Prada and UNESCO are pursuing their cooperation to ensure that every young woman continues learning everywhere. The Keeping Girls Connected activity aims to promote and support girls’ continuity of learning and safe return to school. With this activity, UNESCO is targeting countries in Africa to build back equal through local advocacy for girls’ learning and empowerment as well as girls’ enhanced access to online learning opportunities.
While some countries are progressively reopening schools, many girls are still at risk of losing out on their education in a context where 128 million girls were already out of school before COVID-19. UNESCO has estimated that globally, nearly 24 million learners are at risk of not returning to school in 2020, including over 11 million girls and young women and 5.3 million learners in sub-Saharan Africa alone, where girls are most likely to be affected. And what’s more, some 450 million students have had no access to online learning during school closures.
The initiative follows last year’s campaign, Keeping girls in the picture, launched through UNESCO’s COVID-19 Global Education Coalition. The campaign has been successful at the global level, with projections indicating a potential reach of more than 360 million people.
Prada donated the proceeds from the “Tools of Memory” auction, organised in partnership with Sotheby’s, in support of UNESCO’s COVID-19 Global Education Coalition’s work on girls’ education.
The Global Education Coalition, launched by UNESCO in March 2020 to protect the right to education during the COVID-19 crisis, currently brings together over 150 members. A Gender Flagship was established to address the gender dimensions of COVID-19’s impact on education and safeguard progress made on gender equality in education.
