Empower 1.5 Million Girls to go to School

Solution Pitch

The Problem

In India gender remains a persistent barrier to education with 4.1 million girls out of school.  The country is home to the largest population of illiterate women in the world, counting over 200 million, and ranks 135 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s Education Index.  

The Solution

Educate Girls (EG) aims to solve this problem by enrolling up to 1.5 million out-of-school girls back in school by 2024. EG employs a holistic, community based program model focused on improving the enrollment, retention and learning outcomes of out-of-school girls. EG’s program is hinged around its community volunteers called Team Balika who are trained to conduct program activities on the ground with the field staff. EG uses a geo-tagged tech-based monitoring system to collect, aggregate, and report on program performance, informing actionable targets and resource allocation. 

EG works in over 50,000 schools across 18,000 villages in India and plans to expand to 35,000 villages by 2024. In partnership with the State Governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, EG has enrolled 800,000 out of school girls and improved learning outcomes for 1.3 million children through its curriculum. Over 11 million children have benefited from improved school governance & infrastructure. 

Stats 

To date, Educate Girls has enrolled 800,000 out-of-school-girls in India. 

Market Opportunity

The governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are investing heavily in education, with more than 7 billion committed between the three states to primary and higher education in 2020. EG currently operates in 18,000+ villages in these states. Using advanced analytics to pinpoint hotspot villages with the highest concentration of out-of-school girls, EG plans to expand its program across 35,000 villages by 2024, benefiting 15 million children cumulatively. 

Organization Highlights

Some of Educate Girls’ notable achievements include:

• In 2019, Educate Girls was the first organization in Asia to be chosen as one of TED’s Audacious Projects

• Educate Girls’ Founder & Executive Director Safeena Husain spoke at TED 2019 on her plans to empower out-of-school girls in India 

• Educate Girls successfully implemented the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education in partnership with UBS Optimus Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation in Bhilwara, Rajistan

• Featured in Business Standard, Tech Crunch, Business Insider, Fast Company, Forbes, and more

Partnership Goals

Educate Girls currently seeks:

• Funding to expand its activities across 35,000 villages in India, enrolling up to 1.5 million girls in school and benefitting 15 million children overall by 2024

• Strategic marketing and communications support to build a global brand and reach millions of girls worldwide

• Connections to cross-sector leaders with experience in international development, philanthropy, media, advocacy and finance to serve on its board and promote its mission of gender equity and girls’ education