Accelerating progress in girls’ education through evidence: Open access program mapping of the girls’ education ecosystem

• In Event: Using evidence to accelerate progress in girls’ education: from systematic reviews to program mapping

Proposal

Girls’ education is central to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Not only is it directly linked to goals 3 and 4 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, and gender equality, but girls’ education can also contribute to other SDGs such as reducing poverty, improving health, and climate action. Progress in girls’ education has stagnated in no small part because of the market failure between evidence, practice and policy. Too often scarce resources are invested in girls’ education interventions that are not evidence-based, research is not presented in a manner that reaches or is understandable by policymakers or program implementers, and innovative programs are underfunded and not evaluated because they are below the radar of international funding and discourse streams.

To help address these gaps, we are developing an open-source, freely accessible database of the girls’ education ecosystem. It allows users to search, sort and download information on girls’ education programs and actors at the global and country levels. The goals of this effort are to:

• Encourage linkages, collaboration, and development of new partnerships, including with actors outside of the traditional girls’ education sector (e.g. health, economic development)
• Facilitate new investments in girls’ education;
• Support the community by showing areas of overlap and gaps in roles and services as well as highlighting cutting edge programs that are generating important new lessons.

We have cast a broad net and include four overlapping categories of activities: those working explicitly on girls’ pre-school, primary and secondary education including academic skills and skills/mindsets; those bringing a gender lens to education work; those programs that, while not targeted solely at girls, aim to benefit girls’ education outcomes; and/or those addressing structural barriers to education such as efforts seeking to end child marriage, overcome poverty-related barriers, etc.

These criteria aim to reflect both more conventional approaches to improving girls’ education as well as strategies and conceptual frameworks that recognize the multiple levels and ways in which girls’ education and gender inequality interact. For every entry, detail about the program, including content of activities, reach, exposure, and how it is being evaluated are entered.

The beta version of the database will be tested with global and national stakeholders in early 2019 and their feedback will inform how we refine and expand it. At CIES, we will invite participants to submit their current work for inclusion in this database, share our plans for build-out, and hope to hear from participants how we may make this resource most useful. We also will be incorporating results from our own and other systematic reviews into the database to help highlight disconnects and promise between evidence and current practice. Feedback, lessons and course corrections will be shared.

Authors

• Nicole Haberland, Population Council

• Stephanie Psaki, Population Council

• Meredith Kozak, Population Council

• Barbara Mensch, Population Council