A/68/294 C. Poverty reduction strategies: the role of education 59. Poverty is the greatest obstacle to the enjoyment of the right to education as well as the right to development for nearly 1.3 billion people who still live in extreme poverty, and its elimination is indeed an overriding development concern. 60. In that respect, the Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize that education is a powerful tool in poverty eradication. A shortcoming of the report of the Highlevel Panel, however, is that such an approach is not reflected in the first illustrative goal on poverty eradication. 61. In the post-2015 development agenda, the key importance of the right to education as a powerful lever for eliminating the intergenerational transmission of poverty must figure prominently. The achievement of internationally agreed targets for poverty eradication will be missed and inequalities between countries and within societies will widen if education is not intertwined with the future goal on poverty eradication. 62. The strategies should be guided by equitable approaches, along with social protection measures for enabling children from poor households to avail themselves of their fundamental right to education. 63. That requires permanent support to the enjoyment of the universal right to education in the form of grants and bursaries to be provided to the children who are victims of exclusion, in particular those who are victims of extreme poverty. Such affirmative action and promotional measures have a normative basis in international human rights conventions. Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides for “an adequate fellowship system” among its provisions on the right to education. D. Ensuring gender-parity: illustrative goal 2 64. The Special Rapporteur would like to note that the illustrative goal proposed in the report of the High-level Panel related to women’s empowerment seems to be a regression as compared to the second Millennium Development Goal to promote gender equality, including in access to primary and secondary and technical education. Achieving a girl’s right to education as a priority is an absolute requirement, as historically women have suffered from injustice, and girls and women constitute a majority of those who remain deprived of education. 65. The right to education for women and girls should be driven by a rights-based approach. That is essential for putting an end to multiple forms of discrimination from which women and girls suffer. A rights-based approach implies that educating women and girls should, a priori, be viewed as a human rights imperative, rather than being undertaken solely because of potential benefits to their children or to society. “Greater equity, including between men and women and among other groups, is not only essential in itself, but also important for promoting human development. One of the most powerful instruments for this purpose is education”. 5 __________________ 5 14/26 UNDP, Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World (New York, 2013). 13-42277