The U.S. Agency for International Development has just announced a policy to guide U.S. investments in the education of foreign children. Here’s the critical piece: The new policy stresses Americans’ commitment to the world’s most marginalized children, including girls, who are too often left behind when it comes to learning.
It was in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy transformed the many disjointed and disparate foreign assistance organizations into one overarching agency. USAID was the result. The goal was to not only take our economic obligation as “the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people” seriously, but to do so in a way that consistently reflected the highest and noblest American values.
One of our core values is the importance of education, humanity’s great enabler, and the idea that all children deserve access to that surest path to success. Sadly, too many young people across the globe are growing up amid geopolitical crisis, violence, and displacement. For them, survival is a greater priority than learning. The result: lost generations of students, and lost opportunities.
This becomes an epic tragedy for individual communities or entire nations. Whole peoples’ potential to flourish in an increasingly technological, knowledge-based world is never realized. Abysmal ignorance translates into abysmal poverty and more insecurity and crisis. The cycle is poisonous.
The sheer numbers are appalling. Worldwide, more than 300 million children between five and 17 do not attend school. That’s one out of every five children. One consequence: More than 100 million youth are illiterate. And, even when young people are in school, they are not achieving proficiency in math or reading. That’s right, 600 million children and adolescents worldwide failing to meet proficiency levels.
Labor force participation becomes difficult or even impossible when young people don’t measure up academically. It should come as no surprise that working age youth are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. For young women, the problem is even worse, with only 37 percent employed globally. Adolescent girls face the greatest challenges due to their minority status, child marriage, forced marriage, and traditional attitudes that disdain education for females.
USAID’s new policy provides for the formation of human capital in foreign countries through education by partnering with governments and nonstate actors alike. Specifically, taxpayer-funded U.S. aid will go to groups that are already working with the poorest and most vulnerable. These groups include faith-based organizations like Christian non-profits and missionary societies. Very often these are the only groups making an effort to educate children in refugee camps or war-torn areas. And nongovernmental organizations like Save the Children can be counted on to treat girls equitably, something the host country’s education systems too often fail to do.
As much as USAID’s new policy will improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people and their societies, investing in the education of foreign young people is also a sound investment in America’s future. When other countries and regions become more stable, resilient, and prosperous, security threats and violence diminish. Instead of spending tax dollars addressing extremism, migration, and unrest, the United States can reap the financial benefits of increasing international security and accelerated economic growth abroad.
Even without the added incentive of advancing U.S. foreign policy goals, helping to educate the globe’s marginalized and vulnerable children is something that all good-hearted Americans can celebrate.
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a policy advisor with The Catholic Association.
