I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4508 
To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under 
the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 
Mr. JEFFRIES (for himself and Mrs. WAGNER) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani 
women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 
Program. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Malala Yousafzai 
Scholarship Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) In late 2008, Malala Yousafzai began mak-
ing the case for access to education for women and 
girls despite objections from the Pakistani Taliban. 
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On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot in the head by 
Pakistani Taliban on her way home from school. 
(2) In 2013, Malala Yousafzai and her father 
Ziauddin Yousafzai co-founded the Malala Fund. 
The Malala Fund works to secure twelve years of 
free, safe, and quality education for all girls. Com-
pletion of a full twelve-year cycle of primary and sec-
ondary education ensures a pipeline of girls able to 
pursue higher education. 
(3) On July 12, 2013, Malala delivered a 
speech before the United Nations General Assembly 
calling for expanded access to education for women 
and girls across the globe. She said, ‘‘[L]et us wage 
a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and 
terrorism. Let us pick up our books and our pens. 
They are the most powerful weapons . . . Education 
is the only solution.’’. 
(4) On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai be-
came the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 
her ‘‘struggle against the suppression of children 
and young people and for the right of all children to 
education’’. 
(5) According to the United Nations 2016 
Global Education Monitoring Report, more than 130 
million girls worldwide are out of school. 15 million 
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girls of primary-school age will never enter a class-
room. As of 2016, at least 500 million adult women 
across the globe are illiterate. 
(6) According to the World Bank, ‘‘Girls’ edu-
cation is a strategic development priority. Better 
educated women tend to be healthier, participate 
more in the formal labor market, earn higher in-
comes, . . . marry at a later age, and enable better 
health care and education for their children, should 
they choose to become mothers. All these factors 
combined can help lift households, communities, and 
nations out of poverty.’’. 
(7) In 2015, all United Nations Member States, 
including the United States, adopted quality edu-
cation, including access to higher education, and 
gender equality as sustainable development goals to 
be attained by 2030. One of the education goal tar-
gets is to ‘‘ensure equal access for all women and 
men to affordable and quality technical, vocational 
and tertiary education, including university’’. 
(8) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary 
Rodham Clinton stated, ‘‘We will open the doors of 
education to all citizens, but especially to girls and 
women . . . We are doing all of these things because 
we have seen that when women and girls have the 
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tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to con-
tribute to their families’’ well-being, they flourish 
and so do the people around them. 
(9) In February 2019, the White House 
launched the Women’s Global Development and 
Prosperity Initiative to advance women’s economic 
empowerment across the globe and reach more than 
100,000 women. 
(10) The World Economic Forum ranks Paki-
stan the second lowest among all countries in the 
world evaluated for gender equality. On educational 
attainment for women, Pakistan is ranked the tenth 
lowest. 
(11) In Pakistan, the rate of higher education 
enrollment beyond high school for girls and women 
is just 9 percent as reported by the World Bank. 
The global rate is 40 percent. Less than 6 percent 
of women 25 and older in Pakistan attain a bach-
elor’s degree or equivalent as of 2016. 
(12) According to the World Bank, ‘‘Higher 
education benefits both individuals and society. Eco-
nomic returns for college graduates are the highest 
in the entire educational system—an average 17 per-
cent increase in earnings per year of schooling as 
compared with 10 percent for primary school.’’. 
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(13) The United States provides critical foreign 
assistance to Pakistan’s education sector to improve 
access to and the quality of basic and higher edu-
cation. Since 2010, the United States Agency for 
International Development (referred to in this Act 
as ‘‘USAID’’) has awarded more than 6,000 scholar-
ships for young women to receive higher education 
in Pakistan. 
(14) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 
Program administered by USAID awards scholar-
ships to academically talented, financially needy 
Pakistani students from all regions, including female 
students from rural areas of the country, to pursue 
bachelor’s or master’s degrees at participating Paki-
stani universities. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) every individual should have the opportunity 
to pursue a full cycle of primary, secondary, and 
higher education; 
(2) every individual, regardless of gender, 
should have the opportunity to pursue an education 
without fear of discrimination; 
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(3) educational exchanges promote institutional 
linkages between the United States and Pakistan; 
and 
(4) recipients of scholarships referred to in sec-
tion 4 should commit to improving their local com-
munities. 
(b) CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL INITIA-
TIVES IN PAKISTAN.—Congress encourages the Depart-
ment of State and USAID to continue their support for 
initiatives led by the Government of Pakistan and civil so-
ciety that promote education in Pakistan, especially edu-
cation for women, in accordance with USAID’s 2018 Edu-
cation Policy. 
SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The USAID Administrator shall 
award at least 50 percent of the number of scholarships 
under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program 
(referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Program’’) to women for 
each of the calendar years 2020 through 2022. 
(b) LIMITATIONS.— 
(1) 
CRITERIA.—The 
scholarships 
available 
under subsection (a) may only be awarded in accord-
ance with other scholarship eligibility criteria already 
established by USAID. 
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(2) ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES.—Scholarships au-
thorized under subsection (a) shall be awarded for a 
range of disciplines to improve the employability of 
graduates and to meet the needs of the scholarship 
recipients. 
(3) OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS.—The USAID Ad-
ministrator shall make every effort to award 50 per-
cent of the scholarships available under the Program 
to Pakistani women. 
(c) LEVERAGING INVESTMENT.—The USAID Ad-
ministrator shall, to the greatest extent practicable, con-
sult with and leverage investments by the Pakistani pri-
vate sector and Pakistani diaspora communities in the 
United States as part of USAID’s greater effort to im-
prove the quality of, expand access to, and ensure sustain-
ability of education programs in Pakistan. 
SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The USAID Administrator shall 
designate appropriate USAID officials to brief the appro-
priate congressional committees, not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 
thereafter for the next 3 years, on the implementation of 
section 4. 
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(b) CONTENTS.—The briefing described in subsection 
(a) shall include, among other relevant information, for 
the most recently concluded fiscal year— 
(1) the total number of scholarships that were 
awarded through the Program, including a break-
down by gender; 
(2) the disciplines of study chosen by the schol-
arship recipients; 
(3) the percentage of the scholarships that were 
awarded to students seeking a bachelor’s degree or 
a master’s degree, respectively; 
(4) the percentage of scholarship recipients who 
voluntarily dropped out of school or were involun-
tarily pushed out of the program for failure to meet 
program requirements; and 
(5) the percentage of scholarship recipients who 
dropped out of school due to retaliation for seeking 
an education, to the extent that such information is 
available. 
Æ 
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