Girls' education, indisputably crucial to development, has received a lot of attention--but surprisingly little hardheaded analysis to inform practical policy solutions. In Inexcusable Absence, Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed propose new strategies for reaching the 70 percent of out-of-school girls who are "doubly disadvantaged" by their ethnicity, language, or other factors. The book will be an important tool for policymakers, informing interventions that can make a profound impact on the lives of the 60 million out-of-school girls.

Maureen A. Lewis is an adviser to the Human Development vice president of the World Bank and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development, USA. She was formerly chief economist of the Human Development Network of the World Bank. Marlaine E. Lockheed is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. She served as director for education, ad interim, for the World Bank from 2000 to 2001, and managed units responsible for education strategy and lending in the Middle East and North Africa.