Young girls at Nwambwa school in Bugiri, Uganda, promote education for girls

Lack of education and high maternal mortality go hand in hand.The five countries with the lowest female literacy rates (Niger, Guinea, Afghanistan, Benin, and Burkina Faso) all have maternal mortality ratios (MMR) over 300 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Afghanistan

Only 17% of women can read, compared to 45% of men

Cameroon

Education has a huge effect on whether women will give birth with a midwife. In Cameroon over 90% of women with secondary or higher education give birth with a midwife (or other health professional) while less than a quarter of women with no schooling receive skilled care

China

Educating girls is educating the mothers of the future, who will in turn educate their own daughters. In rural China children of mothers with 6 years of primary education will go to school 1.4 years longer than their counterparts whose mothers have no education