Global Action Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness and call on governments around the world to keep their promises on the UN Millennium Development Goal of achieving Education for All.
EI firmly believes that governments have the know-how and resources to ensure everyone has the chance to learn and all governments have a responsibility to make sure it happens.
This is why, every year, EI and other founding members of the Global Campaign for Education are joined by millions of students, teachers and activists to take part in simple, but powerful public actions. The reason for focusing on education is because it remains the key to enabling people to actively participate in shaping their lives and quality of outcomes.
Women and Girls’ Education
This year, Global Action Week will take place from 2–8 May on the theme of Women and Girls’ Education– an issue that still sees 1 in 4 women in the world unable to read or write- because we know that girls and women face particular obstacles that hinder them getting an education. They are vulnerable to violence on the way to school and in and around schools, early pregnancy, early marriage, poor health, HIV infection and gendered discrimination in the wider community and at schools.
The theme for Global Action Week 2011 will address the problems that girls and women face in achieving an education, the benefits to the wider community when women are adequately educated and the mechanisms and solutions that can be used to empower female learners across the globe.
The Big Story
The actionfor this year’s campaign will focus on The Big Story of women and girls’ education. EI and GCE are collecting stories from and about the importance of women and girls’ education, and adding them to the international narrative about this important issue. We’ll use these stories to put collective pressure on governments to make sure they keep their promises to women and girls to ensure Education for All.
Global Action Week is a participatory event so if you want to be part of this exciting campaign you can register at www.globalactionweek.org.