Subtitled "Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States", the report highlights two key thematic areas gender equality and empowerment of women the third MDG and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated.

To improve girls' enrollments, the report said the social and economic obstacles that keep parents from sending their daughters to school must be overcome.

For many poor families, the economic value of girls work at home exceeds the perceived returns to schooling, therefore improving accessibility of schools and their quality and affordability is a first step.
Sub-Saharan Africa countries have some of the largest and smallest gender inequality gaps.

In Kenya, Madagascar, and Tanzania, girls' completion rates are over five percent higher than boys' completion rates, while boys' completion rates are over 10 percent higher in Chad, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Morocco. And in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where large numbers of children are out of school, girls are at a severe disadvantage.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest-performing region, 65 percent of countries are seriously off track and only 8 percent are on track. The report further observed that a huge lag for fragile states, of which 50 percent are seriously off track.

Globally, the primary completion rate in schools has increased from 63 percent in 1990 to an estimated 83 percent in 2005, and the pace of annual improvement has accelerated significantly since 2000 in the three regions furthest from the goal North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa a sign of the increasing priority given in these regions to universalizing primary education.

The number of countries that have achieved universal primary completion increased from 37 in 2000 to 52 in 2005, and this includes some low-income countries: Bolivia, Indonesia, and Kenya.Notwithstanding these very positive trends, the goal of universal primary completion by 2015 will be difficult to reach: 57 of152 developing countries about 38 percentare considered off track meaning that they will not reach the goal on current trends. Most of the 33 countries that lack data are also likely off track. Among African countries, 65 percent are considered seriously off track, defined as unlikely to reach the goal before 2040.

Data from household surveys indicate that the largest gaps in primary completion rates in virtually every developing country are between wealthy and poor populations But gaps between urban and rural populations can also be very large, especially in Africa.

Completion rates for girls also lag behind those of boys in some countries, but in general thanks to strong progress on gender equity in education over the past 15 years these gaps are smaller than those linked to wealth or location.

However, while expansion of primary education coverage tends to be pro-poor, pro-rural, and pro-girls in terms of equalizing access and completion, country experience also shows that specific actions to lower direct and opportunity costs or eliminate discrimination are often needed to keep vulnerable children in school, be they orphan, poor rural or female.

Attaining the MDG number three according to experts will speed up development in the poor countries.
In Ghana, some public officials believe that women hold the key to the nation's health hand total wellbeing.

They say most of the problems encountered especially in the areas of disease control is because a lot of women are not educated.

From:http://allafrica.com/stories/200706111412.html