Problematizing Inequality: Linking Climate Change to Girls’ Education Programmes in rural Zimbabwe

• In Event: Education, gender equity and women empowerment in conflicts and disasters

Proposal

Girls in Zimbabwe continue to face many barriers to education including early marriage, distances to schools and inadequate household capacity to meet educational expenses. An important question is the extent to which disasters related to climate change such as droughts also contribute to keeping girls out of school. Based on recent studies, crises resulting from climate change seem to be a “threat multiplier” in preventing rural girls in rural areas from attending school regularly. The drought has become a risk factor for girls education programming at different levels given the role played by women and girls in chores related to water, food and energy.

The Southern Africa region is currently reeling under the effects of the El Nino induced drought which is being regarded as the worst in 50 years for the sub Saharan African region and countries such as Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe have declared states of disaster in relation to the drought. Zimbabwe was the worst affected country in the region, and the effect of the drought was compounded by an ongoing economic crisis. Most of the southern parts of Zimbabwe experienced late start to the rains, mid-season dry spell as well as poor rainfall resulting in crop failures and widespread rural insecurity. This paper will specifically focus on the impact of climate change in the results of the IGATE project, a DFID-funded initiative implemented through the Girls’ Education Challenge in Zimbabwe.

Although monitoring results, anecdotal evidence and data analysis suggest that IGATE has positively impacted the most vulnerable girls in poor communities, the drought threatens to erode the gains which have been achieved by the project to date. District Education officials have reported parents reducing expenditure on education so as to prioritize food purchases. In some districts, girls being withdrawn from school to assist with household chores such as water and fuelwood collection, failing to concentrate in class due to hunger as well as not attending lessons in order to search for and pick wild fruits. The 2016 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment report noted an increase in the number of households employing coping strategies that have a negative impact on attendance and retention.

On the other hand, the analysis will also explore some of the ways in which the project has strengthened communities’ ability to cope with the drought. Lastly, recommendations on how girls’ education programmes could be designed to take an anticipatory and proactive approach to linking girls’ education to climate change will be made.

Author

• Ellen Chigwanda, CARE International in Zimbabwe