All does mean ALL: Supporting girls and young women to be visible, enter education spaces and participate in decision making

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The concept of 'Education for All' is by no means a new one. Huge progress in expanding access to education has taken place in many parts of the world during the early 20th century. The notion that every individual, regardless of their background, capabilities, and socio-economic status, has the right to access quality education has been the bedrock of a multitude of declarations, policies, conferences and commitments (1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Education for All movement: Jomtien conference in 1990, Education for All Dakar Framework in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals). Most recently, there has been an increased global focus on those not learning and attaining basic education, and the Global Coalition for Learning and G7 targets prioritise foundational learning within systems. However, this panel will argue that with a renewed focus on learning, while laudable and necessary, the most marginalised – both in and out of the system –will continue to be excluded unless they are made visible and their learning prioritised in any given context. Without this focus, education will never be for all. Therefore the impetus to work on identifying the most marginalised and making them visible in education systems, able to claim education spaces and realise their human rights remains (Gaventa 2019).

This panel uses data and experiences from the Girls' Education Challenge's (GEC) second programme window, Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB). The GEC, funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), was launched in 2012 and was the world's largest donor-funded girls' education programme. The GEC aims to improve the learning opportunities and outcomes of over 1.6 million of the world's most marginalised girls by enabling girls to secure a better future for themselves, their families and their communities through improved education. LNGB launched in 2017 across 10 countries, including 14 projects promoting equitable social transformation through education. The LNGB fund reaches up to 190,000 highly marginalised girls and supports essential interventions to provide literacy, numeracy and skills relevant to life and work. LNGB projects tackle harmful social and gender norms that contribute to girls being out of school in 10 countries across Africa and South Asia. They address complex circumstantial barriers that have led to these high levels of marginalisation, including girls with disabilities, orphaned girls, child brides, young mothers, refugees, victims of gender-based violence and modern-day slavery, and girls living in extreme poverty. Girls receive support in several areas, including non-formal education focused on functional literacy and numeracy; skills and livelihoods; empowerment, agency, and rights; sexual and reproductive health and rights; community-based awareness-raising and advocacy; and systems-level capacity building and advocacy.

LNGB projects work with hugely varied learner profiles built from in-depth data collection at project monitoring and evaluation levels. Very rarely will an LNGB girl or young woman have a single identity: girls who are married may also come from a linguistic minority and may also self-identify as having an affective disability. Due to this, teams in each country often operate at the intersection of social, legal, financial, health, social, welfare and educational systems; and employ highly individualised responses. In turn, the complex balance of a multi-dimensional set of outcomes for all LNGB girls is reiterated – literacy and numeracy in equal measure with transition to the next 'level' (be it educational, livelihoods, safer and more empowered family life), mental and physical wellbeing, improved support structures for girls at all levels, and sustainable systems-level change to better support all learners.

The LNGB Theory of Change centralises an LNGB girl as an individual in her society. Her success is influenced by her ambitions and wishes, as well as being defined by the people and structures around her. The social responsibility held by LNGB projects is to find ways to reduce barriers that may impede the social transformation for which they strive.

This panel will discuss the Leave No Girl Behind projects' approach to working with the most marginalised, how the invisible has become more visible, how closed spaces have become claimed spaces and how individuals and communities are participating in decision-making. The panellists will also report on what progress and achievements have been made in reaching the most marginalised from a portfolio and project level and how this can inform future work to maintain a focus on 'all' means all. The panel will start with how the LNGB window conceptualised marginalisation and developed a framework to support programming. The second paper will explore how one programme responded to include previously excluded girls and young women in alternative education pathways and support community-led accelerated learning. Finally, the last paper will report on a portfolio-wide experience of supporting the most marginalised, factors for success are discussed and recommendations for programming will be addressed.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Emma Sarton, Cambridge Education

Chair

• Samantha Ross, Link Education International

Individual Presentations

• Paper 1: Do we need yet another framework? How a thoughtful marginalisation framework can make all the difference. - Emma Sarton, Cambridge Education

• Community-led accelerated learning – ensuring those with disabilities can also catch up (in resource-constrained environments) - Harold Kuombola, Link Community Development Malawi

• The power of education to catalyse change: PEAS - Jenny Groot, Promoting Equality in African Schools PEAS

Discussant

• Sharon Tao, Girls' Education Challenge