UK government and global businesses in new £20 million partnership to educate girls in developing countries
On International Women’s Day 2022, Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched a new £20 million business partnership as the UK continues to lead global efforts to improve girls’ access to education in developing countries.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of children did not have any access to school – and girls from disadvantaged families are particularly vulnerable to missing out on education, whether through poverty or prejudice. The pandemic has created even more barriers to education, with a peak of 1.6 billion children around the world having faced school closures.
In the UK’s first education partnership of its kind, the UK government is joining forces with the private sector to boost girls’ access to education in developing countries. Partners include Unilever, Pearson, PwC, Microsoft, Accenture, Standard Chartered, United Bank for Africa, Coursera, Vodafone, BP and Cognizant. The UK Government will be working in partnership with UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited (GenU) to help deliver the programme, with key partners funding GenU being Accenture, Standard Chartered, Unilever, Microsoft, and United Bank for Africa.