Researching Threats to Safer Learning Environments in Conflict and Crisis Environments – School Related Gender Based Violence

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

A Safer Learning Environment (SLE) Working Group, which focuses on SLE in Conflict and Crisis Environments, was formed in 2016 as part of the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network. One aspect of this group's work has been focused on Researching and Assessing Safer Learning Environments, particularly methodologies in identifying threats. Members and affiliates of this working group will speak to this theme, presenting in particular their approaches to primary field research utilizing various methodologies that can elucidate findings related to threats to safer learning environments that are both rich and actionable. The focus of this panel will not be on M&E (e.g. indicators and impact evaluations), but contextual research – what needs to be known - and how often does it need to be re-assessed – in order to effectively design, plan, and adapt an program that has among its goals making learning safer, specifically in a crisis and conflict environment where the situation is frequently changing? We will not conclude which approach is best – as any methodology has a time and a place – but rather outline the various approaches used and highlight the strengths, weaknesses, and future work to improve context-specific and time-specific research related to the ever-changing situation in a crisis and conflict environment.

We will focus specifically on SRGBV in conflict and crisis environments, considering specifically how this issue is unique in crisis and conflict environments, acknowledging that there is much work currently being done on SRGBV in other non-crisis environments (specifically the Global Working Group on SRGBV). We also consider SRGBV because of its clear focus on gender equity, which aligns well with the overall conference theme (the accepted definition of SRGBV includes bullying; corporal punishment; emotional, sexual, physical abuse; exploitative power relationships between teachers / students; and trauma associated with such abuse / threats of abuse / fears of abuse etc. - all of which are experienced differently by males and/or females and require a gender lens to fully understand the dynamics).

Four very unique contexts will be explored to highlight how researching issues, and the findings that emerge, which are related to SRGBV (and other related threats) are unique depending on the context of the crisis/ conflict environment: Refugee Settings, Somalia, El Salvador, and Liberia.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Education Conflict and Emergencies

Chair

• Karla Giuliano Sarr, SIT Graduate Institute

Individual Presentations

• Researching Gender-Based Violence in Learning Spaces for Refugee and Displaced Children and Adolescents (a global survey) - Sujata Bordoloi, UN Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)

• Piloting a Safer Learning Environments Assessment Toolkit in Somalia (a context-specific rapid qualitative exercise) - Karen Scriven, Mercy Corps

• Piloting a Safer Learning Environments Assessment Toolkit in El Salvador (a context-specific rapid qualitative exercise) - Maritza Trejo, Glasswing International El Salvador

• Researching School based perpetration of sexual violence and its association with types of sexual victimization in Liberia - Jordan Steiner, Center on Violence Against Women and Children, Rutgers University

Discussant

• Cornelia Janke, EDC/ECCN