Female Participation
The ADEA Working Group on Female Participation (WGFP) was created in 1990 to help close the gender gap in African school enrolment, attainment, and performance. Education for all, and more specifically the education of girls, is the single most important investment that a nation can make. Research shows a clear link between the level of girls' education and social indicators related to health and well-being, including nutrition, maternal health, and child health and survival. The Working Group has four components: The Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWE), the Alliance for Community Action on Female Education (ACAFE), the Female Education in Mathematics and Science in Africa (FEMSA) program, and the Partnership for Strategic Resource Planning in Africa (SRP). FAWE, which was a WGFP component until October 1999, now leads the Working Group.
The Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWE) entered the millenium with a renewed commitment to reducing the gender gap in education. Indeed, since October 1999, FAWE has taken responsibility for leadership of the ADEA Working Group on Female Participation (WGFP) and has had the challenging task of being both the leader of the Group and a component with its own work plan to implement.
In 2000 the four components were involved in various activities to promote the education of girls and women. What follows is an outline of the major accomplishments of each component.
FAWE activities
FAWE's new role as leader of the Working Group brought about the need to review the relationship between the Group's other three components (ACAFE, FEMSA and SRP), to see how these programs could be integrated into FAWE's overall work program. As a first step, a series of country-level workshops for the WGFP components were organized in Chad, Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Zambia between October and November 2000, allowing the participants to contribute their views on the proposed integration.
In addition, FAWE implemented activities outlined in its own annual work plan. These activities included:
- Organization of a Regional Ministerial Consultation in Nairobi, November 7 to 8, on Closing the Gender Gap: Curbing Girls' Dropout. The regional consultation brought together representatives of 13 countries from Eastern and Southern Africa, who explored major factors contributing to girls dropping out of school, including poverty, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, and sexual harassment. Participants shared useful strategies for curbing dropout rates, including the role of boarding schools. Representatives from each country committed to at least one intervention to curb dropouts over the next year.
- Participation in international, national, and regional fora on girls' education, including: a Communication for Education and Development Workshop held in February in Harare; the Organization of Social Science Research in Southern and Eastern Africa (OSSREA) Congress, in April in Dar-es-Salaam; the Beijing +5 Conference (23rd Special Session of the General Assembly, "Women 2000: Gender Equality Development and Peace for the 21st Century"- 5-9 June 2000, New York); the Action Aid Meeting (Session on Trafficking and Girls' Education- 3 June 2000, New York); the UNICEF Panel Discussion on Girls' Education ("Challenges from Dakar" - 6 June 2000, New York).
- Grants to projects promoting girls' education in Africa.
- Support to the development of modules that help empower girls and the establishment of girls' clubs and guidance and counseling desks.
- Involvement in the Schools of Excellence projects in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda.
- Development of training modules on Gender Sensitization and Advocacy for FAWE national chapters.
- An analysis of the National Score Card from 20 countries.
- Production and dissemination of publications on HIV/AIDS, curbing school dropouts, and Education for All.
- Launching in several countries of the Agathe Uwilingiyimana Award for grassroots innovations.
- Active advocacy for girls' education through television appearances and radio interviews.
- Revamping the FAWE website and review of FAWE's communication strategy at the national and regional levels.
ACAFE activities
The Alliance for Community Action on Female Education (ACAFE) was created to channel funding and other types of assistance to NGOs that are apt to advance female access to education. Five countries are participating in Alliance activities: Chad, Ghana, Mali, Uganda, and Zambia.
In 2000 the programs in Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Zambia continued to help local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) promote the education of women and girls in their communities. Alliance Mali is identifying the CBOs/NGOs that qualify for assistance from the Alliance while Alliance Chad has recently identified a national coordinator to run program activities.
FAWE hosted the third Annual Alliance workshop in Nairobi in August, which was attended by the national coordinators from the five Alliance countries, the chairpersons of the national steering committees, staff from UNICEF/New York and a few representatives from the UNICEF country offices. Participants received and reviewed progress reports from each country, with a special focus on the issue of integrating the Alliance into FAWE's work program.
The ACAFE secretariat was transferred from UNICEF/New York to the FAWE Regional Secretariat in Nairobi in September.
FEMSA activities
The Female Education in Mathematics and Science in Africa (FEMSA) program was created to improve the performance of girls and young women in science and math and to improve school curricula. In 2000 FEMSA accomplished the following:
- Implemented interventions at national and school/community levels to promote the participation and performance of girls in Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT);
- Strengthened documentation units in FEMSA national centers;
- Conducted an analysis of examination papers and syllabi;
- Gathered documentation on role models;
- Produced booklets on various themes, including: "Parents' and Community Attitudes towards Girls' Participation in and Access to Education and Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) Subjects"; "Status of Girls' Participation and Performance in SMT Subjects in Primary Schools"; and "Status of Girls' Participation and Performance in SMT Subjects in Secondary Schools";
- Designed and launched the FEMSA website;
- Reinforced links with other institutions, including AFCLIST, the Global Fund for Women, and the German Foundation for International Development (DSE); explored the possibility of collaborating with UNESCO for the production of gender sensitization modules for use in teacher training and curriculum development institutions; contacted other organizations, such as Women in Global Science and Technology (WIGSAT), and Once and Future Action Network (OFAN).
- Organized the Annual Consultative Group Meeting, held in Burkina Faso, to discuss the FEMSA Mid-Term Review and the integration of the WGFP components into the FAWE work program;
SRP activities
The main objective of the Strategic Resource Planning (SRP) program is to build capacity in participating countries to carry out research on constraints and opportunities to advance the girls' education agenda and to identify how national education sector resources might be better utilized to enable the financing of interventions likely to contribute to increased gender equity of educational opportunities. The SRP program stems from FAWE studies of barriers to girls' education and strategic resource planning in Ghana, Guinea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. These studies show that cost-effective reforms are possible with existing education resources and that equity-oriented reallocations can reduce family costs, raise quality, and influence parental demand for girls' education.
In 2000, FAWE spearheaded a program of consultations with ministries of education in the nine SRP countries, leading to the development of option papers, which were discussed at a Ministerial Strategic Resource Planning Meeting held in Lusaka, Zambia, in March 2000. This was a breakthrough, as the participating ministers committed to mainstreaming SRP findings. The nine participating countries identified priority areas and will develop action plans.
Meanwhile, the SRP country research reports prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex were finalized and published. The research reports for Phase I countries (Ethiopia, Guinea and Tanzania) were published in 1997.
Marema Dioum
Program Officer, FAWE
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