Drawing on decades of literature and 23 expert interviews conducted in early 2026, this report asks what the girls’ education field should preserve, adjust, and build to meet the needs of girls today. It finds a sector that is out-of-step, strained by USAID’s collapse, deep aid cuts, and an ongoing backlash against gender equality globally, but ready to reorient: keeping governments at the center, generating evidence strong enough to shift policy, and building programs around girls at the margins.
