Methodology

Malala Fund’s Girls’ Education Report Cards provide an assessment of leaders’ commitment to helping all girls learn and lead without fear. We assess the following:

  • Low- and middle-income countries’ performance on providing girls’ education, measured using: i) relevant SDG targets (SDG scores), and ii) adoption of policies proven to help every girl learn and lead (policy scores).
  • High-income countries’ commitment to girls’ education globally, measured using OECD data on the volume and targeting of their aid (donor scores).

All indicators are drawn from verified data sources:

Further detail on calculation of scores

SDG score

We selected SDG target indicators most relevant to Malala Fund’s mission: 12 years of free, safe, quality education for all girls. We converted the reported data to scores as detailed below:

  • Pre-primary: Girls’ enrollment rates in pre-primary and gender parity. Rates are converted to scores and where parity is greater than 1, the maximum score of 100 is awarded.
  • Out-of-school rates: Girls’ out-of-school rates for girls in primary, lower and upper secondary. The rates are inverted and then converted to scores between 1 and 100.
  • Completion rates: Girls’ completion rates in primary, lower and upper secondary. Rates are converted directly to scores, for example, a completion rate of 75% is equivalent to a score of 75.
  • Teachers: As above, we consider the proportions of qualified teachers at all levels and convert these directly to scores.
  • Expenditure: Expenditure as a proportion of GDP is converted to a score expressed as a percentage of 6 and expenditure as a proportion of total budget is converted to a score expressed as a percentage of 20%. The maximum score awarded is 100.
  • Quality and quantity: Here we use learning-adjusted years of schooling, scored out of a possible 13 years, which includes one year of-pre-primary.
  • Climate education: We include Climate Change Ambition Scores from Educational International, on a 42-point curve, with 100 being the maximum score.
  • Gender and wealth inequality: We consider the wealth and gender parity indices for completion rates across the board. The indices are converted directly to scores between 1 and 100 and where the index is greater than 1 the maximum score of 100 is awarded.

Data gaps are filled using World Bank and UNESCO computed income group averages where available. A simple average is calculated across indicators for each category, and a simple average is taken across categories. This constitutes the SDG 4 score.

Policy score

From the CGD Policy Index, we drew 20 indicators most relevant to Malala Fund’s mission. We converted the indicators to scores by standardising each around a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. Component scores are the simple average of each indicator within the component. The overall score for each policy component is a simple average of the scores within. Policy components comprised:

  • Removal of financial barriers
  • Advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights
  • Child safety and non-discrimina­tion in education
  • Labour market opportuni­ties
  • Role models

The overall score for Policy is a simple average of all policy component scores. This constitutes the policy score.

Donor score

We extracted data from the OECD Creditor Reporting System to compare donor performance on girls’ education to globally-agreed standards on volume and quality of aid. Scores were calculated by comparing donors’ reported data against the following benchmarks:

  • Aid as a proportion of GNI - 0,7%
  • Proportion of aid spent on education (excluding post-secondary) - 15%
  • Proportion of aid spend on education with gender equality as a principal objective - 10%
  • Proportion of total aid to education to Least Developed Countries - 25%

The simple average of each component provides the overall score (donor score). The main limitation is outdated data, caused by lack of regular reporting from OECD member countries.

For the full data set:

Download report card data (XLS)