School as sustainable enterprise : Building climate resilient communities through investment in the girl child

Scholars working in the field of the economics of education have long documented how investment in girls’ education delivers the greatest return in terms of societal wellbeing (see, for example, Dollar and Gatti, 1999; Forbes, 2000; Klasen, 2002). Unfortunately, mainstream economists have quite a narrow interpretation of wellbeing, the rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP) usually serving as the main barometer. The problem here is that higher rates of economic growth do not necessarily imply improved outcomes in terms of gender equality. Getting girls in school certainly represents progress. There are 129 million girls around the world who are not in school (UNESCO, 2022), and there are numerous obstacles to overcome if this problem is to be seriously addressed. The good news is that far more attention is being devoted to girls’ education and the empowerment of women today than in the past, as countless NGOs and charities have sprung up in recent years that focus on these issues. A key question, however, is whether it is sufficient just to get girls to attend school. Less attention seems to be paid to what they actually do when they get there. Admittedly, some education is better than none at all, but what if girls attended schools where the measure of success was less focused on exam results, getting a good job and growing GDP? In this paper, we present the case for school education that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Green School for Girls (GS4G) – a pilot program – seeks to implement a curriculum and pedagogy that will produce strong, independently minded, entrepreneurial young women, capable of earning a good living for them and their families in a fashion that is in harmony with the interests of the community and the natural environment