Commonwealth Secretariat
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  2. What We Do
    1. Mitigating the Impact of HIV/AIDS
    2. Universal Primary Education
    3. Eliminating Gender Disparities
    4. Supporting Education in Difficult Circumstances
    5. Improving Quality in Education
    6. Overcoming Geographical Barriers
    7. Collaborative Partnerships
    8. Working Group on Teacher Recruitment
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    1. 16CCEM - Cape Town Communiqué
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Eliminating Gender Disparities

The 15CCEM Action Area on eliminating gender disparity in education is also a Millennium Development Goal.

School girlsThe Education for All initiatives recognised gender equality as separate from gender disparity by making a clear distinction between the two in goal V of its Dakar declarations:  “Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement of good quality education.”

The target for this MDG was 2005, but with girls still lagging behind boys in both access and retention at primary and secondary school levels globally and much more so within the Commonwealth, this has not been attained.

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s education section engages with education policy makers through targeted programmes of action in education to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary schooling.

We work with partners in the field to employ innovative Non-formal education strategies including use of local languages in empowering rural women.

We also work in collaboration with partners such as UNESCO to inform member countries on trends in gender disparities in primary and secondary schooling.

EXPLORE Eliminating Gender Disparities