Laos writes girls' equality into five years of school budgets

Equality plans fail quietly when they stay on paper. Laos is trying the other way: its Ministry of Education and Sports has launched a 2026–2030 Action Plan on Gender Equality and Mothers and Children that reaches into education, science and sports — with departmental focal points, annual workplans and budgets, and regular reporting built in. The plan, developed with Australian Government support through the BEQUAL programme and a UNESCO-supported rapid gender assessment released at the same launch, aims at equal access to schooling, safe and supportive classrooms, and an end to gender-based discrimination in education. Five years, every department, one standard: a girl's schooling matters as much as a boy's — and now it is in the budget lines.

SDG 5 · Gender equality — Mechanism: policy reform