Strengthening Girls' Learning Outcomes and Empowerment in Fragile Contexts - Learnings from Colombia, DRC & Nigeria

• In Event: Foundational Learning Outcomes & Wellbeing in Crisis-affected Contexts: A true catalyst for positive change.

Proposal

Over the past three years, in partnership with Global Affairs Canada, Save the Children has implemented three girls’ education programs in crisis-affected areas of Colombia, DRC, and Nigeria reaching over 90,000 children. All three contexts continue to face multiple dimensions of fragility, where education systems have been collapsing and large numbers of children, particularly girls, are out-of-school, at-risk of dropping out and/or not learning. During implementation, school attacks by armed groups in northern Nigeria coupled with recurring mass flooding has caused schools to be destroyed. In Colombia, mixed migration flows of over 1.84m Venezuelans have exhausted education resources and spurred prejudices against migrant children at the border. School children, particularly girls, in eastern DRC have been targeted by state and non-state armed groups through abductions and SGBV; unable to return to school due to community shaming of SGBV survivors. This is all on top of the COVID-19 pandemic which created major disruptions for children's learning. Girls have been disproportionately affected by these crises, as they face underlying discriminatory gender norms. They are the first to be taken out of school due to displacement-related poverty and early pregnancy, and face higher levels of SGBV, including child and early marriage.
Given these complex and recurring crises, how can we effectively implement girls' education interventions to fulfill girls' rights to quality education and strengthen their foundational literacy, numeracy and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)? In the face of insecurity, what works (or does not work) to enable girls' empowerment to transform the unequal power relations and discriminatory norms, where girls have equal control, security, choices, voice over their lives and society now and for the future? How can we protect girls and ensure their safety, wellbeing and psychosocial support in emergencies through education programming?
In this panel presentation, Save the Children will share applied learnings and experiences from the implementation of the three girls' education programs in Colombia, DRC and Nigeria. We will compare the three projects’ endline evaluations which took place between October 2022 and July 2023 and the effects such interventions had on girls' learning outcomes and perceptions of their empowerment in education. We will present key tools used to understand and measure learning outcomes and empowerment, including Save the Children’s Power Index, as well as adapted ASER literacy and numeracy assessments. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on the similar and diverging multidimensions of fragility across the three contexts; the barriers and enablers for learning outcomes and empowerment in crisis settings, hearing from girls’ themselves; and what measures and adaptations were taken and recommended to address ongoing crisis while promoting education and empowerment for girls. Such measures include conflict-sensitivity assessment & risk mitigation plans; anticipatory action and emergency preparedness within communities, schools, and education systems; girl- and women's rights organization-led social behaviour change communications and advocacy; and accelerated learning models which integrate SEL/MHPSS, ASRHR and SGBV prevention.

Author

• Sarah Moorcroft, Save the Children Canada