UNICEF to launch initiative to get West and Central African girls into school

Heading to Burkina Faso to launch an initiative to give more young females in West and Central Africa access to a quality education, the chief of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called on leaders to focus "as a matter of extreme urgency" on schooling girls.

"Hopes of improving education in this part of Africa have been shattered by a devastating set of social and economic ills, coupled with internal conflicts in several countries," Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "As a result, so too are the hopes of any sustainable development. Educating girls is a proven way to revive these hopes."

President Blaise Compaore is expected to join Ms. Bellamy during the launch in Ouagadougou of the "25 by 2005" Girls' Education initiative. Eight countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria - are included in this regional initiative.

The effort to get and keep girls in school in the region is undermined in several countries by acute poverty, ongoing conflict and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, UNICEF said, calling on donors and governments in the region to assign greater weight to the role of education and to invest far more in girls' schooling.

The agency said by making education more accessible to girls, countries take a decisive step in fulfilling the right of all children - both girls and boys - to receive a quality basic education.

The regional launch is part of UNICEF's global initiative to accelerate progress on getting more girls into school in 25 countries by the year 2005. UNICEF is working closely with these countries to help them achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal of reaching gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005.