• Education in the Muslim world
• Recommended reading
• Access to education: who goes to school and who is excluded
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• Educational providers: decision-making about where to send children to school

Education in the Muslim world

This report asks whether we are fulfilling our commitment to children. It reviews the situation of children in 57 Muslim countries, assesses progress in the areas of health, education, child protection and HIV and AIDS, and identifies necessary action. The paper includes statistical tables with indicators on background indicators, healthy lives, HIV and AIDS, education, protection and economics.

The paper states that the goals in the document "A World Fit for Children" are eminently achievable and clearly affordable. The challenge is how to marshal and channel the additional resources that are required, in ways that secure the needs and rights of children as a central priority in each nation’s development efforts. In particular, the paper states that the following needs to be done:

• governments need to step up spending: in the majority of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, current levels of expenditure on children and on basic social services are far below adequate
• an enabling international environment is essential: it will entail a progressive increase in donor governments’ overseas development assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross national product, with 20 per cent of their foreign aid going towards basic social services, notably health and education
• government expenditures should be targeted towards implementing gender-responsive budgeting, channelling resources as a priority to benefit women and girls
• it is vital that, where PRSPs exist, it is vital to ensure that they focus squarely on the interests of children
• all states should fully implement their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to sign and ratify its Optional Protocols and to withdraw reservations incompatible with the Convention’s object and purpose
• governments should ensure that national law is fully compatible with treaty standards

The paper notes some noteworthy areas of reform, including:

• family law
• birth registration
• laws on education
• harmful traditional practices
• juvenile justice
• honour killing.

The report concludes that much progress has been made, but much remains to be done.

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