Still today, half a billion of the worlds illiterate adults are women. This trend has not changed in 20 years. We know that during conflict, girls are 2.5 times more likely to drop out of school than boys are and 48% of girls who are out-of-school today are unlikely to ever enrol in school.

Women who have missed out on an education due to humanitarian crisis, poverty, early marriage and discriminatory norms, face immense barriers accessing training and job opportunities and participating in the digital world. The lack of access to quality adult education and learning opportunities for women has detrimental knock-on effects. In the last decade, the exclusion of women from the digital world has shaved $1 trillion from the gross domestic product of low- and middle-income countries.

- When education benefits women and men equally, it delivers unmatched outcomes:

- Educated women are more likely to be healthier, have higher earnings and exercise greater decision-making power within the household;

- Educated mothers are twice as likely to school their children;

- Every year of education increases a womans wage by up to 20 per cent; and

- Children of educated women are 50% more likely to survive.

UN Women's Second Chance Education Program works with grassroots organisations and partners to reach women who have missed out on an education due to cultural barriers, gender-based violence, conflict and early marriage and childhood pregnancy. The program provides face to face, online and blended adult learning and skills training for women who need it most to ensure we leave no one behind.