Mechanisms of adopting and reformulating comprehensive sexuality education policy in Ethiopia

• In Event: Addressing marginalization in Ethiopian education: relationship between language transition, social, economical, physical and personal barriers with student performance and policy

Proposal

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to gender-based violence in education in research, educational programmes and policy making, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This attention was prompted by a recognition that deeply rooted inequalities remain within education systems despite near gender-parity. The international community has advanced Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) as a global policy to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and address gender-based violence in schools. Much research has focused on the (positive) outcomes of CSE. Yet research on policy developments with regards to CSE, especially on its adoption at national level, remains scarce. This is surprising given recent global controversies around CSE, which may affect policy adoption processes. Concerns about CSE seem much inspired by conservative and religious values, and therefore it is striking that CSE has been increasingly adopted as a policy in highly religious contexts such as Ethiopia. Hence, this paper analyses policy adoption, transfer mechanisms, and reformulation of CSE in Ethiopia, a late adopter of the policy. We specifically ask:
1) To what extent and why is CSE adopted as a national policy in Ethiopia?
2) Which international and national actors have been influential in CSE policy adoption processes?
3) Through which mechanisms of education policy transfer has Ethiopia adopted CSE?
4) How is CSE reformulated as policy at national level in Ethiopia?
At theoretical level, we make use of education policy transfer mechanisms as identified by Dale (1999) and Steiner-Khamsi (2006; 2014), and apply a gender analysis by zooming in on conceptualisations of gender relations in the adoption and reformulation of CSE policies (Connell, 2012b; Unterhalter and North, 2017). We draw on document analysis of 23 policy documents, and content analysis of interviews with 16 stakeholders. Documents included policy documents of Ethiopia’s national government and ministries, international organisation guidelines and bilateral policy documents. The stakeholders who participated in this study were all Ethiopian nationals and were affiliated to Ethiopian and International NGOs, Universities, Ministry of Health, Bilateral or International Organisations. All stakeholders were experts on CSE, gender-based violence, education and/or SRH.
The paper reveals that CSE is increasingly adopted, but remains contested in Ethiopia. CSE is embraced by the Ministry of Health, international organisations and NGOs. However, the Ministry of Education and other opponents continue to resist adoption emphasising cultural differences. Hence, CSE seems largely a donor-driven agenda, promoted through dissemination and harmonisation mechanisms. Proponents of CSE also employ networking strategies to create support for CSE at local levels. Nevertheless, the national ownership of CSE was viewed as weak, and dissemination and harmonisation mechanisms were sometimes viewed as a form of imposition. Participants argued that this would have negative implications in implementation process at various levels as well as for the sustainability of the policy. Moreover, as a result CSE is (re)formulated and reflects narrow conceptualisations of how CSE can address gender-based violence, restricting its focus to health and development outcomes – in line with national policy. Reformulation of CSE should also be interpreted in light of the limited space of NGOs to advance rights issues, as well as resistance to the foreign policy at federal as well as local levels.
In conclusion, our analysis has revealed that CSE is a largely donor-driven agenda in Ethiopia. While it is increasingly adopted in national policies, it also remains resisted and contested by important national actors. Importantly, by including a conceptual analysis of adoption and reformulation of CSE policy, the paper also identified that national policies on CSE restrict their aims to promoting health and development outcomes; discussion of gender relations seems to remain an ‘add on’ rather than core component of the policy. Indeed, much debate in Ethiopia concerns the defining, naming, and re-formulation of CSE in order to align with national agendas and resist foreign agendas. At the same time, it is such moments of resistance that the debates around CSE as national policy have increased, which may possibly open up ways to include discussions about gender, gender relations and gender-based violence. In fact, it is through networking strategies that NGOs, universities, youth groups, and other partner organisations increasingly collaborate in the form of steering groups. This has resulted in strengthened capacity to advance concerns that would formally be beyond the scope of their mandate. In this way, concerns about what ‘comprehensive’ means or ought to mean may provide the necessary space for multiple actors to come together and identify which problems need to be addressed and how the policy responds to that. Importantly, such spaces should not only focus on questions of CSE adoption and reformulation alone, but especially address the priorities of those CSE is designed for: young men and young women. This can only be done by including their participation in debates, and future efforts must pay attention to how young men and young women can be systematically and significantly included in steering groups and platforms at governmental level.

Authors

• Marielle L.J. Le Mat, University of Amsterdam

• Hulya Kosar Altinyelken, University of Amsterdam

• Henny M.W. Bos, University of Amsterdam

• Monique L.L. Volman, University of Amsterdam