Giving Compass' Take:

• Leaders of France, Canada and Britain have warned other nations of the major issues arising from the lack of gender equity in education.

• As Global Citizen discusses, a failure to educate girls results in child marriages and pregnancies, poor health and poverty along with a national loss of productivity, instability and conflict. How can funders help close the gap?

· Here are the 10 toughest places in the world for girls to go to school.

Leaders of France, Canada and Britain called on world nations to boost efforts to educate girls, warning that "catastrophes" can result from failure to provide access to quality schooling.

Without educating girls, nations lose productivity and risk instability and conflict, they said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations.

More than 130 million girls, many in conflict-ridden or poor regions around the world, do not attend school, according to the World Bank, costing as much as $30 trillion in lost earnings and productivity.

A lack of education puts girls at risk of child marriage, poor health, early pregnancies, joblessness and poverty, experts say.

But the rest of the world pays a price as well, in terms of economic power and political stability, world leaders said at a U.N. event promoting girls' education.

"It's an investment. If we don't do it, then we will be preparing for catastrophes," French President Emmanuel Macron said.

"If we don't do anything, others will take hold of the agenda and there will be a crisis."

Quality education must include cultural and social standards that address gender inequality, he said.

Read the full article about educating girls by Ellen Wulfhorst at Global Citizen.