Girls in a northern Nigeria classroom | Credit: Save The Children International
The Malala Fund has announced a $4.8 million grant injection for organisations working to advance girl education across five countries, with nine Nigerian non-profits among the beneficiaries.
The new funding, which supports a total of 21 organisations globally, is earmarked for groups in Nigeria, Pakistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
In a major focus for its 2025-2030 strategy, the Malala Fund confirmed on Wednesday that 66 per cent of the $4.8 million (about $3.17 million) will go to organisations led by young women.
This figure, the fund noted, more than triples its original target for youth-led funding.
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The nine Nigerian non-profits (working in Oyo, Kaduna, Kano, Adamawa, and Bauchi states) will concentrate their efforts on several critical areas with a cummulative $1.7 million in grant funding.
These include scaling up gender-responsive budgeting, supporting school re-entry for married girls or young mothers, and deploying digital tools to track education spending and infrastructure gaps.
The fund said Nigeria and Pakistan are home to 15 per cent of all out-of-school girls globally, underscoring its focus in these countries.
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“Our partners are leading the fight for girls to learn,” said Malala Yousafzai, executive chair of the fund.
The nine Nigerian organisations receiving support are:
- Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi): Focuses on gender-responsive budgeting and transparent spending in Oyo state.
- Anti Sexual Violence Lead Support Initiative (ASVIOL): Will provide mentors and trauma-informed care for pregnant and married girls returning to school in Kaduna state.
- Black Girl’s Dream Initiative (BGDI): Launching EduTracka, an AI platform to track education spending across Oyo state’s 33 local governments.
- BudgIT Foundation for the Promotion of Information in Nigeria: Will advocate for gender-responsive budgets and mobilise communities across six states to re-enrol out-of-school girls.
- Centre for Advocacy, Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI): Will strengthen its budget monitoring group in Adamawa state to track spending and influence the 2026 state budget.
- Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative (IWEI): Supporting girls affected by early marriage and pregnancy to return to school through transitional safe space hubs in Kano state.
- Participatory Communication for Gender Development (PAGED) Initiative: Advocates for gender-responsive school re-entry pathways in Kano, Borno, and Kaduna states using mobile cinema and filmmaking.
- Teenage Education and Empowerment Network: Will advocate for comprehensive re-entry guidelines for married girls and young mothers in Kaduna state.
- Women, Children, Youth Health and Education Initiative (WCY): Enforces child marriage protections and school re-entry for young mothers in Bauchi state.
The Malala Fund has now awarded over $73 million through more than 560 grants across 27 countries since its founding.
The fund said this new cohort of its Education Champion Network (ECN) partners will also tackle urgent threats to education globally, ranging from conflict and shrinking budgets to gender and racial discrimination.
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Lena Alfi, CEO of the Malala Fund, stressed the importance of flexible, multi-year funding.
“Our partners are closest to the challenges holding girls back and are delivering bold, practical, systemic solutions so girls can get the education they deserve,” she added.
