Significant challenges remain to be faced in ensuring that girls around the globe receive a quality education. At Harvard’s Askwith Forum, on March 31, 2016, WISE Prize for Education Laureate Dr. Sakena Yacoobi delivered a keynote address on girls’ education from a practitioner’s perspective. Dr. Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, discussed the issue within the context of international development efforts. They then participated in a panel discussion with Harvard’s Advanced Learning Initiative faculty.

In her speech, Dr. Yacoobi addresses the range of constraints that girls and women must overcome in order to gain access to quality education in Afghanistan. Dr. Yacoobi, who is Founder of the Afghan Institute for Learning, highlights the work that she and other social entrepreneurs have pursued to support educational opportunities for girls and other vulnerable groups under the most extreme conditions of conflict, displacement, and repression.

The event is part of the Harvard Advanced Learning Initiative’s “deep dive” event on education and gender equality.