From barriers to assets

1. From barriers to assets Plan Egypt’s experiences in promoting girls’ and women’s empowerment

2. They born in families with lack of knowledge about early childhood practices • They go to school but drop out very soon • Early married • Exposed to FGM • Stay at home, no opportunities, no aspirations, her daughters will reproduce the same cycle • In a context of barriers… a story of an Egyptian girl

3. B A R R I E R S • Cultural norms, patriarchal attitudes, stereotypical behaviors: preference of boys over girls • Burden of domestic work • Gender based violence • Early marriage, FGM, low awareness of reproductive health • Schools’ condition, low quality of teaching, overcrowded, no proper toilets, high rate of illiterates inside the school

5. How to change thisreality? How toovercome these barriers?

6. Personal Assets Life skills, informal education opportunities and back formal education Fiancial Assets saving groups Business skills, vocational skills Social Assets Social support, men and boys, opportunities to participate Child protection mechanisms A S S E T S

7. Empowerment!! CREATING ASSETS AND REDUCING BARRIERS The story of Intisar Activist in her community Set up her own business REFLECT (literacy) Daughter free of HTP VSLA (saving) Arab Women Speak Out Daughters & sons attends New Horizons Community members participate in international events Vocational training HTP awareness Young women and young men participate in premarital Went back to school

8. Key Success Factors • Holistic approach: one intervention is not enough to create assets, it has to be comprehensive and integrated. Tackle the different factors that take girls out of school: money, space, time, traditionalteaching methods, violence • Child Centred Community Development: the realityof children cannot be changed without tacklinggender inequality. Long term commitment

9. Key Success Factors • Start from the early beginning through Early Childhood programs: gender equality in the familyand work on importance of education for girls Including local community development associations as key actors and promoters of the program (strengthening their capacities), as well asschools and child protection committees

10. Main Challenges faced by the program Cultural norms, patriarchal attitudes,involvement of men and boys inthe program very challenging. It’s notjust about providing opportunities foreducation, but convincing parents andhusbands girls’ and women’sissues are not national priorities, Changing the mentality of communitiesand stakeholders: working on educationis not just quantity, not just about theschool building. It’s a whole package:the cycle of education, livelihoods…

11. Lessons Learned Sensitive issues such as FGM or early marriage cannot be stand alone programs, they need to be integrate with other interventions that are easily accepted from the community. Involving men and boys: helps a lot in achieving results, it needs to be introduce at the beginning of the program, as part of the process of mobilizing communities

12. Lessons Learned Starting early: ECCD, involvement of men and boys: introduced at thebeginning of the program, as part of the process of mobilizing communities Partnership and networking with government ,unversties , NGO and INGOs

13. “ I will not let my daughter go through my sufferings and get married at early age” Ayda 32 years old

14. Thank you