2020 Gender Report: A new generation: 25 years of efforts for gender equality in education

• In Event: A new generation: 25 years of efforts for inclusive gender equality in education

Proposal

The United Nations Agenda 2030 contains the vision to leave no one behind. Within that framework, in the Sustainable Development Goal 4, the international community committed to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ and with the fifth goal (SDG 5) to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.
Inclusion is highlighted in the form of equity in Agenda 2030 and of non-discrimination— in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Likewise, Article 10 of the Beijing Platform for Action calls for: ‘The full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community’ (UN Women, 2014).
The presentation discusses key findings of the Gender Report 2020. Following an intersectionality approach, this Report investigates how inclusion in education can advance gender equality in and through education and make it more inclusive. It does so by examining the extent to which gender intersects with other factors of discrimination and disadvantage, with the aim of highlighting who among girls and boys, women and men is left behind and is deprived of the right to, in, and through education.
The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a visionary agenda for the empowerment of women, adopted in 1995 by 189 governments. The Beijing Declaration is a milestone for inclusion of girls and women in education and remains the most comprehensive global policy framework on gender equality in 12 key areas, including education.
The Gender Report 2020 takes stock of progress towards gender equality in education since 1995 and how selected strategies recommended in the Platform related to education have been implemented in different parts of the world. Based on 12 commissioned studies the report assesses how countries have implemented key BDPA education objectives over the past 25 years on early pregnancy, school counselling, teaching and learning material, women in the education workforce and school-related gender-based violence. It highlights promising practices based on these case studies.
This Report aims to answer the following questions: how far have the world, regions and countries moved from the situation of education experienced by girls and boys and women and men twenty-five years ago? Has the progress benefited all, and if not, who among the girls, boys, women and men remain left behind and why? What have countries been doing to implement the Beijing Declaration to improve the education and training of women? What has been achieved and what remains to be done to hold the Beijing initial promise and to keep advancing gender equality while leaving no one behind in yet an increasingly unequal world in the context of COVID-19? It shows that important progress was made, but that gains were uneven.

Authors

• Nicole Bella, UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report

• Matthias Eck, UNESCO