Gender, global governance and negotiations with soft power in advancing SDG 4

• In Event: The SDGs as a product of and mechanism for the global governance of education

Proposal

This paper explores the ways in which ideas about gender and girls’ education are a resonant theme in the soft power, linked to particular formations of global governance and the alliances used to advance this. It considers the ways in which some forms of complexity are admitted, while others excluded, in constructing these discourses. Through a focus on how the gender concerns of SDG 4 came to be interpreted, negotiated, contested and implemented the discussion focuses on three different kinds of international organisations and the approach to governance and partnership they have taken after SDG4 was adopted. The paper looks at three initiatives of international organisations: the Gender at the Centre initiative (GCI), the gender hard wiring of approach in Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and the gender projects initiated by the Malala Fund. It looks closely at the ways in which some of the complexities of thinking about gender and education came to be understood, and how particular kinds of metrics were selected and supported. Implications for the paper speak to how we think about soft power, including some of the connections and disconnections emerging and highlighting some of the directions and problems for global governance in this area, notably the selective interpretation of particular issues, and the omission of others.

Author

• Elaine Unterhalter, Centre for Education & International Development