Gender inequalities in education are greatest in the poorest countries amongst the poorest wealth quintiles, and widen during adolescence. Adolescent girls face specific challenges to staying in school and learning. In many contexts, as girls approach puberty, their opportunities can shrink compared to those of their brothers’, underpinned by harmful gender norms which may impose restrictions on their mobility. Girls and young women also face a disproportionate burden of domestic work, and face greater risk of violence, including sexual violence

Gram Vikas Trust’s Girls’ Education Programme started in 2009, aiming to support over a hundred of the poorest girls to improve their lives through education. The GVT supports initiatives which aim to find better ways of getting girls into school and ensuring they receive a quality of education to transform their future. This initiative will support interventions for highly marginalized, adolescent girls who are out of school (either because they have never attended school, or have already dropped out of school without gaining a basic education) to (re-) enroll in education, gain employment or improve the quality of their family lives. In order to achieve this interventions should be focused on the acquisition of basic education and skills, tackling social and gender norms, and testing sustainable solutions that can provide systemic change.