Investment in girls’ education fulfils and protects the core human rights principle of ‘education is a right for all’ and rights of girls in particular; enhances individual freedom and furthers the empowerment of girls/women, and contributes towards and creates synergy with other social development goals and sectors. This is affirmed by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that stress the centrality of universal education, gender equality and women’s empowerment to the achievement of the other MDG goals. The challenge of girls’ education is a challenge to development in all its sectors: in education to promote a good learning environment and learning achievement in schools; in planning to include education policies in national poverty reduction plans and enable local communities to oversee the services they need for their children to stay in school; in finance to allocate funds and make schools affordable, in health to provide adequate services, water and sanitation, etc. UNESCAP is committed to the cross- sectoral strategy to redress the multiple discriminatory situations that deny girls their right to quality education. UNESCAP with its long tradition of collaboration with governments, civil society and other agencies of the United Nations system is engaging different stakeholders in dialogue so that commitment, expertise, capacity and resources of the various sectors are mobilized towards meeting the goals for education for all and gender parity in education, in particular.