Sub-regional Policy Highlights for East, Southern and West Africa

The OECD Development Centre organised a series of policy dialogues throughout 2021 to engage with both grassroots organisations and policy makers on “From Data to Policy Action: Tackling Gender-Based Discrimination in Social Institutions” in East, Southern and West Africa.

The events were organised in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the OECD’s Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and led to the creation of three “Roadmaps for Action”.

Discussions during the policy dialogues fed into the SIGI 2021 Regional Report for Africa and three sub-regional Policy Highlights for each sub-region, accessible here below. In addition, three sub-regional Roadmaps for Action were developed with all attendees to the policy dialogues:

• East Africa (see Roadmap for Action)
• Southern Africa (see Roadmap for Action)
• West Africa (see Roadmap for Action)

These materials are also available directly from the OECD iLibrary page here.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Implications for the SDGs with a focus on women and girls
3. Implications for SDG 5 specifically
4. Additional Resources from OECD on COVID-19
5. References

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a severe threat to the achievement of gender-related SDGs and jeopardises some of the improvements observed since 2015 related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. By looking at the state of the SDGs and their interlinkages pre-crisis, it is clearthat the economic and social consequences of the pandemic will exacerbate existing inequalities and discrimination against women and girls, especially against the most marginalised. As was revealed in West Africa during the Ebola crisis (2014-2015) and in Latin America with the Zika outbreak (2015-2016), public health crises can place a hold on gender-transformative policies and reforms, diverting resources away from the past and current needs of women, while the crises themselves actually increase and expand them. With this, it is important to recognize the impact COVID-19 is having, and will continue to have, on the achievement of the SDGs if progressive actions are not taken.

Implications for the SDGs with a focus on women and girls

Given the widespread and multiple implications of the COVID-19 crisis, all SDGs, and particularly those gender-related targets and indicators, are likely to be affected. Recognizing this impact and its gendered nature is a critical first step to designing socio-economic recoveries that will help, not hinder, the achievement of the SDGs and gender equality. Though not an exhaustive list, by looking with a gendered lens, it is clear that at least the following SDGs will be stalled by the current crisis:

• SDG 8 – “Decent Work”: “Women constitute an estimated two-thirds of the health workforce worldwide, and…make up around 85% of nurses and midwives in the 104 countries for which data are available” (OECD, 2020). This sectoral concentration, as well as women’s over-representation in retail and hospitality, means that women are disproportionately exposed to COVID-19 at work.
• SDG 3 – “Good Health and Well-Being”: Resources for reproductive and sexual health are diverted to the emergency response – as we saw during the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014-2015, this contributed to an increase in maternal mortality in regions with weak healthcare capacities (Wenham, Smith and Morgan, 2020). For example, in Sierra Leone, post-crisis impact studies uncovered that during the crisis, there was a drop in the use of health services which translated to 3,600 additional maternal, neonatal and stillbirth deaths, under the most conservative estimates, in the year 2014-15 (Sochas, Channon and Nam, 2017).
• SDG 4 – “Quality Education”: The Ebola crisis also revealed a significant increase in adolescent pregnancies following the closure of schools during the outbreak, which in turn translated to higher rates of school dropouts especially for adolescent mothers during the post-crisis period (Bandiera et al., 2019). At the same time, the increased workload of unpaid and domestic care work falling on women’s and girls’ shoulders – in particular caring for the sick—will affect girls’ educational prospects.
• SDG 2 – “Zero Hunger”: In countries where social norms imply a preference for boys over girls, the pandemic might magnify these preferences across a wide array of domains. For instance, restricted food resources might lead households where discriminatory social norms are widespread to favour boys over girls, directly affecting SDG 2. Similarly, in a context of limited resources, preference might be given to boys over girls in terms of education and health (SDGs 3 and 4).
• SDG 1 – “No Poverty” and SDG 10 – “Reduced Inequality”: As the economic consequences of the outbreak – e.g. layoffs, income loss, job insecurity—might disproportionately affect women, an increase in women’s poverty levels around the globe is highly likely.

Implications for SDG 5 specifically 

The pandemic will yield severe consequences on the achievement of SDG 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, specifically. Before the crisis, it was estimated that 2.1 billion girls and women were living in countries that will not achieve gender equality targets by 2030 (Equal Measures 2030, 2020). As the pace of progress slows down, both developed and developing countries require more time and aggressive action to reach gender equality targets. The following SDG 5 targets will be severely affected:

• SDG 5.1 on eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and girls: According to the OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), new legislation to enhance gender equality and abolish discriminatory laws have benefited from increasing political commitments before the crisis (OECD, 2019). However, the health crisis has crippled the legislative system hindering many government’s abilities to pass and implement new legislation.
• SDG 5.2 on eliminating all violence against women and girls: While recent data show that 18% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual partner violence in the previous 12 months, new evidence shows that domestic violence has increased, especially under lockdowns. For example, the UK’s National Domestic Abuse Helpline say a 25% increase in the number of phone calls in the first week of lockdown and a 150% increase in visits to its website (UN Women, 2020).
• SDG 5.3 on eliminating all harmful practices: Before the crisis, evidence showed a decline in the practice of child marriage in both South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (OECD Development Centre, 2019). As poverty increases in the wake of the pandemic child, early and forced marriage, which often stem from economic considerations under extreme poverty, might also increase in developing countries. Meanwhile, in low-income countries, the health crisis will severely cripple the financial capacities and resources of governments, yielding profound effects on the legislative and enforcement capabilities of these countries. Prosecution of perpetrators of female genital mutilation, for instance, might become even more uneven, and there have been reports that the practice has become more common since the pandemic began.
• SDG 5.4 on recognising unpaid care and domestic work: Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, women were already performing 75% of household and care work globally (OECD Development Centre, 2019). The present crisis has highlighted the importance of carers who take care of the older members of society as well as those with existing health issues. Moreover, in many places schools have closed, meaning that children are staying home. These dynamics and all that comes with them, increase the time-burden of unpaid care work. It will likely be very challenging to return to the pre-crisis distribution and nearly impossible to achieve an equitable distribution of unpaid care and domestic work between men and women by 2030.
• SDG 5.6 on ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights: Provision of sexual and reproductive health commodities, including menstrual health items may be impacted as supply chains undergo strain from the pandemic response (UNFPA, 2020). Evidence from the Zika crisis in Latin America showed that gang violence in El Salvador and Brazil directly affected women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services, with informal networks controlling who had access to supplies and who did not.

Conclusions

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, there is growing recognition of the impact it will have on the goals set forth in the 2030 Agenda. While the past months have shown that adaptation is indeed possible, there is a need to look forward at the impact responses to COVID-19 will have on human development worldwide. In looking forward, it is possible to understand that action taken now will fundamentally shape the future. With this recognition comes the possibility to craft policies that are sensitive to gender inequalities and will allow for equitable recoveries.

Additional Resources from OECD on COVID-19 

• Women at the core of the fight against COVID-19 crisis (OECD Publication)
• Tackling coronavirus (COVID‑19) Contributing to a global effort (OECD’s COVID-19 platform)

References: 

Bandiera, O. et al. (2019). “The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola: Lessons from an Empowerment Program”. Impact Evaluation series, No. WPS 8760. World Bank Group, Washington D.C. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/452451551361923106/The-Economic-Lives-of-Young-Women-in-the-Time-of-Ebola-Lessons-from-an-Empowerment-Program.

Equal Measures 2030 (2020). Bending the Curve Towards Gender Equality by 2030. https://www.equalmeasures2030.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/EM2030BendingTheCurveReportMarch2020.pdf.

OECD (2020). Women at the Core of the Fight Against COVID-19 Crisis. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=127_127000-awfnqj80me&title=Women-at-the-core-of-the-fight-against-COVID-19-crisis.

OECD (2019). SIGI 2019 Global Report: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities, Social Institutions and Gender Index. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/bc56d212-en.

OECD Development Centre (2019). Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) 2019. https://oe.cd/ds/GIDDB2019.

Sochas, L., A. Channon and S. Nam (2017). “Counting indirect crisis-related deaths in the context of a low-resilience health system: the case of maternal and neonatal health during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone”. Vol. 32, pp. 32-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czx108.

UNFPA (2020). COVID-19: A Gender Lens – Protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights, and promoting gender equality. UNFPA. https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/COVID-19_A_Gender_Lens_Guidance_Note.pdf.

Wenham, C., J. Smith and R. Morgan (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak, Lancet Publishing Group. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30526-2.

United Nations (n.d.). Sustainable Development Goal 5. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5.

United Nations (n.d.). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda.

UN Women (2020). COVID-19 and Violence Against Women and Girls: Addressing the Shadow Pandemic.  https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/policy-brief-covid-19-and-violence-against-women-and-girls-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5842

Contents:

1. Introduction: educational and political gender inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa
2. Evidence of the effects of female representation on women’s education
   1. Studies of political gender quotas in India and Africa
   2. Tentative evidence from Uganda
3. Pitfalls of political gender quotas
4. Conclusion
5. References

Introduction: educational and political gender inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa

On average, women have a Human Development Index (HDI) that is 5.9% lower than that of men. In less developed countries, the disparity grows to 13.8% [1]. The UNPD’s Gender Inequality Index (GII), which encompasses health, education, political representation and labour market outcomes, estimates the global loss in achievements due to gender inequalities to be 0.441 [1]. Yet, this figure is even higher in less developed regions, with Sub-Saharan Africa scoring 0.569 on the GII while OECD countries stand, on average, at 0.186 [1]. This article examines two gender gaps in particular–political and educational and the relationship between them.

Regarding education, though great headway has been made in the past two decades in achieving gender parity, girls remain disadvantaged in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, where according to UNICEF in 2018, 94 girls for every 100 boys, attended primary school, and only 85 attended secondary school [2]. Furthermore, UNESCO shows that in 2016, 9 million girls, as compared with 6 million boys, are expected to remain completely excluded from education [3].

On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Africa has proven itself a frontrunner in gender equality in the political sphere. The 1990s and early 2000s saw many countries in the region adopt affirmative action policies, introducing women into local and national government bodies [4]. These policies have paved the way to achieving female representation figures that far surpass many Western countries. Rwanda most prominently tops global rankings at 61% female seats in parliament – its 30% quota in all decision-making bodies having been implemented in 2003. The likes of South Africa, Mozambique, Burundi, Uganda and more, all stand above 35% compared to the US at 24% for instance [5].

Sub-Saharan Africa’s leadership in women’s political representation and concurrent trailing in educational gender equality, begs the question of how these two domains of gender equality are related. In particular, can female political representation put more girls in school?

Evidence of the effects of female representation on women’s education

On the one hand, women in politics are likely to steer policy agendas towards improving the lives of fellow women [6][7][8]. On the other hand, their mere presence on the political stage may also generate a role model effect, lifting the educational aspirations of other women and girls [9]. Quantitative evidence on the effect of female representation on women’s outcomes in the developing world has largely come from India, due to the country’s policy of randomly assigning one-third of all villages to female-only leadership elections. Random assignment means that all other factors which could also determine women’s outcomes, should, on average, be equally distributed between the group of villages that was assigned to female leadership and the group that was not. Hence, on average, the only difference between these two groups should be whether they were subjected to the female leadership rule or not, and it thus becomes possible to credibly attribute subsequent changes in girls’ education to the presence of a female leader. Beaman et al. (2012) collected data several years after this policy was implemented which reveal that in villages reserved for female leadership, the gender gap in parental as well as girls’ own aspirations for their future (as compared to those for boys), narrowed by 25% and 32% respectively [9]. They also found that the educational gender gap itself entirely vanishes and attribute this to improved aspirations fostered by female role modelling. This is strong evidence that when women enter the political stage, society’s estimation of female value rises, and parents as well as girls themselves invest more in their future.

In Africa, research on the effect of female representation on women’s education is scarce. Dimitrova-Grajzl and Obasanjo (2019) analyze data on GII components for African countries and find no correlation between the presence of a gender quota and women’s education [4]. When they differentiate between types of quotas, they do find that legislative candidate quotas (whereby parties must nominate a certain percentage of women as parliamentary candidates) as opposed to reserved seats (where a certain percentage of seats are reserved for women-only elections), are associated with higher secondary enrollment for girls. They argue that different quota designs lend different degrees of legitimacy to women MPs, which impacts their effectiveness as MPs.

Tentative evidence from Uganda

My research focuses on Uganda, given the lack of quantitative studies of the country’s quota system and its effects – especially on women’s education. The Ugandan gender gap in primary school has decreased markedly thanks largely to the 1997 policy of universal primary education [10]. However, the gap persists from late primary school onwards, with secondary and tertiary gender ratios at 0.89 and 0.27 respectively [11].

To investigate the potential role of female political representation in lifting these ratios, I study Uganda’s 1989 implementation of a parliamentary gender quota. The policy, whereby each district has to elect a female representative, caused a large spike in representation from virtually zero to 34 female MPs (or 12% of seats). I look at cohorts born between 1959 and 1987, calculating the average difference in education of women who completed their education before the quota’s implementation and women who completed it after implementation – those who actually witnessed the rise in female representation while in school. I then compare this difference to the same difference amongst men. Comparing women’s education alone, before and after the quota risks capturing the impact of countless other factors affecting education over time. However, by subtracting the female difference from the male difference, the factors experienced by both men and women can be differenced out. This adds some credibility to the claim of isolating the effect of the quota on women’s education.

Results show that girls who were in school during the spike in female representation saw nearly one more year of education, a 4% higher probability of having finished primary school and 18% higher probability of having entered school at all. These are large, statistically significant, effects, considering that for women who completed their education before the quota, average years of education stood at 3.34 and primary-completion and school-entry rates were 20% and 57% respectively.

Nonetheless, these conclusions should be drawn cautiously, given the difficulty of definitively isolating the effect of the parliamentary quota. Although the double-differencing method eliminates some confounding factors, a definite causal interpretation of the above effects relies on there being no factors affecting education which varied over time (from before to after the quota) while also varying between women and men. In truth, one such factor, which is difficult to control for, is the growing women’s movement and the fact that regardless of the quota, since as early as the 1940s, it is likely that women’s education was increasing at a faster rate than men’s as a result of gradually improving societal attitudes.

Pitfalls of political gender quotas

Quotas are undoubtedly an effective means of increasing female representation, however, there is ongoing debate on whether they are detrimental to meritocracy and whether women elected within a quota system suffer from less legitimacy. In Uganda in particular, the quota’s design has been accused of being a patronage-spreading tool [12]. Since it is a reserved seat quota whereby every district in the country must proffer a female MP, the incumbent party’s frequent district-creation has led critics to claim it opens its doors to women MPs only to illicit loyalty and geographically advance their influence, illegitimating female MPs in the eyes of the electorate. Policy recommendations regarding gender quotas should thus take into account the diversity of quota systems and their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Conclusion

Though much more research is necessary to be able to draw generalizable conclusions, women’s political presence might be a promising tool to promote women’s education in the developing world. Indeed, female schooling can be most effectively promoted through direct supply or demand-side policies; however, synergies between gender equality in different domains should certainly be welcomed and further explored.

About the author:

Maike Kusserow has recently graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc in Economics & Politics with study abroad at Sciences Po Paris. She is German-Colombian and grew up between East Africa, Germany, Austria and Colombia. She is passionate about issues of gender inequality and has a great interest in development economics. Her research, “Can political gender equality promote educational gender equality? Impacts of a parliamentary gender quota on women’s education in Uganda”, is available upon request.

References

Education in Thailand

Education in Thailand is provided mainly by the Thai government through the Ministry of Education from pre-school to senior high school. A free, basic twelve-year education, divided into six years of primary education and six years of secondary education, is guaranteed by the constitution.Education.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.unicef.org/thailand/education_303.html.
The 1999 Education Act guarantees the rights of all children, without discrimination, to a quality education. A Cabinet declaration in 2005 reaffirmed the rights of all children, including non-Thai children living in Thailand , to receive an educationEducation.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.unicef.org/thailand/education_303.html..

Both girls and boys have the same opportunities in primary school. From 2007-2010, the gross enrolment rate in primary education was 91% (92% for boys and 90% for girls) and the net enrolment rate was 90% (91% for boys and 89% for girls). The current success of Thailand in promoting the education of women as compared to men is reflected through the rate of female enrolment in primary education, compared with male enrolment which is 0.98 percent.Primary school enrolment (administrative data).Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.childinfo.org/education_enrolment.php

Thailand is the fourth country in Asia to succeed in promoting the education of women. Ministry of Education with UNESCO cooperate about equal opportunities between girls and boys.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.bic.moe.go.th/th/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=911:2012-03-28-06-52-16&catid=45:unesco
Completion rates in Thailand between girls and boys in primary school are also not very different. In 2005 – 2010, the primary completion rate in Thailand for females was 89 percent and and for males was 97 percent. Primary School Completion Rate, by Gender.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Topic/Rankings.aspx?ind=242

Children out of school

Starting at the age of 3, all children should be enrolled in some form of early learning services to help them start developing the skills they need to do well in primary school. When they celebrate their 6th birthday, children must be enrolled in Grade 1. When children lack the necessary tools for learning and as a result enrol late, their educational progress suffers and they are more likely to drop out, which makes them enter a cycle of poverty.

In Thailand, only 75% of children benefit from some form of early childhood development services. Another 600,000 primary school age children (6-11 years) are not attending school or enrol late. In addition, among those children who entered Grade 1 in 1998, about half of them did not finish Grade 12. Many children from poor, ethnic minority or migrant families do not go to school, while many stateless children, disabled children and children living with HIV are also not enrolled.

Early childhood development

Early childhood, the first five years of life, is a time of rapid cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and motor development and the most important period of development in a child’s life.

The development of a child’s brain depends on environmental stimulation, especially on the quality of care and interaction that the child receives. A baby who is hugged, cooed to, comforted and visually stimulated has an essential advantage. Children who are nurtured and well-cared for are more likely to fully develop cognitive, language, emotional and social skills; to grow up healthier; and to have higher self-esteem. Each of these areas is crucial to our well-being as adults, as our experiences in early childhood shape who we ultimately become. While home is the most important environment during early childhood, it is crucial that children are exposed to some form of quality early childhood services, such as those provided at early childhood development centres.

However about 25% of children in Thailand do not have access to any form of organised early childhood education. In addition, only 34% of the 8,276 early childhood centres surveyed meet the government’s minimum standards, according to the Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assurance.

Quality of education

The quality of education that children receive in Thailand is also a major concern. Studies have shown that the learning level of Thai children in major subject areas has declined over the past 10 years.

In recent years, results of the National Achievement Test have been dismal, with average scores for Grade 6 and Grade 12 students in core subjects below 50 percent.Quality of education.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.unicef.org/thailand/education_15799.html

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. MDG 2 goal is to achieve universal primary education. The target is to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.Millennium Development Goals.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals#Goal_2:_Achieve_universal_primary_education

Access to basic education has been gradually expanded to an increasing number of children. The net enrolment in primary education in Thailand was 90.5% in 2009, up from 81.4% in 2000, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school and gender gaps are narrowing.

The challenge for post-2015 will be quality of education. In recent years, results of the National Achievement Test with average scores for core subjects was below 50%.Education.Retrived 21 September 2013 from http://www.unicef.org/thailand/education_303.html.

See also

• Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Women and African Economic Development
• Primary Completion Rates

References

External links

• Education in Thailand

Group 1

From the left on top

Ms.Krichakorn Rungseeborirak 53148010178

Ms.Yuwadee Juntrapakorn 5314801020

Mr.Keito Kusaka 56148010275

From the left, second row

Mr.Saswat Kruemanee 53148010314

Ms.Phaniphak Suanmalee 53148010120

Ms.Sutisa Phonsab 53148010214

Table of Contents

• 1 Aims
• 2 Work
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

Aims

Formally established in 2002 (and launched on International Women’s Day that year), the Gender and Education Association (GEA) works to challenge and eradicate sexism and gender inequality within and through education. GEA is based in the UK, but has an Executive Committee within representation from other parts of the world and hundreds of international members. Its members are mostly academics teaching and researching gender and education issues in universities but also include teachers and policymakers.

Work

The association promotes gender equity in education in a range of ways including through communicating current research through the website, annual conferences and a range of seminars. Members also work alongside policymakers, teachers, youth workers, pressure groups, students and trade unionists to raise awareness, lobby and exchange information. Resource pages on various aspects of gender and education are used by academics, students, teachers and policy makers internationally. They cover: Contexts (boys’ ‘underachievement’, feminism, legislation and policy, media representations); Inclusion (disability and special needs, ethnicity, promoting gender equality, sexuality, social class); Pedagogies (assessment, curriculum, single-sex and co-ed schooling, single-sex classes, working with girls in youth work and in schools, working with boys); and Subjects (geography, history, life skills and pastoral care, mathematics, music, physical education, religious education, science).

See also

• Gender Equality in employment, education and entrepreneurship

External links

Gender and Education Association

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

Vision and Mission

Empower Afghan women and enhance their capacities through education and training so that they can contribute to the process of sustainable development and peace. Their mission is to reinforce the sustainable development process of Afghan women and children.

Objectives

• To build the capacity of women through skill development in the partner communities to establish their own businesses in order to play their desired role in their family and society.
• To address violence against women by providing shelter to victims of violence
• To advocate Women Human Rights issues at local, national and international level through workshops, seminars with active involvement of all the potential networking partners including Government line departments(Law makers judiciary, law enforcing agencies), NGOs etc
• To build peace and harmony among the partner communities through seminars trainings and workshops.
• To educate girls and women through community based education schools to increase literacy rate in the target area with active involvement of the communities.
• To work as a liaison or networking organization among those organizations having similar objectives to those of the organization (AWSDC) especially that address Women Human Rights issues.

Activities

The following are examples of projects carried out by AWSDC:

1.  Literacy and income generation project through stitching and quilt making was started in one village names Miana Guzar, district Jabal Siraj of Parwan province with financial assistance of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). To make the before mentioned project sustainable, micro credit scheme was introduced.
2. AWSDC has launched a peace building program in district Jabal Siraj district with financial assistance of Trocaire. In the Jabal Siraj district, AWSDC formed seven Shuras out of which one is established on district level having representation from all six zones of the district and six are established in each zone. They are working for peace development in their respective realms.
3. In Ghazni district a nine month project for vocational training and Literacy was also completed and one hundred and forty women got benefited from it. A series of workshops on awareness on gender based violence were also conducted in which women and women from all over the district participated.
4. As part of its strategies to address Women's rights issues AWSDC has been running the Women's shelters (first shelter in Afghanistan) for women and children victims of violence since April 2003.

External links

• AWSDC Facebook page

ASPBAE’s Vision Statement

ASPBAE’s fundamental purpose is to advance and defend the right of all people to learn and have equitable access to relevant and quality learning opportunities throughout their lives, enabling them to cope, survive and transform their conditions and define their own destiny. It seeks to build a global order that empowers people, promotes equitable sustainable human development and a just peace. ASPBAE is committed to the transformative function of adult education, especially to promote the learning interests of the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.

Main Programme Areas

ASPBAE programme priorities are reviewed by the ASPBAE General Assembly every four (4) years. These programmes thus represent the issues and concerns the ASPBAE membership consider most important and critical for ASPBAE to address in given periods. These also reflect the varied interests and areas of involvement of ASPBAE members.

The current priority programme areas of ASPBAE are :

• Adult literacy for social justice and empowerment
• Education for women’s empowerment
• Indigenous people’s education
• HIV/AIDS education
• Education for active citizenship and good governance
• Education for peace and conflict prevention
• Education for displaced peoples
• Education for All Campaigns with National Education

History

The Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) was established in Sydney, Australia on 30 January 1964 by a group of adult educators inspired by the idea of promoting liberal adult education in the region: close to forty (40) individuals participated in this founding meeting. From its inception and up till the 1970’s, ASPBAE operated mainly as an informal clearinghouse on adult education. It functions were devoted primarily to the dissemination of information on events and developments related to adult education and on liaising with UNESCO and other international agencies especially in relation to planned workshops and seminars in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the late 70’s, ASPBAE re-organised into a network of ‘national associations’. ASPBAE linked together existing national-level adult education associations and facilitated the formation of these in countries where they where then inexistent. It was through these national associations that ASPBAE pursued its programmes of exchange, networking, research and engagement with international bodies involved in adult education, notably UNESCO. Along with other NGOs, ASPBAE and its members played a significant role in introducing and lobbying for the adoption of the resolution on the “Right to Learn” during the 1985 UNESCO Adult Education Conference in Paris.

1991 was a watershed year for ASPBAE; the year of ASPBAE’s First General Assembly (GA). ASPBAE’s First General Assembly was convened on December 8-14, 1991 in Tagaytay, Philippines. This event signalled strategic shifts in the formation and function of the (then) 27 year old regional association for adult education.

From an exclusive, one-member per country structure, ASPBAE shifted to a multiple-member structure. The General Assembly mandated a change in the organisation’s governing structures ensuring greater accountability. The Executive Council was reconstituted to ensure geographic and gender balances; and to ensure representation of special sectors e.g. indigenous people. Members of the Executive were elected by the ASPBAE membership.

ASPBAE also committed itself to a new mission. “…to advance and defend the rights throughout the Asia-Pacific region to learn, and be able to go on learning throughout their lives in order to gain control over their own destiny” (ASPBAE Vision and Mission). Subsequent General Assemblies reaffirmed ASPBAE’s vision and mission.

In the year 2000, ASPBAE launched a broad-based set of national and sub-regional consultations on a strategic review and planning process coinciding with ASPBAE’s Third General Assembly. The results of the strategic review revealed that ASPBAE had grown into a network of significant depth and reach, advancing transformative adult education and learning in the region. The members however observed that to improve ASPBAE’s effectiveness and assure better impact in achieving its vision, goals and broader social objectives, ASPBAE had to play a stronger policy advocacy role.

In the period 2001-2004 therefore, ASPBAE’s alliance and coalition building efforts were substantively motivated by campaign and policy advocacy imperatives. New leadership and capacity-building activities were designed to shore up policy advocacy competencies of ASPBAE at various levels; while retaining demand-driven capacity-building support to “enable the enablers” especially those working with marginal groups.

By far the most effective and useful space for policy engagement on education for that period was the Education for All (EFA) follow-up processes. The EFA commitments were reference points for donors and governments. Internationally, spaces were expanding for CSO participation in EFA processes – even from the South. EFA therefore provided the main platform for policy engagement and advocacy of ASPBAE. ASPBAE subsequently aligned itself strongly with the main EFA CSO formations globally: the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and the UNESCO NGO Collective Consultation on EFA.

In 2003, ASPBAE began a collaboration with GCE in developing and implementing a capacity-building programme for education advocacy in the region. Called the Real World Strategies (RWS) programme, this was a response to the need to build stronger CSO capacities for policy engagement at national levels. ASPBAE currently works with and supports 11 national education campaign coalitions within this effort.

ASPBAE’s fundamental commitment to advance the right of all – especially the most marginalized groups – to learn through-out life (lifelong learning) made ASPBAE a ‘natural’ participant and critical partner in the ‘education for all’ processes. Adult literacy, life skills education, HIV/AIDS education, education for marginalised groups, after all, formed part of the EFA goals and targets.

More critical, however, ASPBAE increasingly realized that to secure gains for adult education within the current policy context, it has been necessary to underscore within a rights perspective, the indivisibility of the ‘education for all’ (children and adults, men and women) agenda: that universal quality primary and secondary education cannot be achieved in the continued absence of safe, enabling learning environments for girls and boys in their homes and communities that literate, critically-aware parents can provide. Conversely, the potential for meaningful ‘learning throughout life’ for all citizens rests on a strong basic education foundation.

In a region where 45.5 million (GMR 2006) out of school children are located – the largest concentration of children who may never set foot in a school; or where very poor quality education and user fees leveled on poor students will guarantee that huge numbers of school going children will continue to be ‘pushed out’ of the system and join the burgeoning numbers of illiterate youth and adults – adult education advocates cannot but make the case of universal primary education their main business as well.

The Fourth General Assembly of ASPBAE which convened on December 2004 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, affirmed the importance of ASPBAE’s expanding attention to policy advocacy advancing the broad EFA agenda, within the commitment to advance lifelong learning.

The Assembly further endorsed continued priority to capacity-building support to NGOs and civil society groups, who – through adult education activities, strategies and programmes – assist peoples and communities improve their conditions, fight for their rights, combat discrimination and participate equally in decisions that affect their lives. With governments and donors increasingly retreating from state support to adult education work, NGOs and CSO work in this area provide the much needed recourse of the region’s poor to beat poverty.

These expanded thrusts and work of ASPBAE, its new partnerships and terrains of engagement open new challenges and pose new options and directions for ASPBAE. The Executive Council has launched consultations and dialogues with ASPBAE members around these issues, with these discussions continuing through the General Assembly in 2008.

As before, ASPBAE knows that it is in drawing from the collective wisdom and experience of its membership, that its clarity of purpose, relevance and effectiveness can be best secured.

More Information

• The ASPBAE website: http://www.aspbae.org/

By the end of the nineteenth century, established universities in the United States began to establish ‘coordinate’ colleges,  a type of ‘sister’ system. Notable nineteenth century coordinate colleges included Barnard (with Columbia University), Pembroke (with Brown University), and Radcliffe College (with Harvard University).

In the Gender Equality in the Gender Equality in the United Kingdom, women’s colleges appeared in the nineteenth-century to cater for women who attended lectures (but who were not allowed to take a degree). Newnham College began in a house for five students in 1871, one year after Lectures for Ladies started in Cambridge. Henry Sidgwick, one of the organisers of the lectures, rented a house in which young women attending the lectures could reside. With in creasing demand, funds were raised to build Newnham Hall. Newnham students followed a curriculum tailored for them, in constrast to Girton College which encouraged its students to study the same curriculum as men in order to achieve gender equality.

Increasingly, women’s colleges in the United Kingdom and the United States have become co-educational due to financial pressures. This has sparked debates on the benefits of female-only education and the role of single sex institutions for gender equality and educational attainment. There remains male-only colleges in the United States; but none in the United Kingdom.

Women’s Colleges in the United Kingdom

There are currently only three remaining women’s colleges in the Gender Equality in the Gender Equality in the United Kingdom – all of them at the University of Cambridge:

• New Hall, Cambridge [recently renamed Murray Edwards College]
• Newnham College, Cambridge
• Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge

Women’s colleges which have become co-educational are:

• Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (co-educational in 1979)
  
• St Anne’s College, Oxford (co-educational in 1979)
  
• St Hugh’s College, Oxford (co-educational in 1986)
  
• Somerville College, Oxford (co-educational in 1994)
  
• Girton College, Cambridge
  
• Royal Holloway, University of London (co-educational in 1965)
  
• St Hilda’s College, Oxford (co-educational in 2008)

Women’s Colleges in Asia

• Bethune College, the first women’s college in South Asia
• Ehwa Woman’s University in South Korea.
• Sookmyung Woman’s University in South Korea.
• Lahore College for Women University in Pakistan

Women’s Colleges in the Middle East

• Royal University for Women, Kingdom of Bahrain
  
• Box Hill College Kuwait, Kuwait

Women’s Colleges in the United States of America

• The “Seven Sisters” was the name given to Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe, because of their parallel to the Ivy League men’s colleges. The founding of the Seven Sisters, spanning a period of 24 years, occurred between 1836-1875.
  
• There are only three publicly funded women’s colleges: Mississippi State University for Women, Douglass College of Rutgers University, and Texas Woman’s University.

References

• Harwarth, Irene. “Women’s Colleges in the United States: History, Issues, and Challenges”. ed.gov. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/PLLI/webreprt.html. Retrieved 2006-10-14.
  
• “Oxford’s last women’s college accepts men”, The Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/oxfords-last-womens-college-votes-to-admit-men-481505.html

See Also

• Gender Education and Advocacy
• Gloria Steinem
• All-Women Colleges

External Links

• Bresica College
  
• The Guardian
• Hindu Business Line

Background

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ‘s most recent regional overview of sub-Saharan Africa, enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa increased significantly at all education levels between 1999 and 2006. Overall, sub-Saharan Africa, like the Arab States, South and West Asia, still lags behind other regions in terms of distance from universal education. While sub-Saharan Africa is also lacking in the attainment of many Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many believe that progress in education could help unlock progress on the MDGs, but will require a strengthened commitment to equity. Persistent inequalities are hindering progress towards the Education for All (EFA) goals at global, regional and national levels. The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009 finds that within countries, disparities based on wealth, location, gender, immigration or minority status or disability are the main factors which deny millions of children a good-quality education.

Present Condition

However, progress is being made. The number of children entering primary school in sub-Saharan Africa has climbed sharply since 2000. In 2006, more than 23 million of the region’s children entered a classroom for the first time – an increase of some 7 million over the level in 1999. Sub-Saharan Africa’s Gross Intake Rate (GIR), which registers the number of new entrants regardless of age, recorded the biggest increase in the world between 1999 and 2006, by twenty-two percentage points. As intake has risen, so has overall enrollment in primary education. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for the world’s highest increase in total primary enrollment, which rose by 42% during the period. The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) for primary education in sub-Saharan Africa has risen from 56% in 1999 to 70% in 2006. But there is still a long way to go. In 2006, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 47% of the world’s out-of-school population.  While the number of primary school aged children out-of-school has dropped by 10 million since 1999, there were still 35 million children of primary school age in sub-Saharan Africa not enrolled in 2006, about one-third of this population.

Inhibiting Factors

What happens during the very early years of a child’s life is vital for later success in education and in life. Programs of early childhood care and education (ECCE) can support health and nutrition, facilitate cognitive development and give children the basic tools they need to learn and to overcome disadvantage. Yet millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa are held back by problems in health and nutrition, and access to pre-school provision remains limited and unequal. Many factors inhibiting universal Access to Education are gender-based, though many, and sometimes more important factors, are not. Often, wealth, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, rural habitation, Child Labor, health barriers and language are important factors regarding attendance and access to primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The issues faced which are solely experienced by or which disproportionately affect girls are the issues of Child marriage, pregnancy, 2009 2009 Social Institutions and Gender Index, and especially Poverty in Focus: Gender Equality. Poverty weighs more heavily on girls than boys because it is generally an indicator of higher instances of the other inhibiting factors that girls face in Sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty is aligned with greater instances of Child marriage, malnutrition, pregnancy, Under-Five Mortality Rate, cultural preference for males and child labor; all of which magnify the negative affect on girls moreso than on boys in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender

Girls’ limited access to school is of particular concern in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2006, they accounted for 54% of primary school-age children not in school in the region and 72% of them have never been enrolled, compared with 55% for boys. For example, girls’ access to school remains a big issue in Nigeria , where 69% of girls not in school are unlikely to enroll, compared with 31% for boys. Similar if somewhat smaller gender differences (about twenty percentage points or more) are found in Burundi and Guinea .

Poverty

Within countries there is a strong association between poverty and gender inequalities in education. Gender differences in net attendance rates tend to be wider for poorer households in countries with relatively low school attendance. For school attendance, poverty weighs more heavily on girls than boys – far more so, in some cases. For example, the attendance disparity ratios of the richest to poorest quintile are significantly higher for girls than for boys in Burkina Faso , Chad , Guinea , Mali and Niger . These ratios say something important about the unequal distribution of opportunity. For example, in Mali girls from the richest households are four times more likely to be attending primary school than the poorest girls.

Child mortality

While 10 million children die before the age of 5 each year, half of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa. On average, 158 out of every 1,000 children will die before the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malnutrition

This has a large negative impact on achieving universal primary education. Progress in sub-Saharan Africa has been limited and between 1990-2006, 13 countries in the region have regressed in this category. One-third of all children in sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by stunting, and 23 countries have rates higher than 40%.

Child Labor

Around one-quarter of 5- to 14-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa were engaged in child labor in 2004. Because population growth has increased faster than child labor rates have fallen, there were about 1 million more child laborers in 2004 than in 2000.

Child Marriage

As of 2004, Child marriage rates were higher in sub-Saharan African than any other region in the world. On average in the region, 52% of girls were married, divorced, or widowed by the age of 18. This rate varies widely from 18% in Botswana , to nearly 80% in Niger. UNFPA. 2004. Child Marriage Advocacy Programme: Fact Sheet on Child Marriage and Early Union.

International Gender Parity and Equality Protocols

Millennium Development Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

The target of the Millennium Development Goal #2, is to “ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”UNDG. (2003). Indicators for Monitoring the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations. New York: The United Nations.

Education for AllEducation for All

• Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
• Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
• Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
• Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
• Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
• Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.UNESCO. (2010). EFA Goals. Retrieved August 3, 2010, from UNESCO: http://www.unesco.org/en/efa/efa-goals/

Dakar Framework for Action

In order to achieve the UNESCO EFA goals, the Dakar Framework for Action, agreed upon in 2000, sets out a two-part gender equity agenda: first, to achieve gender parity in school participation and second, to improve gender equality in educational opportunities and outcomes.UNESCO. (2000, April). UNESCO- Education For All- The Dakar Framework for Action. Retrieved August 2, 2010, from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

Statistical Indicators

Primary Enrolment Ratio

Primary Enrolment Ratio is defined as the ratio of females to males enrolled in primary education.  It is based on a 1-point scale with 1 being gender parity. OECD data is found here: [Statistics:School Enrolment].

Primary Completion Rate

Primary completion rate is the percentage of students completing the last year of primary school. It is calculated by taking the total number of students in the last grade of primary school, minus the number of repeaters in that grade, divided by the total number of children of official graduation age.http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.CMPT.FE.ZS/countries/latest?display=default The World Bank Group 2010. Primary completion rates, female (% of relevant age group). Retrieved 07 25, 2010, from The World Bank Data. See Primary Completion Rates for more.

• Primary Completion Rates:Male
• Primary Completion Rates:Female

Gender Parity Index (GPI)

The GPI is defined as the ratio of female to male values of a given indicator. A GPI of 1 indicates parity between sexes; a GPI above 1 indicates data in favor of females, while a GPI below 1 indicates data in favor of males. In sub-Saharan Africa, the primary school GPI rose from 0.85 in 1999 to 0.89 in 2006. 15 of the 41 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have achieved gender parity in the their primary education rates.UNESCO. (2009). Education For All Global Monitoring Report. UNESCO.

Gross Intake Rate (GIR)

Total number of new entrants to a given grade of primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population at the official school entrance age for that grade.

Net Enrolment Ratio (NER)

Enrollment of the official age group for a given level of education, expressed as a percentage of the population in that age group.

References

See also

• Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Women and African Economic Development
• Millennium Development Goals
• Primary Completion Rates
• [Statistics:School Enrolment]
• [Statistics:Education]
• [Statistics:Literacy Rates]
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• Education for All
• Access to Education
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base Variables: School Enrolment
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base Variables: Literacy Rates
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base Variables: Literacy RatesGender, Institutions and Development Data Base Variables: Political Empowerment
• Maternal Mortality
• HIV/AIDS/AIDS
• Adolescent Birth Rate
• Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
• Under-Five Mortality Rate
• Net Intake Rate
• Net Enrolment Ratio (NER)