SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019UK pledges aid for warzone
children to go to school
Refugees at a school backed by UK aid money (UKAid/DfID)
ANDREW WOODCOCK
Britain is to give £90m to help children in conflict zones go to school, prime minister Boris Johnson has
announced.
Announcing the aid boost at the G7 summit in France, Mr Johnson said it would help an estimated 600,
children, particularly girls, in some of the world’s most dangerous and unstable countries. He called on
other rich countries to devote a greater proportion of their aid budget to education, which currently
accounts for less than 2 per cent of global humanitarian assistance.
One in four of children who do not attend school live in countries affected by conflict, humanitarian
emergencies and prolonged crises, with girls making up the vast majority of them. Girls are more than twice
as likely to be out of education and almost 90 per cent more likely to miss secondary school if they live in
conflict zones. Families are more likely to keep girls home than boys if there is a risk of sexual or other