EMBARGOED TO
22:30 GMT FRIDAY 15TH JANUARY
The Prime Minister has appointed as his new Special Envoy on Girls’ Education,
leading the UK’s efforts internationally to ensure all girls get
12 years of quality education.
Mrs Grant is the Member of Parliament for Maidstone and the Weald
and is a passionate advocate for the rights of women and girls.
Before entering Parliament, Helen was a solicitor for 23 years,
specialising in protecting women and children from domestic
abuse. Since becoming an MP in 2010 she has been a champion of
gender equality in Parliament, and has previously served as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Women and
Equality.
As Special Envoy, she will champion the UK’s global expertise on
education and secure backing for ambitious initiatives to get 40
million more girls in primary and secondary school in developing
countries by 2025 and improve learning levels, so girls can
achieve their full potential.
Empowering women and girls through education is a long-standing
priority for the Prime Minister, and will be a key focus for the
UK’s G7 presidency in 2021.
We will also co-host the Global Partnership for Education summit
with Kenya in the UK later this year, bringing governments,
business and civil society together to channel investment and
action into getting children around the world into school and
learning.
Prime Minister said:
“It is my fervent belief that educating girls is the simplest and
most transformative thing we can do to lift communities out of
poverty, end the scourge of gender-based violence and build back
better from the pandemic. It can change the fortunes of not just
individual women and girls, but communities and nations.”
“That’s why I am delighted to appoint Helen Grant as my Special
Envoy on Girls’ Education today to drive forward the UK’s vital
work in this area.”
Coronavirus has made the work of the Special Envoy more important
than ever, with 1.6 billion children and young people out of
education around the world at the peak of school closures. Unless
vulnerable children are supported to continue learning during the
pandemic and to return to school once restrictions are lifted, we
will set back decades of progress.
The benefits of educating girls are enormous - a child whose
mother can read is 50 per cent more likely to live past the age
of five and twice as likely to attend school themselves. With
just one additional school year, a woman’s earnings can increase
by up to a fifth.
Special Envoy for Girls’ Education, Helen Grant said:
“It is an honour to be appointed as the Prime Minister’s Envoy on
Girls’ Education and to have the opportunity to lead the UK’s
important international outreach on this issue.
“Ensuring all girls get 12 years of quality education is rightly
a priority for the Government. High quality female education
empowers women, reduces poverty and unleashes economic growth.
“I will be making it my mission to encourage a more ambitious
approach to girls’ education from the international community as
we seek to build back better from the Covid crisis.”
The UK has been playing a leading role in championing every
girls’ right to 12 years of quality education. Since 2015, we
have supported 15.6 million children, including over 8 million
girls, to get a decent education.
In Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, for example, the UK’s Girls
Education Challenge has helped over 260,000 girls from poor
communities to stay in secondary school with learning, mentoring
and skills training and financial support to buy uniforms and
stationary.
Helen Grant will start in her new role as Girls’ Education Envoy
with immediate effect. She will continue in her existing role as
the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria.
