ENSURING INCLUSIVE, EQUAL AND HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION AND PROMOTING LIFELONG LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

“So let's take up the fight against illiteracy, poverty and terror by picking up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. A child, a teacher, a pen and a book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education is at the beginning of everything. "

Malala Yousafzai, child rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

While most children and young people from Germany go to school every week, around one in six children worldwide cannot go to school.

For the children affected, this means that they have little knowledge and often neither learn to read, write nor do arithmetic. This means that they can only do a low-skilled job later and often earn very little money.

Especially children who live in poverty cannot go to school because they lack the money for tuition and school materials. These children go to work early to support their families. Sometimes there is no school nearby.

This also makes it difficult for them to lift themselves out of poverty. They lack important qualifications and skills.

The low level of education of a population is not only a problem for the people affected, but also for the country as a whole.

If there are no educated and qualified specialists in a country, it can hardly develop further and grow economically sustainably on its own.

Even if many children can go to school, more than half of them can still not read and arithmetic properly. This is often because schools and teachers are poorly equipped. Because while schools in Germany are increasingly working with computers and technology, almost half of the schools south of the Sahara have no access to drinking water, no electricity, no computers and no internet. In addition, there is a lack of qualified teachers to impart knowledge to the students.

( www.17ziel.de )

"Women who are better educated choose a life with smaller families (fewer children) and higher average incomes and thus have a strong influence on the dynamics of population growth and the economic performance of the countries in which they live"

(Education First !, Berlin Institute for Population and Development)

ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPLOY ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS FOR SELF-DETERMINATION

"A society in which girls and young women can reach their full intellectual, social and political potential is at the same time a safe, healthy and prosperous society."

Julia Gillard, Former Prime Minister of Australia

Gender equality is advancing in the world. Women in particular are gaining more and more rights and living more and more self-determined.

Nevertheless, around every sixth woman in a relationship has experienced physical or sexual violence from her partner. Almost half of women who are married or in a partnership state that they are not free to choose their sex life or the use of contraception and health services. They are dependent on their partner and are not allowed to make free decisions.

Female circumcision is also still a problem around the world. Although this practice is mostly limited to around 30 countries, around every third woman is affected there.

In some countries women do not enjoy legal protection either, as there are no laws against discrimination or violence against women. There they have no chance of escaping discrimination, violence and exploitation.

Furthermore, women spend three times as much time as men looking after children or old people and doing housework. They don't get paid for it, which means they have less time to work and educate. Women often lose their independence and are financially dependent on other people.

At the same time, there are more and more women in leadership positions and parliaments worldwide. Every fourth member of national parliaments worldwide is a woman, and around 27 percent of management positions worldwide are held by women.

( www.17ziel.de )

REDUCING INEQUALITY IN AND BETWEEN COUNTRIES

"If you were to increase the wealth of the lower half to 1.5 or two percent, you would have achieved as much for the poor as you would have achieved with 30 years of growth, and that without exceeding the planetary limits."

Thomas Pogge, professor of philosophy

All are equal before the law. This means that we all have the same rights, for example the right to a self-determined life.

This also means that we should all have the same opportunities, for example in access to education and health care as well as social and economic participation. However, many people are denied this because they are affected by poverty.

Poverty has many faces and inequality goes hand in hand with it.

For example, 264 million children and young people have no access to education - that is almost twice as many children as there are in the whole of Europe.

Health care is also not a matter of course for everyone, just like equality between men and women.

Wealth in the form of capital, resources and real estate is also unevenly distributed around the world. More than a third of the world's wealth belongs to 1 percent of the richest people, and the remaining wealth is distributed unequally and unfairly among the remaining 99 percent of the world's population.

Within and between countries, economic inequality is still high, and in many countries the proportion of income that goes to the richest 1 percent is increasing. At the same time, however, most countries have seen an increase in the income of the poorest 40 percent of the world's population.

(www.17ziel.de)