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The UNGEI approach

Leveraging the power of partnership

Striving together for gender equality in and through education

UNGEI is a global partnership hosted by UNICEF, united by a shared commitment to advancing gender equality in and through education. We provide a platform for coordinated advocacy and collective action in order to break down barriers to education, close the gender gap and unlock its transformative power for all girls, everywhere. For more than two decades we have been championing gender-responsive education systems, policies and practices - speaking out as one and holding the international community to account.

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Our Story

The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative

The early chapters

The first partnership of its kind, UNGEI was launched in April 2000 at the Dakar World Education Forum by the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. Established as one of the United Nations’ flagship initiatives for Education for All, from the start UNGEI played a pioneering role in promoting collective action for girls’ education and gender equality. 13 UN entities, led by UNICEF, came together with the goal of helping governments to deliver on their commitments to girls’ education. In the years that followed the partnership grew to include organizations operating at national and regional level. In 2004, UNGEI’s Global Advisory Committee was launched along with the UNICEF-hosted Secretariat.

“The world needs a coordinated strategy on the scale of the challenge. We need all those with power to change things to come together in an alliance for girls’ education.”

Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary General of the United Nations

Meet the team

The UNGEI Secretariat carries out UNGEI's day-to-day operations. Hosted by UNICEF, the Secretariat comprises a core team who together lead evidence-building, advocacy, communications, youth engagement, partnerships and many other critical areas of work.

Amalia Anderson
Amalia Anderson
Programme Associate
Zeynep Aydemir Koyuncu
Zeynep Aydemir Koyuncu
Programme Manager
Jeyda Bicer
Jeyda Bicer
Digital Strategies Consultant
Sanjita Dhanuk
Sanjita Dhanuk
Programme Associate, Gender at the Centre Initiative (GCI)
Antara Ganguli
Antara Ganguli
UNGEI Director
Natasha Harris-Harb
Natasha Harris-Harb
Lead, Youth Movements and Feminist Leadership
Nepali Sah
Nepali Sah
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Consultant for Gender Transformative Education
Jennifer Thomas
Jennifer Thomas
Communications & Advocacy Lead
Abdoul Salam Made Toure
Abdoul Salam Made Toure
Education Specialist, GCI Country Support Coordinator
Jona Turalde
Jona Turalde
Community, Operations, and Resource Mobilization Lead, Transform Education
Eline Versluys
Eline Versluys
Manager Gender at the Center Initiative
Mariama Wurie
Mariama Wurie
GCI Communications Lead

UNGEI: East Asia and the Pacific

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A global partnership dedicated to advancing gender equality in and through education

Visit the East Asia Pacific Regional UN Girls’ Education Initiative (EAP UNGEI) page to find out how the network is promoting the right to education and gender equality for all.

Our supporters

Thanks to the financial support of the following organizations, we are working to put gender equality at the heart of education.

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