Gender and Development: Issues in Education

1. Gender and Development:Issues in Education Mercy Tembon Senior Education Specialist Human Development Network Global Issues Seminar Series November 1, 2006 E-mail: mtembon@worldbank.org

2. Overview of the Session • Broad theoretical Approaches • Key Gender Issues in Education • Theoretical explanations for inequalities in education • Relationship between poverty gender and schooling • Lessons learned • Conclusion

3. Broad Theoretical Approaches • Women In Development (WID) • Gender and Development (GAD)

4. Women in Development - WID • WID issues arose from the understanding that women’s contributions and development needs were being ignored and that their failure to account for women’s needs and possible contributions led to the failure of many development projects. • The conceptualization of development projects therefore frequently only involved women as participant and beneficiaries. • “Integrationist” approach

5. Gender and Development - GAD • Focus shifted from women as a group, to ‘socially determined’ relation between men and women. • GAD focuses on social, economic, political and cultural forces that determine how men and women might participate in, benefit from and control project resources and activities differently. • “Agenda setting” or transformative approach

6. Some Gender and Development Issues….. • Women account for two thirds of the 1.2 billion people currently living in extreme poverty • Every year more than 500,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth complications • Women account for 48% of the 40 million people currently infected with HIV&AIDS. In SSA females account for 55% of infected adults and 80% of 15-19 year olds. • Almost 60% of the world’s illiterate population are women

7. 2. Out of School Children and Dropouts More than 100million children are out of school • 55% of out of school children are girls • 23 million girls out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa distributed across 40 counties. • 22 million out of school girls in South and West Asia concentrated in India and Pakistan. • 150 million children are estimated to drop out before completion, at least 60% of them are female

8. Regional Primary Completion Rates

9. Student flows in Benin

10. 3. Progression from primary through secondary and tertiary • Only 22% of 118 countries are expected to reach gender parity by 2015. • Less than 50% of secondary school aged girls are enrolled (30% in sub-Saharan Africa, 47% in South Asia • In Guinea, girls represent 43% of all enrollments at the primary level, 27% at the secondary level, and 12% at the tertiary level.

11. 4. HIV/AIDS • Half of all newly-infected are between the ages of 15 and 24, majority are women. • In the 15-19 year old age group, in the worst-affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa, 5-6 girls are infected for every boy infected • Infected parents keep children, especially girls, out of school for economic and social reasons. • Family illness/deaths increase girls’ household responsibilities

12. Why do these gender disparities persist? • Social institutions • Norms, customs and law • Markets and Economic Policy • Household decision making • Who controls resources, bargaining power

13. Poverty, the single largest cause of gender disparities in education • Out-of-school girls, overwhelmingly from poor households, in poor countries. • Rationed enrolment opportunities unequally allocated between boys and girls. • Girls’ enrolments soar when poverty related interventions are implemented e. abolition of fees

14. Direct costs of schooling too high Child Labor Required Insufficient School Places Low School Quality Household School Labor Market Society Low Income Poor Households Poor States Some Children do not attend School Gender relations in Fewer Girls than Boys attend School Girl’s Learning Outcomes lower than Boys’

15. Strategies that have worked to reduce gender disparities in education • Address direct and indirect costs by providing targeted scholarships and free, quality textbooks • Provide water and sanitation facilities in school • Reduce distance to school • Improve educational quality by making the curriculum relevant, Upgrade teacher skills and provide gender sensitivity training, • Introduce bilingual programs • Remove gender bias from textbooks • Build community and parental involvement in schools

16. Unprecedented opportunities… • Enthusiasm for gender equality in Education for All is increasing steadily • More governments have demonstrated strong political commitment • The international community has expressed a strong desire and commitment to support countries with good policies – EFA-FTI, G-8 • We have a better understanding of what works.

17. “No nation can develop half-free and half-chained. Empowerment of women through their full participation in education, employment, political and social life is vital for every nation.” Late Mahbub-ul Haq, Architect of the human development Report