Education for girls and vaccines can save Africa from disaster | Phillip Inman

Parts of the continent potentially face a decade of crisis. These two measures are more important than any other in avoiding it

There are so many good causes in the world it is often difficult to know where aid money should go. As leaders line up to attend the G7 summit in Cornwall, the most effective destinations for aid money have become clearer - a global vaccination programme and improving girls' education.

This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa, where so much can go wrong over the next 10 years - a population explosion, massive biodiversity loss, desertification, famine and mass migration to mention just a few - that unless we focus our efforts on vaccines and girls' education, whatever is done to alleviate poverty or tackle the climate emergency will be threatened or even sabotaged in almost every other region of the world.

African leaders are well aware of the benefits that flow from educating girls, from the immediate economic income to the wider gains for the planet. What they lack is the resources