About us
The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) was launched by the legacy Department for International Development (DFID) – now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) – in 2012, as a 12-year commitment to reach the most marginalised girls in the world. It was the largest global fund dedicated to girls’ education. The GEC transformed the lives of 1.6 million marginalised girls through quality education and learning. Access to a good quality education and learning opportunities has empowered these girls to secure a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.
The first phase of the GEC (2012 to 2017) provided quality education for over a million marginalised girls.
The second phase of the GEC (2017 to 2024) enabled GEC beneficiary girls to complete primary school, transition to secondary education, and progress on to technical vocational training or employment.
Within the second phase, a second cohort of girls were supported through the Leave No Girl Behind funding window, which consisted of interventions for highly marginalised, adolescent girls who were out of school - either because they had never attended school or had dropped out without gaining a basic education. Leave No Girl Behind projects delivered essential interventions to provide literacy, numeracy and skills relevant for life and work. Projects tackled harmful social and gender norms that contribute to girls being out of school. They addressed complex barriers that led to high levels or marginalisation. These include girls with disabilities, orphaned girls, child brides, young mothers, nomadic girls, refugees, victims of gender-based violence and modern-day slavery, and girls living in extreme poverty.
These projects were selected through an open, robust and transparent process. They were assessed for their ability to implement innovative, effective and sustainable ways to increase girls’ enrolment in, and completion of, school, and to provide them with a good quality education.
The projects all completed their activities by December 2024. Final reflections and evaluations for each project can be found on the project pages.
The Girls’ Education Challenge was managed on behalf of the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) by PwC and Cambridge Education, in alliance with Social Development Direct, Nathan Associates and Shan Globe.
For the FCDO’s programme-level information, please see the Development Tracker. You can also access the papers on the FCDO's approach to Value for Money and Payment by Results.