Thank you for contacting me about protecting girls in crisis.

I know the UK works with a wide range of international partners to ensure the best results for girls across the world. I am proud of the leadership that the UK has shown, supporting the UN and national governments to keep girls safe.

Educating girls is the tool that can address a whole host of the world’s economic and social problems and, alongside all 53 members of the Commonwealth, the UK is working to help provide 12 years of quality education for all girls by 2030.

Girls’ Education is one of the five foundations of the UK's wider development work on gender equality, and between 2015 and 2019, the UK supported 5.8 million girls to gain a decent education. In 2018, the Prime Minister, as Foreign Secretary, launched the Leave No Girl Behind campaign. The campaign gets girls learning, builds international political commitment and boosts global investment. Our Girls Education Challenge is the world’s largest fund dedicated to girls’ education and is supporting up to 1.5 million marginalised girls in 17 countries around the world.

I’ve seen at first-hand the important work done across the world made possible by UK Aid, particularly in Africa. It’s an issue with which I am closely involved as I am Chair of the APPG for Global Education, as well as Co-Chair of the recently formed International Parliamentary Network for Education. I will continue to champion girls’ education and welfare as part of these groups I will continue to raise this important matter in Westminster.