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“Victims or Game Changers”: Leveraging education for adolescent girls’ agency in transformative climate action in rural Zimbabwe

Tue, February 21, 4:45 to 6:15pm EST (4:45 to 6:15pm EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Declaration Level (1B), Douglass (close to the Tiber Creek Rooms)

Proposal

Climate change and adolescent girls’ education are currently two of the most topical issues in human development discourse. Zimbabwe has experienced a number of climate-induced extreme events such as droughts, floods, heat waves and cold spells – all of which have challenged the education sector’s resilience to climatic shocks. At the same time, adolescent girls in marginalized rural communities continue to ‘fall through the cracks’ of education – failing to attend school, to stay in school and to complete a basic cycle of education. While the literature points to climate change posing an unprecedented threat to adolescent girls’ education, it also suggests the importance of adolescent girls’ education as a potential solution to the climate crisis. This paper explores the dual relationship between climate change and adolescent girls’ education. Data have been collected in an arid rural region in the south west part of the country through a qualitative survey with in-school adolescent girls; key informant interviews with school authorities, teachers and other stakeholders; focus group discussions with in-school adolescent girls, their parents/caregivers, teachers and adolescent boys; field notes, participant observation and drawings by the adolescent boys and girls. This paper highlights the ways in which climatic shocks and extreme weather events pose challenges for adolescent girls’ education in rural Zimbabwe. By challenging the current narrative that views adolescent girls as victims of climate change, the paper will propose an innovative model which hinges on adolescent girls’ agency in order to build individual, collective as well as education sector resilience to climate change.

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