Parkes, J; Heslop, J; (2011) Stop Violence Against Girls in School : A cross country analysis of baseline research from Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique. ActionAid: Johannesburg.

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Abstract

This report presents findings from baseline studies carried out in three districts in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique for Stop Violence Against Girls in School, a five year project (2008-2013) led by ActionAid. The study aimed to provide a baseline with which to measure and evaluate change over the course of the project, as well as building in depth knowledge of gender, violence and education in the project areas in order to inform decision making about community intervention, advocacy and research priorities in the project, and contributing to the international literature on gender violence in schools. Data was collected in 2009 in 13 primary schools and communities in Ghana, 16 in Kenya and 15 in Mozambique. A total of 2757 respondents participated in the baseline study, including girls and boys, teachers and head teachers, parents, SMC members, community leaders and women?s group leaders, District Education Officers, District Health Officers and Police. The studies combined quantitative and qualitative methods, and a desk review of the legal and policy frameworks. The baseline study confirmed that primary schoolgirls in the project areas experience multiple forms of violence in their schools, homes and communities. Gender violence is closely linked to poverty, with forms of punishment, early marriage, and transactional sex related to the demands on girls to provide support for their families in a context of economic hardship. Across the three project sites, we see disconnects between legal and policy change and local implementation. While Education For All messages are clearly impacting at local levels with increasing access and reducing gender gaps at school, attitudes to and action on gender and violence seem harder to shift. There is some evidence of change (possibly related to recent NGO work in the areas), but apparent changes in awareness or knowledge are often not matched by changes in behaviour. For example, teachers condemning corporal punishment in Kenya and Mozambique, and girls speaking out against female genital cutting and other forms of violence against girls in Kenya may be influenced by policies and interventions, yet these seem to be having little impact on changing practice. Whilst girls being able to openly condemn violence, at least with each other, is an important step in challenging violence in schools and communities, without wider change girls may be placed at increased risk of violence by speaking out in an unsupportive environment. Opportunities for reflection on deeply ingrained beliefs about gender and violence and on how these beliefs relate to practice, as well as opening spaces for different groups at different levels to come together in dialogue and action is likely to be needed to effect wider change.

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