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Pakistan's deteriorating education system has radicalised many young people while failing to equip them with the skills necessary for a modern economy. The public, government-run schools, which educate the vast majority of children poorly rather than the madrasas (religious seminaries) or the elite private schools are where significant reforms and an increase in resources are most needed to reverse the influence of jihadi groups, reduce risks of internal conflict and diminish the widening fissures in Pakistani society. Both the government and donors urgently need to need give this greater priority.
Achieving gender equality and women’s rights depends on transformative change that uproots discriminatory policies, norms and practices, wherever they lie. This is the high ambition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the promise of the Beijing Platform for Action, agreed at the Fourth World Conference on Women more than two decades ago.