    [United States Statutes at Large, Volume 134, 116th Congress, 2nd Session]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    Public Law 116-338
    116th Congress

    An Act

    To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under
    the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program. <>

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
    United States of America in Congress assembled, <>
    SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act''.
    SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
    (1) In late 2008, Malala Yousafzai began making the case for
    access to education for women and girls despite objections from
    the Pakistani Taliban. On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot in
    the head by Pakistani Taliban on her way home from school.
    (2) In 2013, Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin
    Yousafzai co-founded the Malala Fund. The Malala Fund works to
    secure 12 years of free, safe, and quality education for all
    girls. Completion of a full 12-year cycle of primary and
    secondary education ensures a pipeline of girls able to pursue
    higher education.
    (3) On July 12, 2013, Malala delivered a speech before the
    United Nations General Assembly calling for expanded access to
    education for women and girls across the globe. She said,
    ``[L]et us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty,
    and terrorism. Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are
    the most powerful weapons * * *. Education is the only
    solution.''.
    (4) On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the co-
    recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her ``struggle against
    the suppression of children and young people and for the right
    of all children to education''.
    (5) According to the United Nations 2016 Global Education
    Monitoring Report, more than 130 million girls worldwide are out
    of school. 15 million girls of primary-school age will never
    enter a classroom. As of 2016, at least 500 million adult women
    across the globe are illiterate.
    (6) According to the World Bank, ``Girls' education is a
    strategic development priority. Better educated women tend to be
    healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn
    higher incomes, * * * marry at a later age, and enable better
    health care and education for their children, should they choose
    to become mothers. All these factors combined

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    can help lift households, communities, and nations out of
    poverty.''.
    (7) In 2015, all United Nations Member States, including the
    United States, adopted quality education, including access to
    higher education, and gender equality as sustainable development
    goals to be attained by 2030. One of the education goal targets
    is to ``ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable
    and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education,
    including university''.
    (8) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
    Clinton stated, ``We will open the doors of education to all
    citizens, but especially to girls and women * * *. We are doing
    all of these things because we have seen that when women and
    girls have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to
    contribute to their families'' well-being, they flourish and so
    do the people around them.
    (9) In February 2019, the White House launched the Women's
    Global Development and Prosperity Initiative to advance women's
    economic empowerment across the globe and reach more than
    100,000 women.
    (10) The World Economic Forum ranks Pakistan the second
    lowest among all countries in the world evaluated for gender
    equality. On educational attainment for women, Pakistan is
    ranked the tenth lowest.
    (11) In Pakistan, the rate of higher education enrollment
    beyond high school for girls and women is just 9 percent as
    reported by the World Bank. The global rate is 40 percent. Less
    than 6 percent of women 25 and older in Pakistan attain a
    bachelor's degree or equivalent as of 2016.
    (12) Factors such as poverty, early marriage, disability,
    ethnicity, and religion can contribute to the lack of
    educational opportunities for women in marginalized communities.
    (13) According to the World Bank, ``Higher education
    benefits both individuals and society. Economic returns for
    college graduates are the highest in the entire educational
    system--an average 17 percent increase in earnings per year of
    schooling as compared with 10 percent for primary school.''.
    (14) The United States provides critical foreign assistance
    to Pakistan's education sector to improve access to and the
    quality of basic and higher education. Since 2010, the United
    States Agency for International Development (referred to in this
    Act as ``USAID'') has awarded more than 6,000 scholarships for
    young women to receive higher education in Pakistan.
    (15) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program
    administered by USAID awards scholarships to academically
    talented, financially needy Pakistani students from all regions,
    including female students from rural areas of the country, to
    pursue bachelor's or master's degrees at participating Pakistani
    universities.
    SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) In General.--It is the sense of Congress that--
    (1) every individual should have the opportunity to pursue a
    full cycle of primary, secondary, and higher education;
    (2) every individual, regardless of gender, socio-economic
    status, ethnicity, or religion should have the opportunity to
    pursue an education without fear of discrimination;

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    (3) educational exchanges promote institutional linkages
    between the United States and Pakistan; and
    (4) recipients of scholarships referred to in section 4
    should commit to improving their local communities.

    (b) Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in Pakistan.--
    Congress encourages the Department of State and USAID to continue their
    support for initiatives led by the Government of Pakistan and civil
    society that promote education in Pakistan, especially education for
    women, in accordance with USAID's 2018 Education Policy.
    SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The USAID Administrator shall award at least 50
    percent of the number of scholarships under the Merit and Needs-Based
    Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act as the ``Program'') to
    women for each of the calendar years 2020 through 2022.
    (b) Limitations.--
    (1) Criteria.--The scholarships available under subsection
    (a) may only be awarded in accordance with other scholarship
    eligibility criteria already established by USAID.
    (2) Academic disciplines.--Scholarships authorized under
    subsection (a) shall be awarded for a range of disciplines to
    improve the employability of graduates and to meet the needs of
    the scholarship recipients.
    (3) Other scholarships.--The USAID Administrator shall make
    every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships available
    under the Program to Pakistani women.

    (c) <>  Leveraging Investment.--The USAID
    Administrator shall, to the greatest extent practicable, consult with
    and leverage investments by the Pakistani private sector and Pakistani
    diaspora communities in the United States as part of USAID's greater
    effort to improve the quality of, expand access to, and ensure
    sustainability of education programs in Pakistan.
    SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING.

    (a) <>  In General.--The
    USAID Administrator shall designate appropriate USAID officials to brief
    the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 1 year after
    the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for the next
    3 years, on the implementation of section 4.

    (b) Contents.--The briefing described in subsection (a) shall
    include, among other relevant information, for the most recently
    concluded fiscal year--
    (1) the total number of scholarships that were awarded
    through the Program, including a breakdown by gender;
    (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the scholarship
    recipients;
    (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were awarded to
    students seeking a bachelor's degree or a master's degree,
    respectively;
    (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients who voluntarily
    dropped out of school or were involuntarily pushed out of the
    program for failure to meet program requirements; and

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    (5) the percentage of scholarship recipients who dropped out
    of school due to retaliation for seeking an education, to the
    extent that such information is available.

    Approved January 13, 2021.

    LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 4508:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
    Vol. 166 (2020):
    Mar. 3, considered and passed House.
    Vol. 166 (2021):
    Jan. 1, considered and passed
    Senate.