1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act”.
Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act
AN ACT
To expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.
2. Findings
Findings— Congress makes the following findings:
On October 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Pakistani Taliban on her way home from school.
In late 2008, Malala began writing a blog for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym pressing the case for access to education for women and girls despite objections from the Pakistani Taliban.
Malala’s advocacy for the education of women and girls made her a target of the Taliban.
The Taliban called Malala’s efforts to highlight the need for education for women and girls an “obscenity”.
On July 12, 2013, Malala celebrated her 16th birthday by delivering a speech before the United Nations General Assembly in which she said, “So let 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. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution.”.
According to the United Nation’s 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, “Pakistan has the second largest number of children out of school [in the world]” and “nearly half of rural females have never been to school.”.
According to the World Bank, “The benefits of women’s education go beyond higher productivity for 50 percent of the population. More educated women also tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better health care and education to their children, all of which eventually improve the well-being of all individuals and lift households out of poverty. These benefits also transmit across generations, as well as to their communities at large.”.
According to United Nation’s 2012 Education For All Global Monitoring Report, “education can make a big difference to women’s earnings. In Pakistan, women with a high level of literacy earned 95 percent more than women with no literacy skills.”.
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.
The United States provides critical foreign assistance to Pakistan’s education sector to improve access to and the quality of basic and higher education.
The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awards scholarships to academically talented, financially needy Pakistani students from all regions, including remote areas of the country, to pursue bachelor’s or master’s degrees at participating Pakistani universities.
Fifty percent of the 974 Merit and Needs-Based Scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 were awarded to Pakistani women. Historically, only 25 percent of such scholarships have been awarded to women. Starting in the fall of 2013, USAID has committed to provide 50 percent of all scholarships to women.
The United Nations declared July 12, 2013, as “Malala Day”—a global day of support for and recognition of Malala’s bravery and courage in promoting women’s education.
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”.
On December 10, 2012, the United Nations and the Government of Pakistan launched the “Malala Fund for Girls’ Education” to improve girls’ access to education worldwide, with Pakistan donating the first $10,000,000 to the Fund.
More than 1,000,000 people around the world have signed the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education petition calling on the Government of Pakistan to enroll every boy and girl in primary school.
Pakistani civil society organizations collected almost 2,000,000 signatures from Pakistanis on a petition dedicated to Malala’s cause of education for all.
Engagement with Pakistani diaspora communities in the United States, who have unique perspectives, access, and opportunities to contribute to stability and economic growth in Pakistan, will be a critical element of a successful United States program to promote greater access to education for women and girls.
3. Sense of Congress
In general— It is the sense of Congress that—
every individual should have the opportunity to pursue an education;
every individual, regardless of gender, should have the opportunity to pursue an education without fear of discrimination;
educational exchanges promote institutional linkages between the United States and Pakistan; and
recipients of scholarships referred to in section 4 should commit to improving their local communities.
Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in Pakistan— Congress encourages the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development to continue their support for initiatives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani civil society that promote education in Pakistan, especially education for women.
4. Merit and needs-based scholarship program
In general— The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (referred to in this Act as 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 2014 through 2016.
Limitations—
Criteria— The scholarships available under subsection (a) may only be awarded in accordance with other scholarship eligibility criteria already established by USAID.
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.
Other scholarships— The USAID Administrator shall make every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships available under the Program to Pakistani women.
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.
5. Annual congressional briefing
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.
Contents— The briefing described in subsection (a) shall include, among other relevant information, for the most recently concluded fiscal year—
the total number of scholarships that were awarded through the Program, including a breakdown by gender;
the disciplines of study chosen by the scholarship recipients;
the percentage of the scholarships that were awarded to students seeking a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree, respectively;
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
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.