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Gender-Responsive EFA Plans

UNESCO Bangkok has developed guidelines to assist countries in making their EFA national frameworks gender-responsive.

At the international conference in Dakar in 2000, the majority of countries in the world agreed that not enough effort had been made to close the gender gaps in basic education and to promote gender equality. Therefore, a specific goal was agreed upon to explicitly state the commitments of governments to promote gender equality in education. The goal reads:

Goal 5: Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to, and achievement, in basic education

 

UNESCO Bangkok has developed guidelines to assist countries in making their EFA national frameworks gender-responsive. Click here to download The Guidelines for Implementing, Monitoring and Evaluating Gender-Responsive EFA Plans. These Guidelines help you to:

 

1. Conduct a situation analysis and identify critical gender in education issues for:

  • Formal primary and secondary education (access, quality and relevance, as well as management)
  • Early childhood care and education
  • Adolescents
  • Non-formal education and literacy training for adults

 

2. Set objectives and identify strategies, for instance:

Objective:   

Closing gender gaps in primary and secondary education by the year xxxx

Strategies:  

Providing subsidies/incentives
Providing transport and/or boarding facilities
Providing single-sex learning environments

 

Objective:  

Closing learning achievement gaps by the year xxxx

Strategies:  

Training teachers in gender responsiveness
Changing teaching-learning practices with emphasis on inclusiveness
Creating child-centred learning environments, and team work

 

3. Implement, monitor, and evaluate EFA Plans, including:

  • Creating monitoring mechanisms for continuous assessment, including follow up with policy makers on progress (or lack of it)
  • Development of a system of monitoring and evaluation, including the identification of indicators and the collection and analysis of sex disaggregated data

4. Mainstream gender into education, for instance:

Process: 

Work on developing a strong political commitment to an institutional policy and framework on gender equality

Procedures: 

Setting up a network of gender focal points at a national level located in different ministries and institutions

 

Process: 

Design a strategy to promote gender-responsive EFA plans based on various means of consultation and communication

Procedures: 

Creating an inter-sectoral ministry advisory committee including gender experts

 

5. Create a civil society advisory committee or, if such already exists, insure that representatives from women’s organizations and gender specialists are included:

  • Identify financial and human resource needs and partnerships
  • Costs of achieving gender equality
  • Training, retraining, and upgrading of staff
  • Appointment of Gender Focal Points
  • Allocation of resources and authority
  • Creation of multisectoral partnerships and support groups with civil society, NGOs, and the private sector
  • Adoption of sector wide approaches

 

An example of a gender-responsive EFA plan from the region is Indonesia's EFA Plan.