UNICEF aiming to get more girls into school

Ethiopia and Eritrea are to be targeted in a major initiative aimed at getting girls into schools, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced. The two are part of 25 countries targeted by UNICEF to meet the 2005 Millenium Development Goals of having the same numbers of boys and girls in schools. Tuesday's announcement came a day before UNICEF head Carol Bellamy was due to arrive in Ethiopia to assess the drought that has hit the country. Her trip is part of a five-nation tour looking at child immunisation rates, children orphaned by AIDS, the education gap for girls, and the drought crisis in the Horn. The education campaign focuses on countries where girls are furthest behind. In Africa, these also include the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. “It is our commitment that no girl will be left behind as her country attempts to move forward, and that every girl will be educated to assume her rightful place as an agent in her country’s development,” Bellamy said on the eve of her trip to Ethiopia. Ethiopia has one of the poorest enrolment rates for girls anywhere in the world despite a government campaign to increase attendance. During her visit to Ethiopia, Bellamy will travel to Afar – one of the worst affected regions hit by the drought. Tens of thousands of cattle have died and malnutrition rates in some areas have reached 30 percent. In her statement released by UNICEF in Addis Ababa, Bellamy added that by failing to get girls into schools, human development was threatened. UNICEF aims to work alongside national governments in the 25 countries to target girls who are not in school. It will then help build a “national consensus” about the need to get the girls into school.