The conference ‘Saving Every Woman, Every Child’ is taking place in Toronto this week, gathering together world leaders and non-governmental players to discuss global maternal and child health.

As noted in the Montreal Gazette, women around the world continue to die in childbirth and millions of infants and children lose their lives every year for lack of quality medical facilities and trained doctors. While we have seen progress over the last 25 years, as Daphne Bramham writes in The Gazette, the statistics remain horrible to contemplate and the absolute numbers are difficult to fathom.

 “Nearly seven million children died last year – three million of them within a month of their birth. Another 2.6 million babies were stillborn. An estimated 289,000 women and girls died during pregnancy or in childbirth because they either received no care or inappropriate care.”

We know that one of the solutions is better and more education for girls. Here, the statistics show the possibilities: family planning would result in a 9% drop in fertility, but if girls completed high school, fertility would fall by an impressive 26%.

The results are incontrovertible. More education helps girls and women to make better choices. It also gives them the confidence and the voice to have more of a say in when they marry and in how many children they have.

Clearly, educating girls is the way to go to confront a host of issues that affect the planet. An education has a tremendous impact on women’s and girls’ personal lives: their ability to make informed decisions, to have a voice and to use it. This is the best reason of all to make sure that all girls go to school.