Leave No Girl Behind: updating our commitments to the most marginalised girls

As part of the second phase of the Girls’ Education Challenge, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office committed ‘Leave No Girl Behind’ funding with the aim of reaching up to 190,000 highly marginalised girls and supporting essential interventions to provide literacy, numeracy and skills relevant for life and work. This document provides an update on the commitments we made in 2018. Where are the Leave No Girl Behind projects working? What are they doing? What progress and achievements have been made? It also takes a closer look at one cohort of these girls: those with disabilities. Disability has emerged as one of the most critical areas of marginalisation. Most projects discovered at an early stage that support was needed for more girls with disabilities than they had anticipated. At the Global Disability Summit 2022, donors, governments and NGOs will be focusing on disability inclusion, particularly in education. This document offers some of the lessons that have already been learned by project staff and communities, often working in challenging contexts. We hope it provides some valuable insights for policy and decision makers who want to build on the GEC’s work to help girls with disabilities grow in confidence and learn.