Earlier this month, CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq, had the honour of being invited to her old high school – ICG:Islamabad College for Girls.

“It was so much more than a trip down memory lane. This is a state school, with free education for over 6000 girls. It was much smaller when I was there! The calibre of the students (check out the podcast) and the dedication of the staff was nothing short of inspirational. Such examples, especially in a developing country like Pakistan, give me lots of confidence in our future leaders. Go ICG! And a shout out to the many collaborators I have the privilege of knowing, who are champions of girls’ education and women in technology.

Some years ago, I had come across the work of Paul Hawken and the Drawdown project where the ‘Analysis of 125 countries shows that education (particularly female education) is the single most important socioeconomic factor associated with a reduction in vulnerability to natural disasters.'”