Inexcusable Absence

Maureen A. Lewis is an adviser to the Human Development vice president of the World Bank and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development, USA. She was formerly chief economist of the Human Development Network of the World Bank. Marlaine E. Lockheed is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. She served as director for education, ad interim, for the World Bank from 2000 to 2001, and managed units responsible for education strategy and lending in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Lewis and Lockheed are the ideal people to write about this timely topic; their ability to look at the phenomenon of doubly disadvantaged girls from thei different perspectives provides insights that more narrow investigations lack." —Eric A. Hanushek, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University|"Few doubt that investing in girls' education yields high economic returns. But with 60 million girls out of school, are development advocates pushing on a string? Lewis and Lockheed unveil a big part of the problem: most of these girls come from their own societies' excluded and minority groups. INEXCUSABLE ABSENCE explains why and what can be done. It is a must-read for students and practitioners of development." —Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University and World Bank chief economist|"This is a very welcome report on an extraordinarily important problem, and I hope it will receive the attention it richly deserves." —Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Lamont University Professor of Economics and Philosophy|"INEXCUSABLE ABSENCE is an extremely useful volume for those who seek to promote gender equality and a major contribution to the field of education policy." —Geeta Rao Gupta, President, International Center for Research on Women