Micro- and macro-level opportunities for and barriers to girls’ education: practitioner perspectives on achieving sustainable development goals 4 and 5

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have made an important shift in the dialogue on gender equality in education, from a focus on equal access and the achievement of parity, to the importance of quality, inclusive education for boys and girls. This shift has demanded that governments, the international community and local communities adopt a deeper and broader understanding of gender equality in education.  This deeper understanding has also been echoed by the Incheon Framework for Action: Education 2030, which explicitly recognizes the importance of gender equality in achieving the right to education for all and commits governments to support gender-sensitive policies, planning and learning environments; mainstreaming gender issues in teacher training and curricula; and eliminating gender-based discrimination and violence in schools. In short, achieving SDG 4 (quality, inclusive education) and SDG 5 (gender equality), requires, at a minimum, concerted and synergistic attention and action at both macro and micro levels.

The educational challenges faced by girls operate at the political, societal, community, school and interpersonal level (King & Winthrop, 2015; Kirk, 2008; Stacki & Baily, 2015; Unterhalter et al., 2014). They are complex, intersecting and fluid in nature (Lloyd, 2011; Monkman, 2011). Together, they create a landscape of barriers that girls must navigate in order to access safe, relevant, and quality education (Murphy-Graham & Lloyd, 2016; Ross, Shah & Wang, 2011). Some of the key barriers include gender discriminatory policies and management; gender norms roles and traditions; violence in and around schools, early and forced marriage and pregnancy; direct, indirect and opportunity costs to schooling; limited accessibility of schools in rural areas; and poor quality and gender blind teaching and learning environments (see for example, Parkes, 2015; Parkes & Heslop, 2013; UNESCO, 2010; UNESCO & UNGEI, 2014).

It is important to recognize that the barriers to girls’ education are crosscutting and intersectional (Unterhalter et al., 2014). Many barriers are particularly accentuated for marginalized, excluded, and vulnerable populations of girls. These girls include those who have dropped out from or who have never enrolled in school; girls with disabilities; girls who have been orphaned or who do not live with their parents; girls from the poorest households; girls in refugee camps or who have been displaced by conflict or natural disasters; girls who have become pregnant or who have given birth; girls living far away from school; and girls from linguistic and/or ethnic minorities or highly mobile communities (see Warner, Malhotra & McGonagle, 2012).

This group panel brings together representatives of several non-governmental practitioner groups and international organizations involved with and/or leading efforts to achieve SDGs 4 and 5. Each panelist will be presenting a paper that engages in various ways with a series of overarching questions intended to focus on and draw out insights concerning macro and micro-level barriers and opportunities in the area of girls’ education, based on their organizations’ work in this area, and particularly focused on low and middle-income countries, as well as humanitarian contexts. The guiding questions are as follows:

1. Currently, what do you think are the biggest barriers – at both micro (practice) and macro (policy advocacy, planning, etc.) levels, to promoting girls’ education and achieving gender equality in education globally? 
2. Depending on your organization’s thematic and regional focus, how do you see girls’ education barriers/challenges (and opportunities) as differing (in terms of nature and magnitude) in low and middle income countries, as well as humanitarian (including emergency and conflict-affected) contexts?
3. What is your experience with multi-sectoral approaches in the promotion of gender equality and girls’ education more specifically? How do multi-sectoral approaches link up with system-wide reform efforts led by Ministries of Education? What do you think is needed to help ensure the sustainability of multi-sectoral approaches in girls’ education policy advocacy and practice?
4. Where do you see further research and understanding as being needed with respect to the promotion of gender equality and girls’ education? What particular gaps in our knowledge and practice are important to fill, and how do you think this should happen? Are there innovative methodological practices that you might highlight as showing particular promise in terms of the quality and relevance of the analyses they produce?
5. How do you think priorities should be set with respect to promoting girls’ education and gender equality worldwide? How can the G7 agenda and the SDGs assist (and other frameworks as appropriate) support processes of establishing priorities for policy and practice?

In terms of the format of the group panel, the session will begin with some brief opening remarks by the chair. This will be followed by four 10-minute paper presentations. After the presentations, a 20-minute panel conversation will be moderated by the discussant, anchored by the guiding questions identified above, and focused on distilling key insights concerning macro and micro level challenges and opportunities in the area of girls’ education in particular contexts (e.g., low income, middle income, humanitarian contexts). The final 20 minutes of the session will see the conversation opened up to the audience for further questions, comments and reflection.

References
King, E.M. and Winthrop, R. (2015). Today’s challenges for girls’ education. Global Economy and Development Working Paper No. 90. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Available at https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Todays-Challenges-Girls-Educationv6.pdf

Kirk, J. (2008). Addressing gender disparities in education in contexts of crisis, postcrisis, and state fragility. In M. Tembon and Fort, L. Girls’ education in the 21st century: Gender equality, empowerment and economic growth (pp. 153-179). Washington, DC: World Bank.

Lloyd, C. (2011). Summary of new lessons: The power of educating adolescent girls: Promoting healthy, safe and productive transitions to adulthood. Brief No. 33. New York: Population Council. Available at http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/TABriefs/33_ NewLessons.pdf

Monkman K (2011) Introduction. Framing gender, education and empowerment. Research in Comparative and International Education, 6(1), 1–13.

Murphy-Graham, E. and Lloyd, C. (2016). Empowering adolescent girls in developing countries: The potential role of education. Policy Futures in Education, 14(5), 556-577.

Parkes, J. (ed.). (2015). Gender violence in poverty contexts: The educational challenge. London: Taylor and Francis.

Parkes, J. and Heslop, J. (2013). Stop violence against girls in school: Endline report. London: ActionAid.

Ross, H., Shah, P. and Wang, L. (2011). Situating empowerment for millennial schoolgirls in Gujarat, India and Shaanxi, China. Feminist Formations, 23(3), 23–47.

Stacki, S.L. and Baily, S. (2015). Educating adolescent girls around the globe: Challenges and opportunities. New York and London: Routledge.

UNESCO. (2010). EFA Global Monitoring Report – Reaching the Marginalized. Paris, France: UNESCO.

UNESCO and UNGEI. (2014). Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All. Gender Summary. Paris: UNESCO.

Unterhalter, E., North, A., Arnot, M., Lloyd, C., Moletsane, L., Murphy-Graham, E., Parkes, J., and Saito, M. (2014). Interventions to enhance girls’ education and gender equality. Education rigorous literature review. U.K.: Department of International Development.

Warner, A., Malhotra, A. and McGonagle, A. (2012). Girls’ education, empowerment, and transitions to adulthood: The case for a shared agenda. Washington, DC: International Centre for Research on Women.

Sub Unit

• Committee: Gender & Education

Chair

• Dan Thakur, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada

Individual Presentations

• Addressing Gender Inequalities in Education and Building Evidence: The Safe Schools Common Approach - Tim Murray, Save the Children

• Bridging macro and micro level responses to gender inequalities in education - Pete Simms, Plan International Canada

• Promoting Gender Equality in Refugee Camps - Stephanie McBride, World University Service of Canada (WUSC)

• Planning and implementing educational change at the macro-level in support of gender equality in education in conflict-affected contexts - Aya Kibeski, Senior Education Specialist, Global Partnership for Education

Discussant

• Caroline Manion, University of Toronto