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Education in emerging markets: closing the gap

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2 minutes to read by  D.Jelic, RBC Emerging Markets Equity team Jan 30, 2025

Dijana Jelic, EM Equity Product Specialist, looks at developments within education, an important socioeconomic factor driving a country’s long-term economic development.

Key discussion points include:

  • Education as an ESG factor: ESG factors at country level are useful for our EM Equity team’s overall portfolio strategy, and for positioning portfolios in areas of long-term structural growth while avoiding the risks.

  • Female participation: considerable progress has been made globally with regard to female participation in education. However, breaking down these positive global trends reveals there is significant disparity amongst countries.

  • Technology: access to technology within education varies considerably between countries and income levels, which could potentially exacerbate the issue of global education inequality going forward.

  • India: the country stands out as having very low female labour force participation compared with other EM countries, and although efforts have been made to improve enrollment ratios at pre-school to secondary levels and in higher education, much more needs to be done.

  • Saudi Arabia: female workforce participation has risen in recent years, on the back of the Crown Prince’s social and economic reforms. This is expected to benefit the economy, by adding USD39 billion or 3.5% to GDP by 20321.

1. S&P Global, GASTAT, as at September 2023.
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