Girls' Education: Case Study at Johns Hopkins School of Education

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DOCTOR OF EDUCATION CASE STUDY

Girls Education and the Millennium Development Goals: NGO Challenges

855.716 Contemporary Approaches To Educational Problems

SPRING, 2014

Photo Credit: Fred Mednick


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Girls Education Case Study: 855.716 Contemporary Approaches to Educational Problems 3

Efforts to stem malnutrition, remove barriers to

school enrollment, curtail unsanitary conditions

leading to child mortality, combat malaria and

tuberculosis, and provide access to water have been

impressive. Public-private partnerships have

flourished. Unprecedented advances in technology

have led to greater levels of access to vital resources

and information exchange.

As coordinated efforts have unfolded, research

continues to strengthen the case that the education of

girls serves as a catalyst for overall development.

Educated mothers are 50% more women are likely

to immunize their children than mothers with no

schooling (Lewis & Lockheed, 2007).

With an extra year of education, a girl can earn up to

20% more as an adult and often reinvest 90% of her

income into her family. A child born to a literate

mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of

5 (UNESCO, 2012).

Over the past 40 years (particularly from 2000 to the

present), womens education has prevented more

than 4 million child deaths. (UNGEI, 2012).

The Millennium Development Goals also include a2015 expiration date. With fewer than 850 days to

go, a vigorous and contentious post-2015 debate is well underway.

Millennium Goal Challenges

For many regions of the world, the Millennium Development Goal report card has been

nothing short of tragic. Most poor countries will not meet MDG targets. Net aid

disbursements have declined. Of the wildly discrepant global accounting of children who do

not attend school, some regions have excluded approximately 70% of its girls. In the least

developed countries, more than a third of young women (15-24 years old) cannot read (World

Inequality Database, 2013). The 46 per cent increase in carbon emissions since 1990 and the

rapid rate of climate change threaten environmental sustainability. 1 in 8 people go to bed

hungry. In several regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the number of mobile phones outstrips the

number of latrines or flush toilets.

Photo Credit: UNDP


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he MDGs themselves have faced withering criticism. Halving poverty has been considered

ridiculously under ambitious (Pogge). Others claim that a one-size-fits-all approach

undermines case-by-case capacity-building efforts in favor of global aid. The blogosphere is

filled with questions about the accuracy of data from monitoring, evaluation, transparency,

and accountability tools. Watchdog groups harbor deep suspicions toward the allure of

privatization and influence peddling. Others decry the lack of a framework for the protection

of human rights beyond a fleeting, tokenistic, or rhetorical embrace (Alston, 2004).

The Millennium Development Goals have also faced criticism from claims that it reflects a

negotiated, donor-driven agenda (2) MDG data design, collection methods, and reliability

have been viewed as flawed (3) MDGs have been criticized for not having considered

dependent variables enough most notably the meteoric rise in population, climate change,

and the dominance of India and Chinas data thus skewing the results (4) MDGs have been

called to task for its omissions.

Girls education may have received a great deal of media attention. However, the progress

report toward the realization of MDGs in these areas is mixed, particularly in the areas of

education quality and equity, education and public health, and education in emergencies.

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Targeted reading for teams working on this theme:

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. World Atlas of Gender Equality in

Education. Retrieved from: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/unesco-world-atlas-

gender-education-2012.pdfand corresponding interactive database, eAtlas of Gender Equality in

Education. Retrieved from: http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/atlas-gender-education/en-us

Photo Credit: Human Rights Watch


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Issues of gender equity have been central to the development of a gender sensitive lens designed

to link social justice and gender equality with education for sustainable development (Enarson,

2000). Researchers and NGO leaders have demanded publicly viewable data and accountabilitymeasures designed to ensure that policies governing and protecting gender equity and womens

empowerment are enforced.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2013 Report states: persisting gender-

based inequalities in decision-making continue to deny women a say in the decisions that affect

their lives (UNMDG Report, 2013). According to the Global Campaign for Education, the

existing MDG doesn't really do enough to provide a strong incentive to worry about the hard-to-

reach groups." (Williams, 2013)

While evidence can substantiate significant global development progress through the education of

girls, progress toward those MDGs focusing explicitly on health, equity, and economicopportunities for girls and women has consistently fallen short. In several countries rated at the

bottom of the United Nations Development Index, the pace of progress toward equity and human

rights has not only slowed, but also gone backward.

The issues are rarely understood from a single perspective. Sociological, psychological, and

anthropological perspectives tend to focus on regional contexts and cultural memory. Girls may

not attend school in a region of Pakistan because families may fear retribution by authorities, a

human trafficking network, or sexual violence. They may have been told that religious doctrine

forbids it. From an economic standpoint, those same families may not comprehend the longer-

term financial benefits of removing girls from the task of carrying water, especially when requiredto pay school fees for uniforms or supplies.

As the world becomes increasingly aware of educational and equity disparities, the momentum to

build more schools has met with resistance from those who seek assurances that those schools are

staffed with qualified teachers capable of promoting inclusion and fairness. In short, Malala has a

right to attend agoodschool and learn from well-trainededucators.

Global watchdog groups have exposed those governments that manipulate their dependence upon

foreign aid to abdicate their primary responsibility of educating their citizens (Dambisa, 2009).

Governments have been accused of deferring any national measures toward achieving MDGs until

after World Bank loans have been approved or fabricating statistics in order to curry favor withlending agencies or the international donor community.


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In 2000, when the Millennium Development Goals were formalized, the Inter-Agency Network for

Education (INEE) was founded in order to create education clusters of NGOs and global agencies

that coordinate interventions and establish standards based upon the UN Convention on the Rights

of the Child and the Dakar 2000 Education for All goals.

Some rogue states have kept their borders porous in order to ensure a steady stream of profits

from the drug or arms trade. Human Rights Watch and UNESCO report numerous cases of

education under attack, and schools as battlegrounds where teachers are attacked, girls and

women are raped, and the school itself used as a storehouse of weapons (Human Rights

Watch, 2010-11).

The recent financial downturn and both large-scale natural and national disasters have

disenfranchised millions, resulting in the largest number of refugees in history. In turn, crises

expected to last months become protracted, seemingly intractable crises lasting years,

compounded by the issues that emerge in overcrowded, unsanitary, refugee communities. In

Syria alone, 4 million people are fighting for survival, and there is no end in sight. Over just a

few months earlier this year, states bordering Syria faced the herculean, humanitarian task of

absorbing 2.5 million displaced people into makeshift camps. In those same camps, polio

once eradicated has returned and incidents of gender violence have soared. Often

responsible for basic livelihoods, the carrying of water, and care for children, women suffer

the most. Relegated to a lower rung on food, power, and housing hierarchies, women are

subject to higher rates of infectious and water-borne diseases (IUCN).

In natural and national disasters, girls are particularly at risk. During the Indonesian

earthquake and tsunami in 2004, two-thirds of the casualties were women. Disasters

reinforce, perpetuate and increase gender inequality, making bad situations worse for women

(UNDRR, 2009). Natural and national emergencies have magnified existing social, political,

and economic disparities. Sexual and domestic abuse increases. Care for displaced families

falls squarely on womens shoulders, yet traditional power structures have not effectively

mainstreamed a gender perspective (UNDRR, 2009).

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has expressed concern that: existing

approaches in disaster risk reduction are not only unable to address gender-based vulnerabilities,

but also mask the skills and capabilities of women as individuals and as a group. (UNDRR)

The InterAgency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has drawn a considerable amount

of attention to the instrumental role women have played in mitigating the effects of hazards in

rescue and recovery, relief, and reconstruction (INEE, 2010). The Hyogo Framework for Action

(HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters resolved to

ensure that knowledge, prevention, and planning would be taken seriously in schools (UNISDR,

2005).


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In 2009, The International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and the United Nations

Development Programme published Making Disaster Reduction Gender-Sensitive: Policy and

Practical Guidelines, to ensure that gender mainstreaming is incorporated into disaster

management initiatives; the science and technology of safety; communications, training and

education; and disaster preparedness and planning, intervention, post-disaster relief, and

reconstruction efforts (UNDP, 2009).

Questions and Challenges

The questions and challenges these NGOs face are not dissimilar to those faced by organizations

anywhere:

How do we build the capacity necessary to evaluate our work and demonstrate impacts? What successful methodologies and best practices should we use to negotiate power

relationships and stakeholder pressures?

What are the processes by which successful gender mainstreaming practices in oneregion might be of valuable to, and take root in, in our region?

Considering our environmental, political-economic, social, and cultural context, how dowe address threats to our work in girls education?

What tools and resources have been successful in measuring the effects of girlseducation on a given community?

How can our girls education efforts be sustained, replicated, communicated, andmeasured?

How might we address the opportunities and challenges of communicating these impactsto policy makers, planners, field workers, and community organizations?

How do we manage change? How do we cultivate leadership? How do we ensure community support?

Required Readings and Media

Additional readings are targeted to the themes (access and equality, public health, and

emergencies), as well as readings provided by team members to support the paper.

Video Girl Rising (2013). Remarkable stories of nine girls around the world - told bycelebrated writers and voiced by renowned actors. http://www.girlrising.com

Instructors are in the process of obtaining permission from film producers to make

the film available for students in this course

Girl Shot in Head by Taliban Speaks at UN (2013): Malala Yousafzai United

Nations Speech (2013). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRh_30C8l6Y

A 19:36 second video of Malala Yousafzai speaking on her 16th

birthday


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Web Slides Educating Girls: Storify collection assembled by Fred Mednick. Retrieved from:

Storify: http://sfy.co/gOFuDesigned to familiarize oneself with the issues through web resources

UN Report Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx

The formal document itself (about 10 pages, 30 Articles)

Interactive

DatabaseWorldwide Inequality Database on Education (2013). Education for All Global

Monitoring Report http://www.education-inequalities.org/.

Interactive database based upon Education for All monitoring data

Global Case

Study

Analysis

Exclusion, Gender and Education: Case studies from the developing world. Center

for Global Development, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from:

http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/9781933286228-Lewis-Lockheed-exclusion.pdf

Preface, ix-xi; Social Exclusion, pgs. 1-27.

These case studies by the authors ofInexcusable Absence: Why 60 Million Girls Still

Arent In School and What to Do About It, examine the correlation between the lack of

school attendance and social marginalization and how NGOs have achieved parity

Theory of

ChangeTheory of Change. Retrieved from: Center for Civic Partnerships.

http://www.civicpartnerships.org/ - !theory-of-change/c6i2

Definitions for theories of change, along with an annotated list of references.

The Spark Initiatives Theory of Change. Retrieved from:

http://www.smartstartga.org/_downloads/30924_Berkley_Spark_TheoryOfChange.p

df

A two-page overview based upon change factors, transition strategies, outcomes and

impact demonstrations, and scaling mechanisms developed by the W.K. Kellogg

Foundation

Recommended Readings

Alston, Philip (2004). A human rights perspective on the millennium development goals. Special

adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the MDGs, for the

millennium project task force on poverty and economic development. Retrieved from:

www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Claiming_MDGs_en.pdf

Education from a Gender Equality Perspective. USAID. Retrieved from:

http://www.ungei.org/resources/files/Education_from_a_Gender_Equality_Perspective.pdf


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Fast Tracking Girls Education: A Progress Report by the Education for All Initiative:

http://www.globalpartnership.org/media/library/girls-report/1-FastTrackEd-Girls-education-

report-full.pdf

Enarson, Elaine (2000, May 3-5). Gender issues in natural disasters: Talking points and research

needs. ILO inFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction.

Human Rights Watch (2010). Schools as battlegrounds. Retrieved from:

http://www.hrw.org/features/schools-as-battlegrounds; Education Under Attack (UNESCO),

retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001868/186809e.PDF

Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies. Gender Task Team. Pocket guide to gender:.

http://toolkit.ineesite.org/toolkit/Toolkit.php?PostID=1009 ; Pocket guide to gender

Implementation tools. http://toolkit.ineesite.org/toolkit/Toolkit.php?PostID=1113

Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies. IUCN. International Union for Conservation of

Nature. Disaster and Gender Statistics Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1aZpVgi

Lewis, M. & Lockheed, M. (2007). Rich world poor world: A guide to global development. Center

for Global Development. Education and the developing world: Why is education essential for

development? Retrieved from: http://www.cgdev.org/files/2844_file_EDUCATON1.pdf

Mayo, Dambisa. (2009, Mar 21). Why foreign aid is hurting Africa, retrieved from: Wall Street

Journal, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123758895999200083

Milanovic, Branko. (2012). "Global income inequality by the numbers: in history and now --an

overview--," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6259, The World Bank.

Pogge, T. Interview. ASAP: Academics stand against poverty. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1eB04gb

Shapiro, Ilana (2005). Theories of Change. Retrieved from: Beyond Intractability. Retrieved from:

http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/theories-of-change

Spark Initiatives Theory of Change. Buck Institute for Education. Retrieved from:

http://bit.ly/ITS9QJ

Temin, M. & Levine, R. (2009). Start with a girl: A new agenda for global health. Center for Global

Development. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/fEEcv

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. World Atlas of Gender Equality in

Education. Retrieved from: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/unesco-world-atlas-

gender-education-2012.pdfand corresponding interactive database:

http://www.app.collinsindicate.com/atlas-gender-education/en-us

United Nations Development Program (2009). Making disaster risk reduction gender-sensitive:

Policy and practical guidelines. ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UNDP).

2009. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN

Women). Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/17Y0az4United Nations General Assembly (2012, Aug 6) accelerating progress towards the millennium

development goals: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the UN

development agenda beyond 2015. Annual Report of the Secretary-General, 65thsession.

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1bKH7Hx

United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI). Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved from

http://www.ungei.org/whatisungei/index_2581.html


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United Nations Girls Education Initiative (2002). Engendering empowerment report, 2012: Global

partnership for education. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1fQ2ojM

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2005). Hyogo framework for action:

2005-2015. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/187RwZn

United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Resources for speakers on global issues. Retrieved

from: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/mdgs/stories.shtml

United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report (2013). Retrieved from

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf

United Nations Secretary Generals Report (See Footnote 3), and UNAIDS Report on the Global

AIDS Epidemic 2010, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) (Geneva,

2010).

United Nations Women. (2012). How women and girls are faring: Charting progress on the

millennium development goals. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1bKHgLd

Williams, R. (Mar 11 2013). Why girls in India are still missing out on the education they need.

Retrieved from: The Guardian online: http://bit.ly/17FEBO5

Notes