Thursday, September 17, 2020
Malala Yousafzai tells the business community: Education is the best way to guard against future crises
This back-to-school season, consider the girls who may never go back to a classroom. According to a report from the Malala Fund which was issued last spring and updated in July, 20 million secondary school-aged girls could find themselves permanently out of an education even after the pandemic has passed. Why? The reasons are manifold, starting with early marriages and teen pregnancies. And the impact is far-reaching, not only in the regions where girls are most at risk but across the globe.
According to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist known for cofounding her eponymous nonprofit, a more educated population translates to a society that is better equipped to handle global crises. It means that people are more knowledgeable on issues of viruses and vaccines, and how to slow the spread of a pandemic. It also means more economic stability, which helps populations weather a storm—whatever form the next one may take.
Fortune recently interviewed Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner in history, to find out more about the ways her fund and its partners are working to mitigate some of the current threats to girls’ education, why this issue should matter to businesses, and to hear about her own personal challenges throughout the pandemic. The interview below has beed edited for length and clarity.
Fortune: We hear a lot about the disruption the virus is causing in education here in the United States, with much of learning being remote. Can you give us a bigger picture for what’s going on globally as a result of the virus, and in particular the risks to girls who are not going back to school?
Yousafzai: To be honest, Covid has shaken the global system of the economy and health and the world we live in. Before, all I could see in the future was progress, that things would improve with time. But as soon as this pandemic started and the Malala Fund did research on how this could affect girls education, we saw that it could impact 20 million girls who would be unable to return to the classroom forever. It made me more aware of the system we were living in, and that there could be unexpected events. We need to ensure that girls’ education is not ignored, and that we do not lose focus of this cause.
Can you explain why the estimates from this report showed such a disproportionate impact on girls?
The Malala Fund report [relied on insight from] the Ebola crisis. Even though it affected a smaller region, it gave us some information because it showed how many girls were in school before that and how many returned, and for those that did not return, why that was the case. The reasons are when girls stay home they often become victim to childhood marriages. School is a safe place for them, not just a place of learning. The second issue is that they become one of the family’s key breadwinners. There are several other reasons, including that oftentimes when there is an option of sending one child to school, families will send the boy.
Technological infrastructure was already an issue in many regions where your fund operates. How much of a role does it play in helping or hindering education now?
Technology is a key tool right now in ensuring that students do not miss out on their education. But it depends on the region we’re talking about. It’s difficult to make a generalized comment. We make sure we give the support they need in different regions. For example, activists in Nigeria are focused on giving lessons through a radio. Haroon [Yasin, a Pakistani education entrepreneur] is focused on using mobile phones and national television in Pakistan. It’s thinking outside the box and using the current technology that we already have.
What message do you want to send the business community, and why should they care about this risk to girls’ education?
[I notice the] lack of support during this time. It seems counterintuitive because education is the best way to protect ourselves from future crises. When girls go to school, economies grow and public health improves. In this time of pandemic, if you imagine a more educated society, it would allow us to more easily tackle more this crisis. It is education that gives us a society in which we can ensure that we are healthy and safe. There is an awareness of hygiene, and how viruses and vaccines work.
What has been hardest for you, on a personal level, throughout the pandemic?
I was in my final year of college when this all started. We were sent back home for Easter holiday and then never returned. I had to take my exams and do my graduation at home. The world I imagined post-graduation was that I would be traveling and meeting our champions [a network of activists and advocates of girls’ education, supported by the Malala Fund]. That is not what I see right now. Instead, there is a lot of uncertainty and confusion about what is next.
But at same time, I’m thinking that maybe this is an opportunity for us to reset the world we are living in, and not just return to normal. I hope that this is a time that we really think about society and the system that we are living in. The world is not perfect, there are issues from racism to sexism and global inequality. There is a lot that needs to be done. We continue our work with optimism.
https://fortune.com/2020/09/15/malala-yousafzai-business-education-girls-access-school-crisis/
#Pakistan - Chairman #PPP says no compromise on 18th amendment and the rights of provinces
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the state has martyred his family members one by one. He said that “first my grandfather Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by a dictator and then my uncle Shahnawaz Bhutto was killed by poisoning him. The other uncle Mir Murtaza Bhutto was murdered in Karachi. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was murdered in the streets of Rawalpindi”.
He said that a lot many people who were with Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto are here in this room and many those are here as well who were not with him. People who were against him are calling him Shaheed now. Similar is the case with Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who was called corrupt but now the very same people are declaring her a Shaheed.
Chairman PPP said that even today character assassination is carried out on television channels but the PPP is still steadfast on its principles and manifesto. Whatever rights we have now in Pakistan are due to the sacrifices of the workers of PPP, he said. He said that what kind of Riasat-e-Madina is this where a woman is gang raped on the motorway but the people who were responsible of giving her protection, started victim blaming. Now, the prime minister and other ministers have come in support of that police officer.
He said that 2.5 million people in Sindh are homeless because of floods and similar is the case in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit but there is no voice for them in the media. The federal government of PPP in 2010 and 2011 had helped the flood victims by issuing them “Watan cards”. It is unfortunate that no one is ready from the federal government to help them. He said that the bills were bulldozed in the joint session yesterday. The speaker was not ready to conduct the vote re-count. If this continues then we will have to consider that how long this Parliament will continue to be a rubber stamp.
The rights of every strata of the society are being usurped. You are well aware of the pressure exerted by NAB and the establishment. The media owners who used to say that they form the government and they send the government home are themselves facing pressure and high handedness. The senior members of the Bar have gathered all of us here and I have to ask them that when Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP wanted to put forward a stance about judiciary at the time of the movement of judiciary, nobody gave us support then. When the PPP had come out against the establishment, then everybody started saying that we are trying to protect our corruption, how wrong those people have been proved.
Today, everyone is with us on the issue of the 18th amendment but at that time we used to say that a national party is being forced to a corner and efforts were made to limit us to one province but no one listened to us. We had agreed in Charter of Democracy that there will be a constitutional court, the PPP wanted to make that court but we were not allowed to do that. The Parliament was forced to pass the 19th amendment. When we had said that the judges’ appointment should be done by the Bar, Parliament and the judiciary, no one supported us. At that time, the threat of doing away with the 1973 constitution was hurled at us. There is no future of such legislation. Like the senior journalist Sohail Warraich says, “yeh company nahi chale gi”. He urged the Pakistan Bar Council to include a resolution revoking the 19th amendment.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that he has experienced accountability since the age of two years with his parents. He has seen the courts and the prisons from a very young age. Several false cases were initiated against Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and every case was quashed but unfortunately, she was not alive to see herself exonerated. He said that our narrative about civil liberties and human rights should be one. What kind of civil liberty is this that an interview of a politician could not be aired on television? This is not the way of a living nation. We have rendered sacrifices and now we want to hold accountable the ones who have spilled our blood.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that he and his party are not ready to compromise on the 18th amendment and the rights of the provinces. He said that we will have to unite to liberate our Parliament and our country.