Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa
While access to education for females has improved dramatically over the past few decades in the Middle East, many are still excluded. Education helps women prepare for the labor force and helps them understand their legal and reproductive rights. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (November 2003)

Is Education the Best Contraceptive? (PDF: 267KB)
The United Nations, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Population Council, and others have examined the links between education and childbearing to provide a greater understanding of these issues. This policy brief highlights key findings from their investigations. (August 2000)

Powerful Partners: Adolescent Girls' Education and Delayed Childbearing (PDF: 376KB)
More-educated women have fewer children. This seemingly straightforward relationship is actually complex, and the benefits associated with different levels of education can vary considerably by setting. This policy brief describes adolescent girls' reproductive health risks and how increasing their educational attainment reduces those risks, including early and unwanted fertility, and benefits their future families and society. (September 2007)

Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in the Middle East
Countries in the MENA region were among the 189 countries that attended the 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit, where leaders from around the word adopted the Millennium Declaration and made a commitment to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (March 2004)

Youth in a Global World

 Youth in a Global World describes what it's like to grow up in today's world, with a special focus on four major experiences in the lives of young people: schooling, health, marriage, and childbearing. It highlights changes, cites trends, and suggests ways policies and programs could further improve the lives of today's youth. (June 2006)