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As schools begin to reopen across Africa after the COVID-19 related school closures, the African Union International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA) is turning its focus to ensuring African girls return to school.

Educational systems across the AU Member States have seen significant disruption due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is growing data and evidence that some measures taken for continuity of learning during the pandemic have in fact aggravated inequalities related to teaching and learning.

The pandemic heightened existing inequalities

While many governments in the continent turned to the internet, radio and television to provide remote learning for students during the school closures, limited internet access and hardware availability, both needed for distance learning, have left many girls without access.

Even before the global pandemic hit, only 17.8% of households in Africa had internet access at home and the continent accounts for only 21% of worldwide internet users. Africa also has a digital gender gap, with a 33.8% internet penetration rate for men and only 22.6 % for women in 2019.

In a COVID context, the reality means many girls simply do not have access to remote learning options, including through digital pathways. In addition to unequal access to technology, shuttered schools leave girls at increased risk of violence, child marriage, teenage pregnancy, exploitation and child labor.

AU/CIEFFA fears that many girls may simply not return as schools reopen.

This is compounded by the economic impact of COVID-19 on household incomes, as the continent faces its worst recession in 25 years. As families are affected financially, experience shows that in times of financial crisis, girls are the first to be taken out of school, put to work to help fend for the family and care for younger siblings.

Launch of #AfricaEducatesHer campaign

With this in mind, the AU/CIEFFA launched #AfricaEducatesHer last month, a campaign to bring awareness to the issues hindering girls and women from accessing education during the COVID-19 pandemic and a rallying call for youth, educators, civic organizations, AU Member States and development partners to take positive action now to guarantee girls returning to school as they gradually reopen.

At the launch, Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo, the African Union Human Resources, Science and Technology (AUHRST) Director, said:

We are facing a global pandemic like no other which threatens the progress made by AU Member States in terms of access, participation and completion at primary and secondary levels of education in the African educational landscape.

As part of the campaign, the AU/CIEFFA will highlight the experiences of female learners at primary, secondary and tertiary level during school closures.

They will also take recommendations from students, educators and human rights defenders from across Africa and the African diaspora on ways governments and development partners should promote and protect girls’ rights to education during times of crisis.

I reminded the audience that education is a basic human right and not a privilege, and that school closures harm girls in many ways, often with long-term consequences.

Once girls are taken out of schools, the probability of them going back is very low. This is not to say that we are forgetting the boys, but we should not forget that girls are most vulnerable.

Girls at increased risk of not returning to school

Like Ebola, COVID-19 shows that closing schools and education institutions heighten the vulnerability of women and girls.

Development partners and education ministries across Africa have hailed the leadership of the AU with the launch of the #AfricaEducatesHer campaign.

Continental action is needed to galvanize all stakeholders working to safeguard girls’ right to education and to spur collaboration and the sharing of best practices that promote the continuity of girls’ education in Africa.

During the launch, Justin Sass, Chief, Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO, stressed: “We need to engage with teachers and school directors so they can understand what’s happened during the school closures and what are some of the things that girls’ have gone through, and the challenges they are going to need to address once kids come back to school.”

Development partners like the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and FAWE will need to play an integral role in supporting governments and community efforts to get girls back to school through more and better education financing, including supporting countries to improve domestic financing and provide teacher training.

As governments face triple economic shocks from COVID (declining national budgets, reduced donor funding and households pushed further into poverty), there is a risk of smaller budgets for education, including girls’ education.

The time to act is NOW and that’s why AU-CIEFFA is supporting the GPE led global movement to #RaiseYourHand to #FundEducation so #AfricaEducatesHer in times of COVID and beyond.

AU Member states that are also yet to ratify and domesticate regional and international legal instruments that allow girls access to education must act now to ensure decades of progress made by the continent towards the empowerment of girls’ and women through education does not go down the drain and that all girls’ return once schools reopen.

The #AfricaEducatesHer campaign calls on ministries responsible for education across member states to take official pledges and recommit to supporting and safeguarding girls’ rights, particularly to education.

A call to action for girls’ education post-COVID

In closing remarks, Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo urged those in attendance to work together in a scalable and impactful way at grassroots and community level to achieve goal 4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Aspiration 6 of the AU Agenda 2063.

“We should synergistically formulate and implement relevant strategies and initiatives that put particular attention to the needs of the most vulnerable groups, in the remote areas, with disabilities and crisis situations, especially, girls and young women, particularly when designing catch-up strategies for all learners as schools re-open.” he said.

The AU/CIEFFA also announced a call for creative content asking African girls, students, human rights defenders, and teachers to submit videos, blog articles, poems, photos, and music showcasing their experiences with learning or teaching during COVID-19 & the initiatives they are taking to ensure girls in their local communities go back to school.

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Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university, but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home. Post-COVID education needs to rely on more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education, but also address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

COVID-19 is a human, economic and social crisis affecting everyone, and Africa, like the rest of the world, has not been spared.

With the rapid rise of coronavirus infections, African governments have adopted measures to curb the spread, including closing spaces of worship, markets and educational institutions.

Close to 250 million African children out of school

By April 6, 2020, 53 African Union Member states had shut down their institutions of learning. This left over 20 million learners out of school at pre-primary level, 160 million at primary, 56 million at secondary, and 8 million at tertiary level, with no access to continued learning and teaching facilities across the continent.

The African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), in line with its mandate, organized two multi-stakeholder webinars on Addressing Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Girls and Women’s Education.

The aim was to discuss the wide array of initiatives undertaken at grassroots, national and regional levels as educational responses to COVID-19, and come up with concrete recommendations to ensure that learning does not stop.

In his welcome address, Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department at the African Union Commission, highlighted that with shuttered schools, African girls are at increased risk abuse, sexual violence, trafficking, social exclusion and forced labor.

Schools typically provide safe spaces for girls. When they are in school, they are less likely to be forced into marriage and be abused sexually. During this pandemic, however, schools are not there to protect girls.Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department, African Union Commission

Additional risks faced by girls

Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home.

During the webinar, representatives from civil society, religious leaders and young women underlined how this situation had caused many young women to stop learning.

Many of them have had to return to the agricultural fields to help their families, have become unpaid domestic workers and are exposed to transactional sex and/or prostitution.

This crisis has also increased discouragement among girls and young women, clouded their hopes of success with heightened pressure from their parents to drop out of school, enter the labor market or get married.

Representatives from ministries of Education in AU member states shed light on their approaches to ensuring girls continue learning during the pandemic. Efforts have been deployed to disseminate reliable messages on TV, radio and social media to address education and health concerns of learners, parents and guardians.

Learners without internet or radio have received hard copies of teaching and learning resources. Radios have been distributed to parents and caregivers in remote areas, as teachers are actively engaged in radio learning programs to facilitate distance learning.

In many African countries, GPE is supporting continuity of learning, including the delivery of distance learning, especially for the most vulnerable, teacher support, safely re-opening schools, and strengthening resilience of education systems.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Rethinking education post-crisis

Although the efforts being made are commendable, there is need for more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education but address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

Before the epidemic, and according to UNESCO estimates, 23% of girls were out of primary school compared to 17% of boys. By the time they become adolescents, the education exclusion rate for girls was 39% in comparison to 36% for boys (UIS, 2019).

There is need for more governments to develop post COVID-19 strategic plans for reopening schools, plans that take into account the needs of girls and young women.

The lockdowns have shown the need for governments to invest in nationwide ICT infrastructure in schools, including strategic crisis management plans and funds geared towards education, to make it easier for a smooth continuation of education during times of crisis.

Keeping track of students who don’t return to school

In concluding the webinar, I underlined that as schools reopen, school administrators and teachers should make sure girls and young women are re-enrolling and returning back to the classroom.

Member states and development partners need to continue sharing experiences and best practices during and post the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforce the importance of girls and women’s education to the development of individual nations and the continent within local communities.

Ministries should be tracking the numbers of children affected by school closures and provide gender disaggregated data to ensure they can act if a significant number of girls and boys do not return to school.

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As we commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD), we ask: Where does Africa stand in ensuring that investments in education, particularly for girls, create conditions for peace?

Conflict still constitutes one of Africa’s most significant challenges at the beginning of this new decade. The rise of extremism and conflicts over natural resources are fuelling instability. This in turn undermines the development process in Africa. And education, one of the pillars of progress, is severely affected.

The effects of conflicts are highest for women and girls

In times of conflict, education is on the front line. Everyone is affected, but especially women and girls. They are already marginalized by cultural and social burdens. Girls are two and a half times more likely to be out of school when they live in conflict-affected countries, and adolescent girls are nearly 90% more likely to be out of secondary school (Global Education Monitoring Report, 2018)

In a context where our societies are still struggling to restore human rights for girls and women, the outbreak of a conflict combined with the structural marginalization of women in communities can only become an explosive cocktail for the future of Africa.

Fully aware of the urgent need to ensure continuity of education in emergencies for girls and boys, African leaders and partners came together in Addis Ababa last month to look for sustainable solutions during the 4^th High-Level Dialogue on Gender Equality and Education.

Under the theme “Silencing the Guns to ensure Safe Schools and Learning Outcomes for Girls and Women’s and for Africa’s development”, African Union Member States, development partners and civil society organizations seized the opportunity to highlight the need to secure schools and ensure access and retention in education systems for girls and young women, especially in conflict and fragility contexts.

The President of Ethiopia, H.E Sahle-Work Zewde, highlighted that schools are often the first to close but last to reopen if they ever do.

“Very often, what was considered at the beginning as a temporary break often becomes a permanent one. […] Schools should be safe and happy places where young girls and boys can benefit from a quality education.”H.E. Sahle-Work Zewde

Education must be protected against conflicts

One proposed solution to secure education for girls and young women is the adoption and implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, the inter-governmental political commitment to protect students, teachers, schools, and universities from the worst effects of armed conflicts.

To date, only 27 African countries have endorsed the Declaration. Meeting participants acknowledged that, once the Declaration is endorsed by all African countries, it will help promote a “safe and conflict-sensitive” education taking into account the reality of girls’ education in these situations.

This is vital for Africa because a prosperous and sustainable future is not possible without peace and education. In this regard, the African Union Commission recommends that actors work together to achieve quicker and better results. The African Union leadership hailed the collaboration with partners, such as the Global Partnership for Education, Norway, Canada, Save the Children, UNICEF and UNESCO and reiterated the AU commitment to working with them to sow the seeds of peace through girls’ education in Africa.

Opportunities offered by these partners can go a long way in securing learning outcomes for girls in conflict situations, such as the accelerated support in emergency and early recovery situations, a funding mechanism established by GPE to address the rapid funding needed for education in countries experiencing humanitarian emergencies. This funding will unlock up to US$250 million to address the needs of refugees, displaced populations and host communities and create resilient education systems that can respond to emergencies.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Incentivizing action for girls’ education

To accelerate the objective of better access and learning outcomes for girls, participants suggested that there is a need to put in place incentive policies. Some of these policies may include free secondary education, appropriate school infrastructure, alternative education programs, substantial budget allocation, gender-responsive programs and curricula, or access to information and communication technologies in remote areas.

As the President of Ethiopia said: “there is an urgent need to develop alternative education methods to avoid “education gaps” that can be very harmful for girls and other children in emergency situations”.

To also echo Julia Gillard’s Op-ed in the UK Telegraph: “Ensuring every girl receives a quality education will reap dividends for the safety, security and prosperity of all of us, and for the next generations…the swiss army knife to solving a multitude of the world’s problems.

It’s clear from the statements of these two formidable female leaders that Africa is not alone in the challenges it faces. The AUC is working with its friends to advance the girls’ education and gender equality agenda to redress imbalances.

Because as we all know, educated and empowered girls are a powerful protection from threats confronting the continent now and in the future. Hence the need to silence guns towards a generation that which makes women’s rights a precondition for an equitable society.

On this International Women’s Day, it is high time for all of us to stand up and claim our rights, make our voices clearer and louder, “enough is enough”.

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Africa is firmly committed to transforming its education. To achieve the ideal of a prosperous, peaceful and integrated Africa, there is a need to take the necessary measures to ensure that all citizens fully participate in the development process. Education is one the cornerstones towards achieving this objective.

In spite of the efforts made to advance girls’ rights to access education in Africa, the school life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is 9 years (UNESCO 2016). Therefore, the objective of 12 years of quality education remains a distant reality for millions of girls on the continent.

Hence the urgent need to speed up the establishment of gender-sensitive education systems to ensure that girls and women can fully participate in the teaching and learning process.

A gender strategy to support Africa’s education strategy

During the 3^rd African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (STC-EST) in December 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the importance of integrating gender in education sector planning was underscored by the ministers and senior officials who attended the meeting.

The Gender Equality Strategy for the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 16-25 (GES4CESA) is a tool developed to assist Member States in reorienting their education and training systems in order to ensure that as many girls and women acquire the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation and creativity required to foster Africa’s development.

GES4CESA was jointly developed by the AU/CIEFFA and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) with the support of United Nations Girl’s Education Initiative (UNGEI). Other key partners like GPE attended the validation meeting and made inputs.

It is incredibly important as a strong continental normative framework that articulates gender equality commitments for the continent, alongside Agenda 2063, and the Nairobi Declaration. Arguably, no other region has such a powerful accountability mechanism at this point, but it will require concerted effort and capacity for countries to deliver on these commitments.

“This will play a key role in closing the gaps we currently observe in educational systems on the continent”, outlined H.E. Prof. Sarah Anyang Agbor, Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Commission.

The popularization of the GES4CESA was underscored by participants in order to accelerate its ownership at national level. To this end, they urged the AU/CIEFFA and its partners to develop strategies in order to raise awareness on this very important document and strengthen countries’ capacities for its smooth implementation at national level.

Experiences from Malawi, South Sudan and Zimbabwe clearly showed that countries having undergone training sessions on gender-responsive education sector planning (GRESP) and GES4CESA have good performance indicators on girls’ and women’s education.

GRESP regional training workshops are convened by UNGEI and GPE with support from regional partners, including the AU-CIEFFA and FAWE. They have been critical in advancing a gender transformative agenda in partnership with regional and global partners.

Prioritizing an inclusive approach

However, the successful implementation of this tool and other instruments developed by other development stakeholders can only work if an inclusive and participatory approach is adopted to effectively engender education systems in Africa.

In this regard, the AU/CIEFFA was encouraged by ministers to keep engaging different stakeholders namely the Pan Parliament, Regional Economic Communities, African Union organs and specialized Institutions, traditional and religious leaders, CSOs, media, the youth and especially the African governments for the implementation of policies pertaining to girls and women’s education.

There is a need to enhance coherence and ensure maximum impact through coordination and alignment of the various initiatives targeting girls and women’s education. These actors will also monitor countries efforts toward achieving concrete results and hold them accountable.

Collaboration with these partners increases the chances to overcome challenges hampering girls’ retention and completion in schools such as early marriage, pregnancies, non-gender sensitive teaching and learning environments, conflicts, etc.

Ministers of Education requested Members States to implement additional measures to increase enrollment and retention of girls in educational systems and support the transition of girls to higher education in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Gender at the center of education in emergencies

Putting gender at the center of education in emergencies was one of the recommendations from the meeting as the African Union will be focusing on the theme “silencing the guns” during the year 2020.

UNHCR (2016) estimated that for every 10 refugee boys in primary school there are fewer than 8 refugee girls. This implies the need for a gender-responsive education program encompassing the narrative of girls and young women growing up in crisis-affected contexts in order to strengthen their resilience and potential to rebuild their lives and shape their communities. 

This is in line with the GES4CESA, which calls for “mobilizing communities and galvanizing resources for the Go-to-school/Back-to-school/Stay-in-school campaigns to help in healing societies, putting them back on the road to recovery and normalcy and make them hopeful of a more peaceful and prosperous future.”

Africa’s development objectives will only be met through education if leaders fully implement laws and frameworks aiming to put in place fully inclusive education systems.

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Girls and young women’s access, retention and completion in schools is still of huge concern in Africa. The latest figures from UNESCO (2019) show that 52 million girls are not in school in Africa, while 4 million will never step into a classroom compared to 2 million boys.

Africa also has the highest rate of out of school children and adolescents globally However, girls remain more likely to be permanently excluded from education and at a higher risk of being left behind. This reality calls for redoubling efforts to ensure education is both of good quality and equitable.

Achieving the aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals requires closing the gender gaps in education. Only by partnership, coordination and identifying and working closely with key community stakeholders can significant progress be made for girls and women in Africa.

Since 2017, the African Union’s International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), in line with the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), is striving to involve traditional and religious leaders towards the empowerment of girls and women in and through education.

AU/CIEFFA’s believes that girls and women can play a key role in reshaping attitudes, social and cultural norms, and influence community behavior to promote girls’ access to quality education and retention in school. 
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Religious and traditional leaders engage and influence families, communities, parliamentarians and decision-makers in communities. They are gatekeepers of certain traditions and norms that are drivers of gender inequality. However, they also have power and influence to help unlock challenges and remove barriers to girls and women’s education by bringing every other key decision-maker on board.

Religious leaders fight for girls’ right to education

Queen Mother Theresa Kachindamoto, paramount chief (called Inkosi) from the Dedza District in the central region of Malawi, is a prolific traditional leader. She is famously known in her country as the “child marriage terminator”.

She has prevented more than 500 child marriages in her district, showing her commitment to the well-being of girls’ and women.

Her interventions and working together with CSOs, teachers, mothers groups and other religious leaders, have saved hundreds of girls from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and enabled many girls to return to school.

As a custodian of our traditions and values, I believe that we have the responsibility of choosing what is good for children. Giving them the chance to go to school is one of the best things we can give themQueen Mother Theresa Kachindamoto, paramount chief, Malawi

In Mauritania, Imam Abdallahi Sar encourages his community to educate girls in his mosque. He shared with AU-CIEFFA his core belief that it is impossible to conceive a better and prosperous future without African girls in school – more than half of the population comprises women and girls.

When you educate a girl, you are educating the whole society. Islamic teachings highlight that the quest for knowledge is important for both girls and boys.
 Imam Abdallahi Sar, Mauritania

Engaging traditional and religious leaders for more impact

By bringing together religious and traditional leaders into a constructive dialogue, AU/CIEFFA seeks to contribute to sustainable solutions to girls accessing and staying in school, and to foster new pathways to gender equality.

The Second dialogue of the AU/CIEFFA with traditional and religious leaders on girls’ education in Africa held in Kampala, Uganda, in June 2019, was an opportunity for 35 traditional and religious leaders on the continent to reiterate their commitment to uphold girls’ and young women’s right to access education and to learn at all levels of educational systems.

A key outcome of the dialogue was a communiqué outlining key recommendations on the necessity to:

• Redefine roles and responsibilities of faith-based organizations at community level in promoting acceleration of girls’ access to education and their retention in educational systems
• Establish or consolidate existing platforms for traditional and religious leaders who champion girls’ and women’s education in Africa with the facilitation of AU/CIEFFA
• Share best practices on girls and women’s education and empowerment with communities and implement innovative approaches and cultural transformation, in particular increase the completion rates of girls at all levels of education.

As a way forward, the African Union platform of the Council of Traditional Leaders in Africa (COTLA) was established as the ideal way to carry out advocacy and advance girls’ and women’s education across the continent.

The African Union and the Global Partnership for Education collaborate in strategic advocacy on education including the AU End Child Marriage Campaign, first ever High Level Heads of State Dialogue on Financing Education in Africa, promoting pre-primary education at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, and youth blog series recognizing young education innovators in Africa. AU-CIEFFA, GPE and UNGEI have also collaborated on making education systems gender responsive through the Gender Responsive Education Sector Planning regional workshops.

GPE’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) seeks to get innovative solutions into the hands of policy makers. Gender Equality is one of the thematic areas to be funded by KIX.

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