primary teachers ; (iv) the Campaign to Enrol children of between 6 and 7 years in primary one ; (v) the award of scholarships to young girls outside the school system for their integration (DFID, Educate a child); (vi) the supply of 18 million school textbooks and teachers’ textbooks; (vii) the payment of teachers’ salaries through the banking system and the regular payment of the operational expenditure of schools’ management offices. 144. Moreover, other programmes have been designed and implemented to improve the education sector and especially to facilitate and encourage enrolment of girls. Among the important programmes, one can cite the following: Acceleration Programme for the Enrolment of Girls initiated by the government with the support of UNICEF, the Special Programme for the Eradication of Illiteracy, the gendered representation programme in French and mathematics textbooks in the DRC and gender equality, the Cooperation programme or cooperation Agreement between the government and UNICEF between 2006 and 2007; a component of the country programme comprising of 4 sectoral and cross-cutting programmes. Its objective is to provide quality formal or non-formal education to children from 3 to 6 years based on gender parity, the policy relating to specific opportunity costs for girls with the aim of promoting retention of vulnerable girls of 12 years and more in primary schools and the school communication and mobilization of girls. 145. Similarly, the financing of the education sector has increased exponentially in recent years even though the sector still remains under-funded. The State budget allocated to the education sector has been increasing steadily and quite significantly for the past four years. Its share of the public expenditure reached 16% in 2014 as against 8% in 2000 and 4% in 1990, thus, attesting to the growing priority given to education by the DRC government. Compared to the GDP, the public educational expenditure which was 1.6% of GDP in 2010 reached 2.1% in 2013 and 3.8% in 2014. Similarly, the support of the TFP to the education sector increased significantly in the last few years and their financial contribution to the needs of the sector increased from less than 8% in 2010 to close to 20% in 2013. 146. This performance shows the capacity of the Congolese educational system to significantly reduce the school dropout rates, especially among girls. Indeed, progress can be seen among girls as the completion rates at the primary level increased from 48.6% in 2009 to more than 70% in 2013 (MDGs Review). 147. With regard to the awareness raising among the public for the enrolment of girls, several campaigns have been organized by the Congolese government in partnership with civil society organizations and technical and financial partners with flagship themes such as “Girls and boys to school”, “Education is the child’s right”. 148. Concerning the difficulties encountered in the implementation of rights protected by the MAPUTO Protocol on access by girls and women to education and training, one can cite the major ones as being: socio-economic bottlenecks. 149. The disaggregated data that appear in Table No. 11 indicate the progress achieved in terms of enrolment of girls at the primary and secondary level for the period from 2007 -2013. It can be observed in the city of Kinshasa and the province of Bas-Congo, that there is almost perfect equality in terms of enrolment of girls and boys; the situation is not very good in the provinces of Maniema and Katanga where high disparities exist at the secondary level. 2. PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM VIOLENCE  Physical integrity and dignity, including sexual violence, trafficking in women and medical and scientific experiments (Articles 3 and 4) 150. With regard to the fight against violence perpetrated against women, young girls and the girl-child, the DRC has made significant progress, but a lot remains to be done. Article 16 of the Constitution of 18 February, 2006 stipulates that the human being is sacred and this imposes an obligation on the State to respect and protect such an individual. This same provision prescribes the right to life, physical integrity as well as the free development of the personality. 151. With specific reference to violence against women, Article 14 (3) of the same Constitution 35

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