LA MALBAIE: Pledges worth nearly $3 billion dollars to help vulnerable women and girls, including refugees, get an education were announced at a G7 summit on Saturday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted his fellow leaders at a Quebec resort, called it “the single largest investment in education for women and girls in crisis and conflict situations.”

Canada will provide $300 million of the total.

The amount was more than feminist groups that met with Trudeau on the sidelines of the summit had asked for, earning the G7 praise from civil society groups and activists, including Nobel prize-winner Malala Yousafzai who said it would “give more girls hope that they can build a brighter future for themselves”.

The funds give “young women in developing countries the opportunity to pursue careers instead of early marriage and child labour,” Malala wrote on Twitter.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2018