Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE)

1. Background

The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a pan-African Non-Governmental Organisation founded in 1992 by five African women ministers of education. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.  FAWE is working in 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to empower girls and women through gender-responsive education. FAWE is a membership organisation that brings together women in charge of national education systems, institutions of learning and educational policy in 33 Countries across sub-Saharan Africa. These include among others; Serving Women Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Education; Serving women presidents of universities, women vice-chancellors and women deputy vice-chancellors; Serving women permanent secretaries and/or directors in the education ministries ; Professional women of Africa who work towards promoting girls’ education in their countries.

FAWE’s Vision is a world in which all African girls have access to education, perform well and complete their studies, and gender disparities in education are eliminated.

Its Mission is to promote gender equity and equality in education in Africa by fostering positive policies, practices and attitudes towards girls’ education.

FAWE works with governments, communities, schools and beneficiaries to achieve gender equity and equality in education by; building public awareness, demonstrating best educational practice through effective gender responsive models, and encourages the adoption of these models by governments and institutions of education.

2. FAWE’s Holistic Approach

To achieve gender equality and equity in education across Africa, FAWE uses a four-pronged approach:

1. Policy Advocacy – FAWE works to influence ministries of education and other policy makers to formulate and implement policies that will achieve greater and better participation of girls in education,
2. Community and Grassroots Advocacy – Through a range of advocacy campaigns, FAWE raises awareness among stakeholders and members of local communities on the social and economic value of girl’s education.
3. Demonstrative Intervention – FAWE has developed various gender-responsive interventions, and has implemented in different African countries to demonstrate what works in promoting gender equity and equality in education.
4. Replication and Scaling up – FAWE works closely with ministries of education and other partners to replicate and scale up its successful gender responsive programme models across Africa.

3. FAWE’s Gender Responsive Interventions

Over the years, we have developed gender responsive programme that have been test tried to enable girls to access quality learning and thus empower, protect and transform their lives. These interventions include:

1. Gender-Responsive Pedagogy (for teachers and school administrators). Observations of classroom practices show that many teachers, conditioned by male- dominated values in their communities, apply teaching methodologies that do not give girls and boys equal treatment and opportunity to participate. The Gender-Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) intervention addresses the quality of teaching in African schools by training teachers to become more gender aware and to adopt teaching practices that promote equal treatment and participation of boys and girls in the classroom and within the wider school community. The training is offered through school based in-service training or in Teachers Training Colleges   during the pre-service training.
2.  FAWE’s Tuseme (Let us Speak Out) is a youth empowerment process that uses theatre-for-development techniques to enable girls and boys to identify and address concerns that hinder their social and academic development. Tuseme enhances the girls’ self-esteem, leadership, decision making, negotiation and other life skills, and it promotes a positive attitude among boys towards girls’ education. Tuseme enables the students to take action in resolving issues that affect their schooling.
3. FAWE’s comprehensive scholarship packages, targets academically bright students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to access comprehensive education support that enables them to enroll in school, stay on to complete the academic cycle and perform well in national examinations. The scholarship package include tuition for a full academic cycle, other school levies and scholastic material such school uniforms, textbooks, stationery and personal hygiene products. It also includes essential education services such as mentoring, Tuseme youth empowerment, psychosocial counselling and training of teachers and school administrators in GRP etc.
4. Science, Mathematics and Technology. Our Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) programme aims to increase interest, participation and performance of girls in SMT subjects at all levels through activities such as science camps, STM club, study tours, use of profiles on women achievers in science-based fields, exposure to role models, and awards to female achievers in SMT subjects. It also trains teachers to adopt and use SMT curricula, teaching and learning materials and classroom practices that are gender-responsive.
5. Gender Responsive School (GRS). This is a FAWE  Centre of Excellence school model  where the school learning environment has been transformed into gender-responsive environment that pay attention to the physical, academic and social dimensions of both girls’ and boys’ education and offer quality learning. The school environment is transformed through the implementation of a combination of various gender interventions including; GRP, Tuseme, SMT, scholarship for needy but bright students, sexual maturation management and prevention of SRGBV among others.
6. Economic Empowerment of Out of School model through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The Economic Empowerment of girls through TVET programme is aimed at providing out-of-school girls with the opportunity to acquire male dominated technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills in order to increase their prospects for employment in the formal or informal sectors. This is achieved through community mobilisation, the provision of vocational, technical and entrepreneurship training, policy advocacy and support to the graduates in either finding relevant employment or setting up specific income-generating activities including the creation of graduates associations. Additionally, the programme provides some scholarships for student’s wishing to continue with their education.

4. FAWE’s Strategic Objectives- 2013-2017

FAWE’s 2013-2017 Strategic Plan focus is on “enabling positive change in girls’ education”. Over this period our interventions shall be tailored to individual contexts and challenges at the family, community, school, and national level and will contribute towards enabling girls to access education, complete their studies, and perform well at all levels.

We will achieve this aim by focusing on two strategic objectives:

1. To enable girls across Africa to access high-quality education, complete schooling, and perform well at all levels.
2. To ensure knowledge and learning of gender and education are managed and shared for the benefit of all working in this field.

Two supporting objectives will complement the main two strategic and enable us to achieve our main strategic objectives:

3. To have a skilled, vibrant FAWE network with the capacity to deliver the strategic objectives.
4. To have strong, productive partnerships with like-minded individuals, groups, and organisations committed to gender equity and equality in education.

The 2013-2017 Strategic Plan is the third since FAWE was founded in 1992.

For more information: FAWE Strategic Plan 2013-2017

For more information:  www.fawe.org