A Case Study of Pakistan Determinants of Female Labour Force in South Asia Figure 10: Education attainment by gender, 2017-18 Higher 59.51 40.49 Intermediate 59.97 40.03 Educa ti on levels Matric 62.54 37.46 Middle 63.51 36.49 Primary 58.94 41.06 No formal educa ti on 35.8 64.2 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Male Female Source: Author’s own calculation based on LFS Pakistan(2017-18) Are such lower levels of women’s education explained by inadequate efforts on the part of the State? One such measure to gauge this could be to look at the funding and expenditure done in this regard. For example, Pakistan’s expenditure on the education sector is a minimal of 2.9% of its GDP(shown in the figure below), far below its regional average of 3.8% and even below its average income group of 4.5%(The World Bank, 2020). In contrast, the government can invest in nuclear weapons and a$1.2 billion expressway between Lahore and Islamabad. If we look at international funding, Pakistan is the third-largest recipient of foreign development assistance and received $58 billion4 from 1960-98. The country has also benefitted from several generous loans from IMF and World Bank, where the former alone provided $20 billion from 1952 to 1999. Yet, the investment in social sectors like education and health are unsatisfactory. 4. In 1995 Dollars 33