On 8 March each year, the international community rallies with women and girls around the world to demand equal rights and equal justice to enforce, exercise and enjoy those rights.

International Women’s Day 2026 #IWD2026, under the theme ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls’, calls for action to dismantle all barriers to equal justice: discriminatory laws, weak legal protections, and harmful practices and social norms that erode the rights of women and girls.

This collection of blogs focuses on the right to education for girls and women. Education is one of the most powerful tools in lifting excluded girls and women to gaining equal rights and opportunities.

What about the boys? How backlash against girls’ education is an opportunity to do better
by Sharon Tao

Celebrating evidence from the Girls’ Education Challenge
by Pauline Rose, Monazza Aslam and Shenila Rawal

A decade of progress on girls’ education in Africa and Asia
by Ian Attfield

The right to education for pregnant girls and adolescent mothers: Breaking barriers and biases
by Nisha Thomas

Girls and climate justice education: Experience from two initiatives
by Alice Saisha, Catherine Boyce and Fernanda Gándara

Inclusive Education for marginalised girls in Malawi: what worked in Link Education’s Leave No Girl Behind Project
by Clement Mwazambumba and Samantha Ross

A crisis on two fronts: How emergencies stall girls’ education and G7 progress towards the Global Objectives
by Sharon Tao

Scaling up an education initiative that supports marginalised girls in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
by Luisa Ciampi, Pauline Rose, Loveness Chimuka, Oberty Maambo and Nkanileka Mgonda

From exclusion to empowerment: The transformative power of the ‘Advancing Action for Adolescent Girls’ second chance education programme
by Zain ul Abidin in collaboration with Baela Jamil, Saba Saeed and Muhammad Fida Hussain

Developing responsive and adaptive approaches in support of Adolescent Girls’ Education in Zimbabwe by developing communities of reflective practice – The story of SAGE in Zimbabwe
by Stephen Harrison and Bertina Nyamutswa

The power of feminist activists in driving forward girls’ education
by Alicia Mills

Crossing the threshold – Reflections on girls’ education ten years into International Day of the Girl Child
by Akuja de Garang

Girls’ education might just save the planet!
by Safeena Husain

Why language of instruction is a policy priority for girls’ education in sub-Saharan Africa
by Lizzi O. Milligan and Laela Adamson

Fund girls’ education. Don’t greenwash It.
by Megan Devonald, Susannah Hares, Nicola Jones, Laura Moscoviz, Jack Rossiter, Patrick Shaw and Workneh Yadete

Mind the gap in refugee education: where are all the girls?
by Ruth Naylor