Reforming Curricula for peacebuilding: Analyzing how technical and school based curricula can be better aligned to WPS agenda and framework.

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Enhancing Equity in Education by Better Aligning with the Women Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda and Framework Case studies from East and West Africa

Proposal

Can education as a social service contribute to sustainable peacebuilding? How does the WPS Resolution amplify the voices of women and girls and accelerate peace and where does it fit it, if at all? In Somalia, an education intervention, successfully able to engage directly with conflict drivers facing women, men, girls and boys through in the process of addressing education policy, opens a clear path to apply the WPS agenda. Arguably, it is not only possible for education interventions to engage with conflict drivers—it is necessary. In a context of fragility, like that in Somalia, education outcomes are consistently undermined by the fallout from conflict, ongoing and renewed. If education interventions are designed without taking into account and engaging with the wider political, strategic and national context in which they are implemented, they likely will undermine their own efforts, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized such as women and girls.
The engagement with curriculum framework reform in Somalia aimed to address these issues of social justice throughout the intervention, as described above. Limitations of course remain, as the process was not perfect; for one thing, not all areas could be reached. The new curriculum framework alone will not address the persistently low gross enrollment rates, which are caused by a range of factors that impede access to education. Further interventions in the wider education sector will be needed to improve access. Moreover, one consultative policy process led by young people will not create a sustainable shift in the political modus operandi that helps to maintain a status quo of exclusion and inequity.
The international community has not yet fully come to terms with this fact, or with the role social services play in building sustainable peace and how it can complement the WPS agenda, which argues for equitable services for women in conflict affected contexts. Notably, the New Deal document and the Compact for Somalia (and, consequently, the UN Integrated Strategic Framework that supported their implementation) ostensibly still view access to services largely as a peace dividend that will become available to the population once peace and security have been established. According to this approach, access to social services in these areas will in turn contribute to the legitimacy of the government.
It has become clear from this case study, social services for the most marginalized groups, including education, may have a larger and more critical role to play in dealing with factors of fragility, in building sustainable peace and advancing the rights of women and girls. Therefore, it is necessary to take on the challenge of assessing and re-evaluating current education responses in fragile contexts with the WPS agenda in mind to achieve greater equity in education for girls.

Author

• Rina Dhalla, USAID/ME Bureau