Programmes > Regions

Specific information about work in the following regions can be found by clicking these links:

Africa
Asia

Snapshot - Universal Primary Education

Performance in many countries shows what can be achieved, even in relatively short periods of time. Enrolment rates of school-age children of over 90% have been achieved in Cape Verde, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Enrolments in Uganda, Malawi and Mauritania have doubled in five years

Snapshot - Gender (Girls out of School)

Some countries have demonstrated very clearly that improvements are possible. Guinea has sustained a 12% annual growth in the enrolment of girls for over a decade. The experience of Guinea, cited in A Better World for All is instructive. Guinea managed to double the percentage of girls enrolled in school over the period 1991-98. It did so by taking action to redress discrimination, and to cater for the particular needs of girls; for example, by providing separate latrines. But the key lesson is that this was done consciously as an integral part of the government's education policy.

In Asia, Bangladesh has improved the girl- boy ratio from 40:60 to 49:51 in under 20 years.

In South and West Asia, while there are still nearly 50 million children out of school, primary enrolment is approaching 75%, and the demographic picture is less daunting. In India, for example, the school age population is projected to remain at about the current level, but the proportion of the population that is economically active will increase, thus reducing the dependency ratio, and potentially making more resources available for education.