This TED Talk features social entrepreneur Safina Hussain, recorded live at TED 2019.

This ambitious idea is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.

Learn more at audaciousproject.org.

The world today has many problems, and they're all very complicated and interconnected

and difficult.

But there is something we can do.

I believe that girls' education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet to help

solve some of the world's most difficult problems.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

The World Bank says that girls' education

is one of the best investments that a country can make.

It helps to positively impact nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Everything from health, nutrition, employment, all of these are positively impacted when girls are educated.

Additionally, climate scientists have recently rated girls' education at number six out of 80 actions to reverse global warming.

At number six, it's rated higher than solar panels and electric cars.

And that's because when girls are educated, they have smaller families, and the resulting reduction

in population reduces carbon emissions significantly. But more than that, you know, it's a problem

we have to solve once, because an educated mother is more than twice as likely to educate her children,

which means that by doing it once,

we can close the gender and literacy gap forever.

I work in India, which has made incredible progress

in bringing elementary education for all.

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