U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will join United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova at the launching in Paris of a new global initiative that advances the education of women and girls.
Clinton and Ban are due to deliver opening remarks at today’s launch of the Better Life, Better Future partnership, which will also feature a keynote speech from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The event is expected to also be attended by Malian Prime Minister Kaïdama Sidibé and the Aga Khan, founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network Foundation, as well as representatives from organizations that are participating in the initiative, such as Nokia, Procter and Gamble, GEMS Education, Microsoft and the Packard Foundation.
“Globally, some 39 million girls of lower secondary age are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education, while two thirds of the world’s 796 million illiterate adults are women,” UNESCO noted in a March 26 news release. “Only about one third of countries have achieved gender parity at secondary level. “
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