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The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022., COVID-19 has increased inequality worldwide, as the poorest people were hit hardest by both the disease and its profound economic impacts. Yet the CRI 2022 Index shows clearly that most of the world’s governments failed to mitigate this dangerous rise in inequality. Despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low-and lower-middle-income countries saw the share of health spending fall during the pandemic, half of the countries tracked by the CRI Index cut the share of social protection spending, 70% cut the share of education spending, while two-thirds of countries failed to increase their minimum wage in line with gross domestic product (GDP). Ninety-five percent of countries failed to increase taxation of the richest people and corporations. At the same time, a small group of governments from across the world bucked this trend, taking clear actions to combat inequality, putting the rest of the world to shame., See also the CRI Index website: www.inequalityindex.orgThe Index has been audited by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Read more here., L’indice de l’engagement à la réduction des inégalités (ERI) 2022 est la première analyse détaillée publiée portant sur les politiques et les actions des gouvernements pour lutter contre les inégalités au cours des deux premières années de la pandémie. Cette analyse passe en revue les politiques et actions de 161 gouvernements en matière de dépenses, de fiscalité et de travail sur la période 2020-2022., La COVID-19 a creusé les inégalités dans le monde entier, les plus pauvres étant les plus durement touché·es par la maladie et ses profondes répercussions économiques. Pourtant, l’indice ERI 2022 montre clairement que la plupart des gouvernements du monde n’ont pas réussi à atténuer cette dangereuse augmentation des inégalités. Alors qu’il s’agit de la pire urgence sanitaire que le monde ait connue depuis un siècle, la moitié des pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure ont vu la part des dépenses de santé diminuer pendant la pandémie. La moitié des pays suivis par l’indice ERI ont réduit la part des dépenses de protection sociale, 70 % ont revu à la baisse la part des dépenses d’éducation, tandis que deux tiers des pays n’ont pas augmenté leur salaire minimum en fonction du produit intérieur brut (PIB). 95 % des pays n’ont pas augmenté l’imposition des personnes et des sociétés les plus riches. Dans le même temps, quelques gouvernements dans différentes parties du monde se sont démarqués de cette tendance en prenant des mesures claires pour lutter contre les inégalités, couvrant de honte le reste du monde.

Sub-Saharan Africa has some huge problems to resolve if it is to achieve gender equality in education, and fulfil the Millennium Development Goals related to education and gender. Conversely, the region also has some of the most innovative and enterprising examples of initiatives that promote gender equality in education. This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper then reviews the most significant initiatives - those that are 'gender-neutral' and those that have a specific focus on gender equality - that have enabled African countries to overcome these obstacles.

This paper highlights the fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not directly address the issue of adult basic education and literacy, in spite of these being essential for achieving the Millennium targets. It explores the potential of adult basic education with gender equality to be transformatory for individuals, and for groups working to address key issues, such as gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS. The role of governments and other key agencies in relation to gender equality and adult basic education is also explored. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to develop longer-term approaches to gender equality, adult basic education, and literacy.

This is the first of nine papers in a series on Education and Gender Equality, which have been developed from the work of the Beyond Access: Gender, Education, and Development, project.1 The focus of the series is on how to ensure not only equal access to a basic education for boys and girls, but that gender equality is a key part of the practice of that education. With greater numbers of girls enrolling in schooling, much needs to be done to ensure good quality education for all children. How can NGOs, policy-makers, and researchers work together to ensure that all girls and boys have access to an education that is equitable and of good quality, and to ensure that they develop the knowledge and skills they need to achieve what they want for their lives? This introductory paper frames the issues and challenges to be faced in achieving gender equality and quality Education For All (EFA). These issues and challenges are taken up in more detail in subsequent papers.

This paper illustrates the challenges involved in providing good-quality gender-equitable education for children who are beyond the reach of mainstream, formal education. It focuses on children of nomadic and pastoralist households, identifying specific issues in providing schooling for them, and drawing on lessons from approaches and initiatives by various agencies (government and non-government). The paper explores specific forms of discrimination that nomadic and pastoralist girls experience in relation to education, and highlights the need for deeper gender analysis in order to inform policy making.

In the mid-1980s, the Australian government embarked on the first initiative to analyse government budgets from a gender perspective. In 1995, South Africa and the Philippines became the second and third countries to attempt gender-responsive budget exercises. By 2003, there had been similar initiatives in more than sixty countries. This paper uses the gender-response budgeting approach to explain how governments and donors can promote gender equality in education through their decisions on financing.

Failure to achieve gender equality in education is often blamed on 'weak capacity'. This paper illustrates the ways in which individual, organisational, and institutional capacity all play important roles in producing positive results for girls. It is essential to recognise that these different forms of capacity are related, in order to prevent the disappearance of policies and strategies produced with the aim of achieving gender equality in education.

Why do some countries succeed in promoting gender parity and equality in education while others do not? The answer often given is 'political will'. All too often, however, no further explanation is offered. There has been little effort to understand why governments are unwilling or unable to change their policies and priorities to achieve equal access to education for girls and boys, as expressed in the third Millennium Development Goal. This paper considers the concept of political will and explores the role that it plays in improving gender parity and equality in education.