Collective action to champion girls’ education in Africa: Case studies from the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)

• In Event: Protest, the Digital and Social Change

Proposal

Education is a collective responsibility, and the power of mobilizing various stakeholders is crucial as it creates accountability mechanisms while promoting the human right to quality education for all, especially for vulnerable populations including girls and women. Globally, advocacy efforts have led to an increased awareness of the importance of girls' education, formulation of policies that safeguard the right to education for all, as well as increased financial investments toward girls' education.

Despite the milestones attained in promoting girls' education such as increased access to education across all levels, strides towards achieving gender parity, and implementation of strategies that address issues affecting girls’ education such as child marriages, teenage pregnancies, school-related gender-based violence (SGBV) amongst others, fragmented efforts by education stakeholders, have often led to duplication of efforts and little impact. This paper seeks to demonstrate the power of collaboration in advocating for the right to education for girls. Specifically, the paper focuses on the experiences of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) as a community organizer and an agency for collective action for enhanced participation of girls in education across Africa. FAWE is a pan-African organization with national chapters in 33 countries across Africa that promotes girls' education.

FAWE has a cascade approach that includes working with partners at the grassroots, as well as the national chapters and a regional secretariat. Information flow within the network is bidirectional, that is, the country chapters generate evidence from the local communities, and contribute to the national and regional discourse on girls’ education, and information from the regional level trickles back to the grassroots through the national chapters. This allows for an interactive and dynamic approach to knowledge exchange and advocacy.

At the grassroots, FAWE chapters empower schools and communities to raise awareness of the importance of girls' education. For instance, FAWE strengthens the capacities of school administrators, and teachers to identify, prevent and respond to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). The lessons and good practices from such interventions are then documented and shared at the National level, where the FAWE country chapters engage in education reforms and policy formulations. In Kenya, for instance, FAWE is among the organizations drafting the Gender in education sector policy in partnership with the Ministry of Education. At the regional level, the FAWE secretariat collates research evidence and good practices on gender-responsive approaches across different countries and engages in policy advocacy, at the regional and continental levels. For example, FAWE partnered with the African Union (AU) to develop the Gender Equality Strategy for the Continental Education Strategy for Africa which emphasizes the need to curb SRGBV in learning institutions.
This process documentation paper is important to program implementers and policy actors, as it demonstrates scalable models of collective action and advocacy that FAWE has embraced in promoting girls' education.

FAWE deploys several assets that are instrumental in advocating for girls' education, and also in engaging with Governments and related stakeholders. FAWE conducts research, engages in policy advocacy, and also embraces partnerships that have greatly contributed to the success of its advocacy efforts. Collaboration with local organizations that involve the parents, and communities creates a sense of ownership, which is crucial for sustainable development. Some of the positive aspects that can be replicated from FAWEs models include adaptation to the local contexts to respond to communities' unique needs. In addition, building the capacities of women and girls as well as communities creates a strong network of empowered change agents thus maximizing the impact of interventions targeting girls for a just society.

The work of FAWE aligns with the theme of the conference, as it demonstrates the power of collective advocacy to champion a human rights cause, that is, quality education for all including women and girls.

Authors

• Martha Muhwezi, Forum for African Women Educationalists- Africa

• Catherine Salina Asego, Forum for African Women Educationalists - Africa