Education in Crisis, North-East Nigeria

• In Event: Bridging the Gap: The link between theoretical frameworks and their practical implementation in education programming

Proposal

Girls’ access to quality education continues to be disproportionate to boys, in many countries, as girls’ face complex and intersecting barriers, which has been compounded by the COVID pandemic.
Realising gender equity in education has been negatively impacted by girls’ vulnerability to early and child marriage; teenage pregnancy; sexual violence; girls’ susceptibility to supporting the household more than their male counterparts; and often being least prioritized for education.
Yet, evidence is conclusive in that educating girls realizes gains not only for girls across indicators in education, health, nutrition, social, and economics, but also for her for her family, as well as the overall community.
With this in mind, and with support from Global Affairs Canada, Plan International has implemented a 3-year project: Education in Crisis (EiC) in conflict-affected North-East Nigeria, to work towards improving the realization of girl’s rights to inclusive, protective and gender-responsive quality education.
The project worked with the framework of gender responsive education, aiming to improve indicators for girls, as well as addressing key barriers in improving access to girls’ quality education.
The EiC Project is currently conducting a research study that aims to understand and assess the impact of the project in realizing gender responsive education and improving access to quality learning for girls. Specifically, the research will examine how the conceptual framework of the project has been applied in a practical manner to meet the context and the needs of the beneficiaries.
The research will aim to understand to what extent was the design of the EiC project appropriate and relevant given the political, economic, and social context of northeast Nigeria and how and to what extent has the project addressed the needs and demands of the beneficiaries including the level of satisfaction of the children, especially girls.
In addition, other research is being undertaken on specific components of the project, to analyse the impact of the particular outputs and activities, which will strengthen the evidence base on how the project practically intervened to contextualize gender responsive education, including, but not limited to the work with cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which aimed to address access-related barriers for girls.
The data gathered through this study will support the overall panel by providing insights and recommendations on support or reforms that may be required in order to give breadth and depth to the discussion on localization and working with and through beneficiaries to ensure gender responsive education.
The EIC Project hopes that these findings can help to inform future education programming for girls, beyond the life cycle of EiC and provide insights for other projects working with in gender responsive education to improve access to quality learning for girls.
In this panel presentation, the EiC team will share preliminary findings and insights from this research.

Author

• Sara McGinty, Plan International Canada