, like Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

According to researchers a government’s commitment to enforcing child-friendly policy was more important for children’s wellbeing than a country’s wealth.

“It is a matter of political commitment, manifested primarily in a government’s willingness to put children at the top of the policy agenda and prioritize budgets accordingly,” the report said.

Moving forward, the report recommends that African governments to continue to invest in health, education, and child protection, as well as ensure their own accountability and good governance.

The 2013 African Report on Child Wellbeing can be found here.

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Before the fall of the Taliban government, almost no girls attended school in Afghanistan. Today 40% of the country’s students are female. The educational situation is improving as a whole: the total number of students has risen from one million to 8.3 million, and the first national curriculum in 30 years has been established.

Despite these encouraging advances, education is still an unattainable dream for too many Afghani girls. According to Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, there are still “many millions of girls who are not in school across the country.” Many millions, he notes, “who are not able to say… I want to be a doctor.”

Additionally, many school districts have problems finding qualified female teachers. And as girls enter high school, they are often at risk of dropping out due to social, cultural, and family pressure.

Beth Murphy, reporting to the Global Post about a visit to a girls’ school in Kabul province, notes that going to school is still risky for many students. In the past few months, six attacks against schoolgirls have taken place, including a bomb explosion, mass poisonings, and a school that was set on fire.

“There is a difficult question being asked here,” she says. “Can the hard-won gains be sustained at a time when Taliban power is growing?”

Experts also fear for the stability of the region as 2014 brings several major changes. With a large-scale international military withdrawal and a presidential election scheduled for early 2014, some worry that the political climate could shift and that some of Afghanistan’s progress will be lost.

Shaima Alkozai, deputy principal at a girls’ school in Kabul wonders, “What will be the future for women? Will their situation improve or become worse? It doesn’t matter to us if we have to wear a burka or not. But we want to continue with education.”

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