[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2153 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 2153
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 30, 2020
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To support empowerment, economic security, and educational
opportunities for adolescent girls around the world, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Keeping Girls in
School Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Appropriate congressional committees defined.
Sec. 3. Findings.
Sec. 4. Sense of Congress.
Sec. 5. Secondary education for adolescent girls.
Sec. 6. Global strategy requirement.
Sec. 7. Transparency and reporting to Congress.
SEC. 2. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DEFINED.
In this Act, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Adolescence is a critical period in a girl's life, when
significant physical, emotional, and social changes shape her
future.
(2) Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV/
AIDS, child, early and forced marriage, and other forms of
violence which are detrimental to their futures, as evidenced
by the following statistics:
(A) Each year, 380,000 adolescent girls and young
women become newly infected with HIV, more than 1,000
every day, and comprise the fastest-growing demographic
for new infections in sub-Saharan Africa.
(B) Each year, 12,000,000 adolescent girls around
the world are married before their 18th birthday, and
more than 650,000,000 women alive today were married as
children.
(C) Child marriages often interrupt schooling,
limit opportunities, and impact the physical,
psychological and social well-being of such girls. If
there is no reduction in child marriage, the global
number of women married as children is projected to
increase by 150,000,000 by 2030.
(D) One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing
countries become mothers before the age of 18, and
girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during
childbirth than women in their 20s.
(3) Approximately 130,000,000 girls around the world are
not in school, and millions more are failing to acquire basic
reading, writing, and numeracy skills.
(4) Girls between the ages of 10 and 19 are three times
more likely than boys to be kept out of school, particularly in
countries affected by conflict.
(5) Due to discriminatory gender norms and expectations,
disparities in access to safe and quality education manifest
early in a girl's life and continue to become more pronounced
throughout adolescence.
(6) Girls living with disabilities are less likely to start
school and transition to secondary school than boys living with
disabilities and other children, and just 1 percent of women
with disabilities are literate globally.
(7) While two-thirds of all countries have achieved gender
parity in primary education, only 40 percent have achieved
gender parity in secondary education.
(8) Adolescent girls who remain in school are more likely
to live longer, marry later, have healthier children, and, as
adults, earn an income to support their families, thereby
contributing to the economic advancement of communities and
nations.
(9) Since July 2015, more than 100 public-private
partnerships have been formed between the United States
Government and external partners to support innovative and
community-led solutions in targeted countries, including Malawi
and Tanzania, to ensure adolescent girls receive a quality
education.
(10) The United States Global Strategy to Empower
Adolescent Girls, published in March 2016, has brought together
the Department of State, the United States Agency for
International Development, the Peace Corps, and the Millennium
Challenge Corporation, as well as other agencies and programs
such as the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), to address the range of challenges preventing
adolescent girls from attaining an inclusive and equitable
quality education leading to relevant learning outcomes.
(11) According to the United States Global Strategy to
Empower Adolescent Girls, which is the first foreign policy
document in the world solely dedicated to the rights and
empowerment of girls globally, ``[w]hile the Millennium
Development Goals improved outcomes for girls in primary
education, they also highlighted the need for a targeted focus
on adolescents and young adults, particularly regarding the
transition to and completion of secondary school''.
(12) PEPFAR, through its DREAMS (Determined, Resilient,
Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) Initiative, has
worked to address a number of the specific barriers to
education that adolescent girls face.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) every child, regardless of place of birth, deserves an
equal opportunity to access quality education;
(2) the United States has been a global leader in efforts
to expand and improve educational opportunities for those who
have been traditionally disenfranchised, particularly women and
girls;
(3) gains with respect to girls' secondary education and
empowerment have been proven to correlate strongly with
progress in gender equality and women's rights, as well as
economic and social progress, and achieving gender equality
should be a priority goal of United States foreign policy;
(4) achieving gender parity in both access to and quality
of educational opportunity contributes significantly to
economic growth and development, thereby lowering the risk for
violence and instability; and
(5) education is a lifesaving humanitarian intervention
that protects the lives, futures, and well-being of girls.
SEC. 5. SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENT GIRLS.
(a) Authority.--The Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development may enter into acquisition, assistance, or
results-based financing agreements, including agreements combining more
than one such feature, for activities addressing the barriers described
in subsection (b) that adolescent girls face in accessing a quality
secondary education. Such activities shall--
(1) set outcome-based targets to demonstrate qualitative
gains;
(2) use existing United States Government strategies and
frameworks relevant to international basic education and gender
equality, including evidence-based interventions, to--
(A) integrate new technologies and approaches,
including to establish or continue public-private
partnerships or to pilot the use of development impact
bonds (the results of which are verified by an
independent evaluation);
(B) to the greatest extent possible, apply quasi-
experimental and scientific, research-based approaches;
(C) promote inclusive, equitable and sustainable
educational achievement; and
(D) support a responsible transition to education
systems that are sustainably financed by domestic
governments; and
(3) ensure that schools provide safe and quality
educational opportunities and create empowering environments,
so that girls can enroll in and regularly attend school,
successfully transition from primary to secondary school, and
eventually graduate having achieved learning outcomes and
positioned to make healthy transitions into adulthood.
(b) Specific Barriers.--The barriers described in this subsection
include--
(1) harmful societal and cultural norms;
(2) lack of safety at school or traveling to school,
including harassment and other forms of physical, sexual, or
psychological violence;
(3) child, early, and forced marriage;
(4) female genital mutilation;
(5) distance from a secondary school;
(6) cost of secondary schooling, including fees, clothing,
and supplies;
(7) inadequate sanitation facilities and products available
at secondary schools;
(8) prioritization of boys' secondary education;
(9) poor nutrition;
(10) early pregnancy and motherhood;
(11) HIV infection;
(12) disability;
(13) discrimination based on religious or ethnic identity;
and
(14) heavy workload due to household tasks.
(c) Coordination and Oversight.--
(1) In general.--The United States Agency for International
Development Senior Coordinator for International Basic
Education Assistance, in coordination with the United States
Agency for International Development Senior Coordinator for
Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment and the Ambassador-at-
Large for Global Women's Issues at the Department of State,
shall be responsible for the oversight and coordination of all
activities of the United States Government carried out under
this section.
(2) Development of agreements.--In the development of
results-based financing agreements described in subsection (a),
the Senior Coordinators shall consult with the United States
Agency for International Development Innovation, Technology,
and Research Hub or any successor center that is responsible
for developing innovative tools and approaches to accelerate
development impact.
(3) Coordination with other strategies.--Activities carried
out under this section shall also be carried out in
coordination with--
(A) the United States Global Strategy to Empower
Adolescent Girls described in section 6; and
(B) the United States Government Strategy on
International Basic Education, including its objective
to expand access to quality basic education for all,
particularly marginalized and vulnerable populations.
(d) Acceptance of Solicitations for Awards.--The Administrator of
the United States Agency for International Development shall seek to
accept solicitations for one or more awards, pursuant to the authority
in subsection (a), to conduct activities under this section beginning
not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(e) Monitoring and Evaluation.--The Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development shall seek to ensure that
activities carried out under this section--
(1) employ rigorous monitoring and evaluation
methodologies, including ex-post evaluation, to ensure that
such activities demonstrably close the gap in gender parity for
secondary education and improve the quality of education
offered to adolescent girls;
(2) disaggregate all data collected and reported by age,
gender, marital and motherhood status, disability, and
urbanity, to the extent practicable and appropriate;
(3) adhere to the Policy Guidance on Promoting Gender
Equality of the Department of State and the Gender Equality and
Female Empowerment Policy of the United States Agency for
International Development; and
(4) use, to the extent possible, indicators and
methodologies identified by the Interagency Working Group for
the Strategy on International Basic Education.
SEC. 6. GLOBAL STRATEGY REQUIREMENT.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and every 5 years thereafter for not less than
10 years, the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues at the
Department of State, in consultation with the Senior Coordinator for
Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment and the Senior Coordinator for
International Basic Education Assistance at the United States Agency
for International Development, shall--
(1) review and update a United States global strategy to
empower adolescent girls;
(2) provide a meaningful opportunity for public review and
consultation on the strategy; and
(3) submit the strategy to the appropriate congressional
committees.
(b) Initial Strategy.--For the purposes of this section, the
``United States Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls'',
published in March 2016, shall be deemed to fulfill the initial
requirement under subsection (a).
(c) Consultation Required.--In reviewing and updating the strategy
under subsection (a), the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's
Issues, the Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's
Empowerment, and the Senior Coordinator for International Basic
Education Assistance shall, as appropriate, consult with--
(1) the heads of relevant Federal departments and agencies
their designees, as well as experts on adolescent girls, gender
equality, and empowerment issues throughout the Federal
Government;
(2) the appropriate congressional committees;
(3) representatives of United States civil society and
multilateral organizations with demonstrated experience and
expertise in empowering adolescent girls or promoting gender
equality, including local civil society organizations and
beneficiaries where possible; and
(4) local organizations and beneficiaries in countries
receiving assistance pursuant to the strategy, including youth
and adolescent girls' organizations.
SEC. 7. TRANSPARENCY AND REPORTING TO CONGRESS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter for 10 years until
each activity initiated pursuant to the authorities under this Act has
concluded, the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development, in coordination with the Secretary of State,
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report
describing--
(1) the activities initiated under the authorities provided
in this Act; and
(2) the manner and extent to which such activities are
monitored and evaluated, in accordance with section 5(e).
(b) Availability.--The report required by subsection (a) shall be
made available on a text-based, searchable, and publicly available
website of the United States Agency for International Development.
Passed the House of Representatives January 28, 2020.
Attest:
CHERYL L. JOHNSON,
Clerk.