Dozens of reports have confirmed that investing in women makes good economic sense. Investing in the education of women and girls, in particular, has been found to have lasting effects on communities and nations.

In the third annual report, Plan International, an NGO that works to alleviate child poverty, found that investing in the education of girls would actually fix the current economic recession faster.

NGOs and international institutions have backed the findings of the research, and are using these statistics as a mandate to educate girls.

Titled “Girls in the Global Economy”, the report found that just a one percent increase in the number of girls attending secondary school will boost a country’s per capital income growth by a significant number. In addition, every year that a girl spends in school will produce a 10 to 20 percent increase in her future income.

In many communities, however, girls are seen as less important to educate than boys. Additionally, girls are often expected to assume household and child care responsibilities at a young age.

The Clinton Global Initiative wrote of the new report, “If we turn our backs on this generation at this time, if we fail to invest in these communities and the individuals in them, we do irreparable damage to a whole generation of girls, and to their children. This must change: Poverty may have a woman’s face, but sustainable economic prosperity has the face of a girl.”

The impact that girls make when they are given the opportunity of education is not a new notion. In October of last year, the World Bank launched the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) “to promote the economic empowerment of adolescent girls in poor and post-conflict countries”. The pilot program began in Liberia and focused on vocational training and literacy.

Similarly, on August 8, 2009, for the first time in a 39-year history, the World Economic Forum devoted a panel solely to the economic impact of girl’s education.

Economic Forum Director Lee Howell, said, “The field work, economic analysis, and experience all point to the powerful effect you’ll have if you invest in girls. People have to do more with less. If that’s the context we’re operating in, then the girl effect is an answer.”

The findings are conclusive: if girls are allowed greater access to education, there will be an important break in the cycle of poverty. This is how Plan International sees the education of girls serving a long lasting purpose, not only for future generations, but in the present global recession.

Sources: IPS, World Pulse, CGI