G LO B A L E D U C AT I O N M O N I TO R I N G R E P O R T 2 0 1 6 SUMMARY People: inclusive social development S ocial development leads to improvements in human well-being and equality and is compatible with democracy and justice. Education is a powerful enabler, and a key aspect, of social development. It is central to ensuring people can live healthy lives and improve their children’s lives. It can enhance gender equality by empowering vulnerable populations, a majority of whom are girls and women. Education is interlinked with other sectors, just as health, nutrition, water and energy sources are central to education. Children’s health determines their ability to learn, health infrastructure can be used to deliver education, and healthy teachers are indispensable to education sector functioning. Ultimately, a holistic approach to human development is needed to address multidimensional poverty challenges. INCLUSIVE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IS CRITICAL TO SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FOR ALL Inclusive social development requires universal provision of critical services such as education, health, water, sanitation, energy, housing and transport, which is far from the case at present. Despite progress, substantive gender equality also remains elusive in most countries – for example, women do at least twice as much unpaid work as men, and often work in the informal sector. Women do at least twice as much unpaid work as men Inclusive social development demands addressing entrenched marginalization and discrimination against women, people with disabilities, indigenous populations, ethnic and linguistic minorities, refugees and displaced populations, among other vulnerable groups. To change discriminatory norms and empower women and men, education and the knowledge it conveys can be improved to influence values and attitudes. Many groups are marginalized in terms of education access and quality, including racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, pastoralists, slum dwellers, children with HIV, ‘unregistered’ children and orphans. Differences in income, location, ethnicity and gender account for patterns of educational marginalization within countries. Poverty is by far the greatest barrier to education. Among 20- to 24-year-olds in 101 low and middle income countries, the poorest have on average 5 years fewer schooling than the richest; the gap is 2.6 years between urban and rural dwellers, and 1.1 year between women and men. These factors often overlap. For instance, females from poor, ethnically or spatially marginalized backgrounds often fare substantially worse than their male counterparts. In a majority of countries, less than half of poor rural females have basic literacy skills. In countries such as Afghanistan, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Pakistan and South Sudan, where disparities are extreme, the poorest young women have attained less than a single year of schooling. EDUCATION IMPROVES SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES Education can improve social development outcomes across a range of areas, notably health and women’s status. It provides specific skills and knowledge on health and nutrition, changing behaviour in ways that improve medical conditions. In India, Indonesia, Paraguay and the United Republic of Tanzania, poor, less educated patients had access to less competent doctors. School-based interventions, such as meals and health campaigns, can have an immediate impact on health. Conversely, meals in schools may increase attendance. In northern rural Burkina Faso, daily school lunches and a take-home ration increased female enrolment by five to six percentage points after one year. School-based interventions can provide information on health and lead to behavioural change. Many water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in schools improve health and economic and gender equity. In Finland, school meals are viewed as an investment in learning and a way to teach long-lasting eating habits and promote awareness of food choices. 19