The Executive Director FAWE Africa, Ms. Hendrina Doroba, joined the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Education Ambassaror Hon. Amina Mohamed at the launch of the 6th Gender Review Report in Africa of the 2018 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR). This launch with the theme \u2018Accountability for Gender Equality in Education\u2019 was held on the sidelines of the Pan-African High-level Meeting on Education that was convened by UNESCO and the Government of Kenya in collaboration several partners, a meeting that brought together Member States to share their experiences and contribute to the ongoing discussions on the 2063 African Union vision: \u201cThe Africa We Want\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms. Doroba, who delivered the key note address as a member of the GEMR Global Advisory Board, attributed some of the achievements in the report to the successful engagements of FAWE and other like-minded partners in the early years, whose results were just now being felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 25 years of its existence, FAWE has influenced positive change in the policy landscape of many African states. FAWE has engaged with governments, schools and communities to develop, implement and promote policies and practices that promote girls\u2019 and women\u2019s education. For example, The \u2018Send your girl-child to School\u2019 campaign in the early years convinced many parents to allow their girl children to exercise their rights to education, resulting in the majority of countries attaining gender parity in primary enrolment and to take action to ensure that girls do not just enrol but are supported to remain in school until they are complete,\u201d said Ms. Doroba.<\/p>\n
In her address, the FAWE Executive Director presented the Gender Equality Strategy for the African Union\u2019s Continental Education Strategy for Africa CESA 16-25 both as a tool to guide African States on how best to integrate inclusion, equity and gender equality in education and as a gender-sensitive monitoring framework that will enable Africa Union Member States to measure progress towards gender equality and its benefits to development at the national, sub regional and continental levels.<\/p>\n
Ms. Doroba recommended the integration of the Gender Equality Strategy for CESA 16-25 into respective National education plans and implementations processes, the strengthening of the National Education Information Management systems (EIMS) and strengthening of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework to track the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the education sector.<\/p>\n
Ms Doroba gave some highlights of how the Gender Review Report for Africa speaks to the need for a makeover in gender biased attitudes and stereotypes in the school learning environment, the plight of women in leadership and the capacity or lack thereof for data collection by African countries, including the use of ICT tools.<\/p>\n
The Executive Director concluded her address by urging Member States to prioritize gender equality as a fundamental requisite for both national and continental development if they are to achieve positive transformation. She encouraged them to prioritize the inclusion of the most disadvantaged and marginalized; to close the learning gap for girls with multiple disadvantages, including the economically disadvantaged, the orphans, the rural poor, those living with disabilities, the refugees, the internally displaced and those living in conflict and post conflict areas.<\/p>\n