It takes a village - girls’ education is not about girls alone

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: GirlEngage: placing girls in the driver’s seat of sustainable education reform

Proposal

Plan International USA’s BRIGHT and PEASS programs support a growing body of data that speaks to the need to address education in a holistic manner. These programs support the notion that girls learn better when they are 1) healthy; 2) have access to water, sanitation and hygiene (including menstrual hygiene management); and 3) feel safe, supported, valued and free of violence. Girl friendly schools and community engagement are critical enabling factors in successful education programs.

Multi-sectoral programming as ‘the other pieces of the pie’ explains part of but not the full story in sustaining girls’ education initiatives. A social science model, the socio-ecological framework has been used to address a range of social and public health challenges. This model offers a powerful approach to help frame our understanding of factors that facilitate or hinder girls’ educational attainment.

The Burkinabe Response to Improve Girls’ Chance to Succeed (BRIGHT) Program Impact Evaluation illustrates the application of the model as a framework for designing program intervention strategies. Concentric circles, starting with the girl at the center and expanding to families, community and society, point to key stakeholder groups (both participants and outcome areas) that need to be included and considered in relation to the girl.

The BRIGHT model aimed to increase enrollment and achievement for girls in villages within provinces with the lowest enrollment rates among girls. In phase one of the project, school construction was accompanied by interventions that addressed the broader enabling environment for girls. For example, literacy and mentoring for the girls as well as for students’ mothers/female role models aimed to enhance household level influence for girls. Mentoring programs are based on the recognition that girls live within a broader social setting. By working with families, peer groups, and mentoring programs we have seen that facilitating a supportive social group can help girls overcome individual challenges. Girls can be powerful advocates within their families or peer groups, but we have noted that the most successful program efforts reflect an understanding of the dynamic interplay between and across these spheres. Focusing on the girl alone can put individuals at risk.

At the community level BRIGHT sought to shift broader community interest and demand for improvements in girls’ education. By mobilizing key stakeholders in the system, the program engaged community members, government officials, pedagogical inspectors and teachers using an array of tactics.

Author

• Molly Fitzgerald, Plan International USA