By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications

A major expansion of the "Let Girls Learn" campaign was announced March 3 at a White House event where the Burkle Center's contribution to the campaign was recognized.

UCLA International Institute, March 5, 2015 — At a White House event on Tuesday, March 3, President and First Lady Obama announced a new “Let Girls Learn” initiative that will promote community-based solutions for girls’ education worldwide. The initiative will be led by Mrs. Obama, who will become the public face of the Let Girls Learn campaign as a whole.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) first announced the campaign in June 2014, when it was awarded $230 million in additional funding for primary and secondary education programs for girls in developing countries. USAID currently supports a broad range of projects to empower and educate girls in countries throughout the world, both directly and in collaboration with such partners as the Millennial Challenge Corporation, the Global Partnership for Education and a host of multilateral development organizations.

New grassroots initiative a White House priority

Yesterday, President and Mrs. Obama made the Let Girls Learn campaign a shared personal priority; the administration will request $250 million in additional funding from Congress to support the effort. The enhanced funding will build on existing programs, including those being implemented in areas of conflict and crisis. Simultaneously, the Let Girls Learn campaign will continue to leverage public and private sector funds through additional partnerships. 

Mrs. Obama will soon begin traveling internationally to champion the campaign for girls’ education, beginning with a visit to Japan and Cambodia later this month. “As part of this effort,” she said, “the Peace Corps is . . . going to be eventually training all of its volunteers about gender and girls’ education. So even volunteers who are focusing on other issues like health care or agriculture can . . . help support girls’ education on the ground.”

The Peace Corps effort will be launched this year in Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo and Uganda, with additional countries added the following year.

Burkle Center contribution recognized 

Burkle Center Director Kal Raustiala, associate vice provost of international studies and professor of law at UCLA, and Burkle Global Impact Initiative (BGI) Director Brian Gott both attended the event at the invitation of the President and First Lady, where BGI’s help in producing the original public service announcement for Let Girls Learn — which features many Hollywood stars — was recognized. 

“It was thrilling to see the Let Girls Learn campaign grow from a small effort that we assisted USAID with to a full-blown program with the personal support and focus of President and Mrs. Obama. Harnessing the power of Hollywood around critical international issues is exactly what we created BGI to do,” Raustiala said. 

Added Gott, “The purpose of the Burkle Global Impact Initiative is to use our unprecedented access to the creative community to activate the industry around pro-social issues that affect us all. The Let Girls Learn campaign is exactly the type of program we can supercharge.”

Championing the education of girls

Speeches by President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett reiterated the message that educating girls is crucial not only for economic development, but also for global security and the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms around the world.

President Obama remarked, “Every girl on this planet deserves to be treated with dignity and equality. And that includes the chance to develop her mind and her talents, and to live a life of her own choosing, to chart her own destiny.

“Sixty-two million girls around the world who should be in school are not. That’s not by accident. It’s the direct result of barriers, large and small, that stand in the way of girls who want to learn,” he added.

“Every child is precious. Every girl is precious. Every girl deserves an education,” continued the president. “And that’s the message that we want to deliver here today and we're going to sustain over the next two years and beyond — let girls learn.”

Admitting that he had been prompted by his wife to give the initiative more attention, President Obama then said, “What we all determined is that we've got to take this work to the next level, and tie all our different programs together in a single, coordinated strategy. And that’s what this initiative is about.”

Security Advisor Susan Rice remarked, “While we’re leading humanitarian efforts and campaigns to educate and empower girls around the world — and we’re seeing amazing progress in some areas — we’re also seeing dangerous threats that imperil girls.” She specifically mentioned the threats posed by the radical Islamist groups Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.

Rice went on to thank Michelle Obama for becoming the voice of the Let Girls Learn campaign, saying. “She’s an outstanding inspiration to young women in America and all over the world. She’s who we all want to be when we grow up.”

Michelle Obama the public face of Let Girls Learn

But it was Mrs. Obama who was the speaker of the hour. “As I’ve traveled the world over the past six years, I’ve seen time and again how our young people — particularly our girls — are so often pushed to the very bottom of their societies,” said the First Lady. “Everywhere I go, I meet these girls, and they are so fiercely intelligent, and hungry to make something of themselves.”

Mrs. Obama noted that the development, education and political experts with whom she has worked on girls education have all emphasized the need for local solutions. “And that made a lot of sense to me and it made a lot of sense to my husband,” she said, “because that’s the kind of work we did long before we came to the White House, back when Barack was a community organizer and I was running a little non-profit AmeriCorps program in Chicago.”

“Through this effort, Peace Corps will be supporting hundreds of new community projects to help girls go to school and stay in school –-- everything from after-school mentoring to girls’ leadership camps, to entrepreneurial projects,” added Mrs. Obama.

“And I want to emphasize that these programs will be community-generated and community-led. They’ll be based on solutions devised by local leaders, families and, yes, even the girls themselves,” she explained.

Although the focus of the campaign was international, the First Lady said she also wanted it to have an impact on young people in the United States. “I want our young people to be awed by these girls. But more importantly, I want them to be inspired and motivated by these girls. I want our kids to realize that while their own school may be far from perfect . . . they still have an obligation to show up every day to that classroom and learn as much as they can.”

Kal Raustiala (left) and Brian Gott at the White House.

For the original Let Girls Learn video and information on USAID projects in support of the campaign, click here (http: //www.usaid.gov/letgirlslearn) 

News coverage of the March 3, 2015 White House event included articles by The New York Times (http: //www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/03/us/politics/ap-us-michelle-obama.html?_r=0), US News & World Report (http: //www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/03/03/us-first-lady-plans-mid-march-visit-to-japan-cambodia), ABC News (http: //abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-lady-plans-mid-march-visit-japan-cambodia-29346795) and NPR (http: //www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/03/03/390500072/peace-corps-teams-up-with-first-lady-to-let-girls-learn).

For more information on the Let Girls Learn campaign, see the White House Fact Sheet ​below:

Download file: let_girls_learn_fact_sheet_03032015-ol-zp2.pdf

Published: Friday, March 6, 2015