Update to the UNGEI Plan of Action Jan – June West and Central Africa Vigdis Cristofoli, Focal Point for UNGEI, UNICEF Regional Office for Western and Central Africa

2 Capacity Building for Gender Mainstreaming Gender Auditing tool translated into French and distributed to country teams and regional partners – countries are encouraged to undertake a review in due time and to repeat the exercise regularly and Benin will undertake the exercise during the second half of 2008; Develop a Training Package on Gender Equality in Education and mainstreaming: 1) Develop Resource Tool Kit and training package and 2) Developed to facilitate national teams in the mainstreaming of gender in education policies, programs, implementation and monitoring (Aide et Action, CIEFFA, FAWE, UNESCO, UNICEF,..); Violence against children in schools; multi-partner initiative (UNESCO, UNICEF, Action Aid, ADEA, Aide et Action, FAWE, OIC, Plan International) being developed.

3 Integrating gender and strengthening partnerships - regional Expert meeting of the ECOWAS gender and girls’ focal points held in Benin in February; countries reported on activities, best practices and discussed better communication and monitoring mechanisms for support and follow up activities at the country and regional levels (February 08); UNGEI partnership with the Central African Countries strengthened through a sub-regional workshop co- organized by CIEFFA, FAWE, UNESCO BREDA and UNICEF WCARO. Participants discussed their role in the UNGEI network, best practices, and strategies for gender mainstreaming (December 07).

4 Integrating and strengthening partnerships - national Benin; integration of the Essential Learning Package into the sector plan and the 5 Year Action Plan on Girls’ Education; Central African Republic: gender mainstreamed in the sector plan for consideration for the FTI; Congo: Mobilized partners and developed programme for launching UNGEI in July; Niger: National plan for girls’ education that has been integrated to the Global plan for education and FTI and is currently planning a 5 Ministries task force for girls’ education to be launched in the second half of the year; Niger: EFA plan for secondary education that emphasizes specific strategies for girls’ education; Mali: Developed a national strategy on the reduction of repetition in primary education, particularly for girls; The Gambia: Launched the UNESCO led Basic Education in Africa Programme (BEAP) in April; achievements made in the area of gender issues and girls’ education was integrated as elements in the curriculum development process, including the gender sensitive curriculum initiative. Aligned with the sector programme and the ongoing FTI process and the national UNGEI network.

5 Decentralizing UNGEI partnerships for leveraging Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal have this year worked on the decentralization of UNGEI partnerships;

6 Advocacy and Communication Regional: Interactive website where UNGEI network members at the country level, but also regional partners subscribe. Mauritania; lobbying with the President, Nigeria; launching of the national gender equality in education policy, Burkina Faso and Niger; development of national communication strategies for girls’ education, Benin and Guinea; working on awareness campaigns with communities and parents.

7 Nigeria Girls’ Education The vision of the NGEI is to “Ensure quality life for all Nigerian girls” The mission is to “Ensure that all Nigerian girls of school age, including girls with special needs, complete their basic education and have equal access with boys to all levels of education”.

8 SAGEN Plus NGEI Girls’ Education Partnership Launched by FME & UNICEF (July 2003) Inter-sectoral multi-agency collaboration with Government (From December 2003) MDGs SAGEN EFA Girls Acceleration Strategy 25 by 2005 UNGEI 2000 GEP DFID, UNICEF FME, November, AGEI 2003 Thematic Funds with Norway Support Partners: Government (The Federal MOE), UN Agencies (UNICEF, UNESCO, and the WB), Multilateral Agencies (ADB), Bilateral Agencies (DfID, USAID, and JICA), NGOs (national and state level NGOs)

9 Nigeria Girls’ Education As a scale up strategy of the Girls’ Education Programme (GEP), the roll out of State Nigerian Girls’ Education Initiative was launched on March 28th 2008 for the six Northern States where girls’ enrolment is the lowest.

10 Why many girls are not in school in Nigeria Barriers to Girls’ Education Policy and management Lack pro poor policy; political instability; lack relevance and flexibility to local needs; poor deployment of female teachers; inadequate planning, monitoring and evaluation. School based Fees; insecurity; distance; lack of space;, low teacher motivation weak community participation, poor infrastructure, lack and textbooks & access to water and sanitation. Socio-Cultural Gender stereotyping; early marriage & pregnancy; misinterpretation of religion; low self esteem, ethnic discrimination & conflict Economic Parental poverty; household chores; child labour; commercial sex; poor returns for investment.

11 State Chapters role Domesticate and implement the National Gender Policy in Basic Education; Increase budgetary allocations to education for the promotion of quality and equality in education for girls through the Child Friendly School model; Develop State education Sector Plans that are gender sensitive and inclusive; Develop and implement gender sensitive teacher policies with a provision for continuous professional education for improvement of teacher competencies and employment of female teachers with attractive incentives for women serving in rural areas; Establish gender desks at all the decentralized MOE offices; Advocate, mobilize and sensitize communities on the issue of education, and girls’ education in particular; Support skills acquisition training at state level for girls and women, and; Develop State specific work plans and report on achievements; Show increased enrolment, retention and completion of basic education for girls in particular.

12 State chapter partnership Membership is broad based and inter-sectoral and include all social and development partners working in the area of education at the State level. Based in the State Ministry of Education to ensure the provision of policy guidelines and effective follow up with the overall work of the sector; Civil society associations has co-coordination responsibility. Patron: State Governor’s wife