African Development Forum ADF VI EMPOWERING AFRICAN WOMEN Education, TrainingSkills Development and

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African Development Forum (ADF VI)
EMPOWERING AFRICAN WOMENEducation,
Training/Skills Development and ICT CODOU
DIAW, Ph.D. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FORUM FOR
AFRICAN WOMEN EDUCATIONALISTS (FAWE)

• Addis, November 20th, 2008

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CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK

• EFA Goals Parity in UPE
• MDGs 2 and 3 Parity in UPE and Gender Equality
• CEDAW Elimination of Discrimination in
  Education
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and
  Peoples Rights relating to the Rights of Women
  in Africa Education as a human right
• AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality

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STATE OF WOMENS/GIRLS EDUCATION IN AFRICA

• Education sector in SSA has experienced
  formidable progress since the 1990s
• Upward trend in average PS enrollment rates (78
  in 1990 ? 98 in 2007)
• But gender gap persits in access, retention
  achievement at all levels of the formal system
• EFA and MDG target of gender parity in primary
  level access by 2005 missed ? Compromise
  likelihood of achieveing MDG/EFA targets
• Only 1 girl for every 2 boys makes it to SS 1
  girl for every 3 boys completes SE
  (Figures from UNESCO
  and ECA)

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STATE OF WOMENS/GIRLS EDUCATION IN AFRICA
(contd)

• Even smaller number of these girls (40) attain
  higher education ? limited employ.
  opportuntunities
• Low participation of women in science and tech
  fields ? less than 1/3 of those in HE
• Literacy levels remain low (62 of 155 million
  illerate adults are women)
• Women are underrepresented in TVET and skills
  development programmes

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BEYOND ACCESS UPE

• Universal primary access necessary but not
  sufficient
• Not trade quantity with quality and equity
• Linking educational outcomes w/ economic
  opportunities is crucial ((employment,
  entrepreneurship)
• education empowers girls and women
• Models of education that contribute to improving
  womens lifechances (social transformation and
  economic progress)

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A WHOLISTIC APPROACH TO EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• ECED EARLY GENDER SENSITIZATION (cannot be done
  successfully w/out parental and community
  engagement from the early start Role modeling ,
  anchored in culture
• Education in CONFLICT/POST CONFLICT AREAS
• POST-PRIMARY
• VOTECH and EMPLOYMENT READINESS
• NON FORMAL ED/LITERACY (targeting teenage
  dropouts, and young adults ? linkages
  w/health/sanitation/HIV-AIDS education, income
  generation activities)

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STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE GE/WE

• Eliminating school fees ? right to edu equity
• Providing bursaries ?mitigate effect of poverty
• Building boarding facilities ? to address issue
  of distance from school, especially at
  post-primary level
• Building gender-sensitive sanitation facilities ?
  protection of girls

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STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE GE/WE

• Re-entry policy for pregnant schools girls and
  teenage mothers.
• Establishing school-feeding programs
• Making schools surrounding communities
  harassment-free zones.
• Mobilizing communities to support girls
  education and abandon harmful practices that keep
  girls out of school

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TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

• Since formal general schooling is neither
  sufficient nor widespread enough to accommodate
  all youth and young adults, investing in
  developing skills acquisition not only makes
  economic sense, but is an equitable way of
  fulfilling the right to education for all
• TVET for girls (especially drop-out, conflict
  affected, disadvantaged) in non female-dominated
  fields
• Business education transformational literacy
  for women
• Widespread and targeted use of ICT

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IMPACT OF TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

• Promote decent livelihood through
  entrepreneurship or paid employment ? womens
  economic empowerment
• Increase womens transition from informal to
  formal economy ? increased productivity
• Use of ICT can optimize training and innovation,
  help expand access ? reduction of the digital
  divide
• The overall impact will be poverty reduction and
  economic growth

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STEP UP PROGRESS?

• Policy Level
• Provide enabling and empowering environments for
  women to
• acquire technical/professional training and
  develop skills that
• allow them to invest formal sectors of the
  economy
• Program level
• Train a critical mass of girls and women in
  traditionally non
• female careers so that the cumulative impact is
  greater at the
• macro economic and societal level
• Establish linkages with private sector to wide
  opportunities for
• employment and entrepreneurship (ie on-the
  job-training, access
• to credit for credit for women, etc.)

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STEP UP PROGRESS?

• Budgeting and financing
• Governments must do gender-specific budgeting
• for TVET and skills development for women
• Invest in ICT as a way of expanding access
  (distance
• education) and as a vehicle for innovation and
  for
• reducing the digital divide.

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MAXIMIZING EFFECTIVENESS

• Multi-dimensional approach ? policy advocacy
  accompanied with research and scaling up and
  mainstreaming of programs
• Consolidated interventions ? to avoid dispersion,
  duplication and short-term interventions
  /projects
• Gender-responsive strategies ? vocational
  training and skills acquisition by women has a
  high potential for transforming unequal gender
  relations if it pays attention to needs of girls
  and boys, men and women at all levels

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THANK YOUForum for African Women Educationalists
(FAWE)