Toronto – At the conclusion of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, Save the Children welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other G7 leaders’ commitment to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, in response to the recommendations of the Gender Equality Advisory Council. The Prime Minister also announced that Canada will join the Biarritz Partnership on Gender Equality and will invest $179.2 million to support initiatives promoting quality education for women and girls living in crisis, including conflict-affected and fragile states.

These initiatives include several projects focused on supporting girls’ education in some of the highest areas of need in the world, in regions such as northeastern Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali.

Bill Chambers, President and CEO of Save the Children Canada, said:

“Save the Children welcomes the commitments taken this year on gender equality at the G7 Summit, in particular with regard to the need to address education inequalities for women and girls living in crisis and in conflict-affected regions. By putting the spotlight on this issue, G7 leaders are taking action to fulfill their collective commitment initiated in June 2018 through the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries. With these announcements, Canada is turning words into action to remove barriers to gender equality and to ensure equal access to quality education for every last child.”

Pursuing greater gender equality in education remains a necessity in 2019, as 130 million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary-school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa— will never enter a classroom (Source: UNESCO). Save the Children believes that it is critical to directly address gender discrimination and promote gender equality in order to ensure no harm comes to any child regardless of gender, and to advance our vision for a world where children of all genders attain their equal right to survival, protection, development and participation.

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Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In Canada and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.