The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) was launched by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) in 2012 to bring improved learning outcomes to over a million marginalized girls across 18 countries in Africa and Asia. Over the course of the programme, 37 organisations and consortia have received funding and implemented a diverse range of projects, all aimed at boosting literacy and numeracy, improving attendance and retention, and influencing the educational environment so that many other children benefit in the future.
Projects have worked in both the formal and non-formal sectors and have included a broad range of interventions for girls at primary and secondary levels including teacher training and support, community engagement, development of text books and other resources, educational technology, role models, financial support, entrepreneur schemes, distance learning and work with school management and governance. Target groups of girls generally face a wide and complex set of marginalisation factors stemming from prevailing social norms, adverse personal circumstances and unfavourable environmental conditions. Gender analysis undertaken through the GEC has highlighted the particular barriers faced by girls both inside and outside the classroom. Project contexts have at times presented extreme additional challenges such as the effects of conflict, drought, Ebola and earthquakes which have necessitated flexible and resourceful management by implementing organisations.
This symposium will present the emerging endline findings of the GEC programme and discuss what has been achieved and learned about girls’ education over the past four years. Girls’ literacy and numeracy skills have been rigorously assessed at baseline, midline and endline and data from the externally conducted evaluations of each project (due for completion in April 2017) as well as independent data from the Evaluation Manager will be drawn on to explore the effects and impact of different interventions in the contexts in which they have been applied.
DfID, the Fund Manager (an alliance led by PwC) and the Evaluation Manager (Coffey Ltd) will share lessons learnt during the programme including strategies which can support projects to maximize their results. Comparative and meta- analysis of the results will enable us to look at emerging themes, for example links between aspects of teaching quality and girls’ learning, the influence of attitudinal and behavioural change and the role of technology. We will explore what it takes for a project to engage with government and build capacity as it delivers better outcomes for girls. We have also learned about the combinations and complementarity of interventions; the symposium discussant will prompt discussion on how change happens at the level of the girl and her family, the school, the community and the broader education system.
Representatives from three GEC projects will join the symposium to present their experience of designing and delivering interventions which have sought to bring about change for girls’ learning. They will illustrate their approach through mini case studies and examples and discuss the challenges and difficult decisions they have had to make as well as the successes. In doing so, we will also invite contributions from symposium participants on the continuing barriers which girls face in securing the benefits of education, and briefly touch on the second phase of the GEC which is being initiated in 2017.
The symposium will aim to address key questions:
- What change has been brought about through the GEC and how has it happened?
- What evidence is there to suggest this change is sustainable and/or scalable?
- What are the lessons the GEC can offer to funders, policy makers and practitioners?
Organiser: PwC, GEC Fund Manager
Discussant: Dr Pauline Rose, University of Cambridge
