To become agents for change, women must have equal access to educational opportunities. Literacy of women is key to improved health, nutrition, and education, and to the empowerment of women as full participants in decision making in society. Investment in formal and nonformal education and training for girls and women, with its exceptionally high social and economic return, has proved to be one of the best means of achieving sustainable development and economic growth. Every person must have access to basic education and other essential services. Without such access, the poor in particular, and their children, will have little opportunity to improve their economic status or to participate fully in society.
Education is key to improving the status of women.
On the basis of this preliminary analysis, the extent of a project s GAD potential can be evaluated. For example in industrializing DMCs, or in modern urban areas within DMCs, women may benefit most from projects that include strategies to increase female enrollment at the senior secondary and higher educational levels, particularly in technical and nontraditional career areas for women. In DMCs or in areas within them that have a predominantly rural population, projects that focus on the primary education of girls, nonformal education in rural and small community settings, literacy classes, and distance education may be the most beneficial to women. Textbooks and curriculum improvement Projects focused on textbooks and curriculum improvement should aim to remove gender stereotypes in the content and images of textbooks. Training of female teachers GAD issues in the education sector focus on girls and women not only as students but also as members of the educational profession.