Peng calls for greater efforts on education

Peng Liyuan, the wife of President Xi Jinping, has called for solidarity and cooperation to advance girls' and women's education around the world to contribute to meeting the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Peng made the statement in a recent written interview with the Courier, the main magazine published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Eradicating poverty and realizing gender equality are the shared ideals of the whole of humanity and are also the common aspiration of females across the world, said Peng, who is also a UNESCO special envoy for the advancement of girls' and women's education.

Peng mentioned China's tireless efforts to secure the goal of eradicating absolute poverty across the country, saying that poverty alleviation through advancing education is one of the important measures in achieving that goal.

She also underlined the need to strengthen the determination to advance girls' and women's education in order to enable more of them to receive a good education.

As COVID-19 is still raging globally, Peng said that no girls should be left behind due to the pandemic. She called for international solidarity and cooperation, more financial input and more innovative steps to jointly deal with the challenges.

She commended UNESCO's Futures of Education initiative, saying that education should focus on helping people improve their ability to promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

It should also help people from different countries with different cultural backgrounds to coexist harmoniously and help them improve their capacity to innovate and utilize new technologies, Peng said, adding that she is confident that the world in the future will be more beautiful as a result of education.

Peng expressed her hope that governments from all countries, international organizations, civil society and individuals could take active measures to empower women with education, and push for girls' and women's education to make greater progress in order to inject impetus into the efforts to advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

China will continue to work with UNESCO to make contributions to the organization's Prize for Girls' and Women's Education, Peng said. The prize was launched by the Chinese government and UNESCO in 2015.

Peng also said that she will continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a UNESCO special envoy and work with more people to advance the cause of female empowerment.