Malloy, Meaghan; Unterhalter, Elaine; Peppin Vaughan, Rosie; Longlands, Helen; (2024) Sustainability, gender equality and girls' education: Reflections from approaches to MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning) in Girls' Education Challenge projects in Kenya. Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE): London, UK.

Preview

Text AGEE 2024 GEC Sustainability working paper_May 2024_final.pdf - Other Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

This working paper explores how project level data, collected as part of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) processes of girls’ education projects, can contribute insights to wider initiatives concerned with building a broader data ecosystem to understand how and why gender inequalities in education manifest and change, and what processes can work to help build institutions that sustain gender equality in and through education. To do this, this paper draws on perspectives from a diverse group of individuals and organisations involved in designing and delivering four Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) projects in Kenya during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis looks indepth at how sustainability was understood and negotiated within this specific group of GEC projects, and explores some of the different ways in which sustainability and gender equality have been conceptualised and measured in practice. This working paper aims to reflect critically on how data and evidence generated at the project level can be augmented and used to promote and sustain gender equality in and through education in contexts of crisis. Processes to promote and sustain girls’ education and address gender inequalities in education are complicated and complex (Monkman et al, 2023; Unterhalter et al 2022). Progress has been frustrated by numerous overlapping issues including forms of crises, political backlash, lack of resources, and data and measurement issues, despite longstanding policy support for girls’ education at global and national levels (UNESCO 2024; Unterhalter 2023a; UN Women 2022). Generating and gathering accurate data and building inclusive institutions are key aspects of trying to protect against the indifference and dehumanisation of processes that oppose or hinder progress towards gender equalities in education. But while building the evidence base in support of gender equality in and through education is a difficult task, it is not impossible. A growing community of practice comprising academics and practitioners is collaborating to make gender and education data more accurate, complete, accessible, and useful for building inclusive, equitable and sustainable institutions and to help deepen understanding about how transformative, sustainable change can happen. This working paper contributes to this community of practice by looking at the work of two of its members: the Girls Education Challenge (GEC) and the Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE) project. The paper highlights dialogues between those working on the two initiatives in Kenya and concludes by drawing out wider issues. Through exploring evidence and knowledge of practitioners working on girls’ education at the project level, this paper provides insight on how data are used and what improvements in data are needed for work on gender equality in education. It also reflects on the ways in which holistic measurement frameworks, such as the AGEE Framework, can assist thinking about how to sustain girls’ education work in crisis. The research discussed in this paper was conducted by members of the AGEE team over an eightmonth period from February to September 2023. Data was collected through a review of GEC MEL documentation, dated from 2017 to 2024, as well as through workshop discussions and nine interviews with individuals involved in four of the seven GEC projects in Kenya. The workshop was held on 19 April 2023, and was modelled on prior AGEE workshops using participatory and consultative methods. Kenya was chosen as the focus country because the GEC had seven projects operating in diverse settings across the country between April 2017 and March 2023. In 2023, the Kenyan government planned national reforms to improve education quality, equality and inclusion thus providing an appropriate setting for reflections on sustainability and gender equality in and through education. The findings demonstrate how there were a range of ways of understanding girls’ education in practice and that sustainability might be messier and more rhizomic (Deleuze and Guattari 1987) than propelled through outcomes based on cause and result interactions. The examples of sustainability shared by participants did not showcase maintaining the same exact project sustainability goals, but instead how their sustainability goals were navigated, negotiated and adapted in response to the pandemic and other emerging challenges or interests. All of the research participants involved in this study recognised that girls’ education projects have some ability to influence change at different levels – on girls’ lives, on social norms and on national and local education policy, and the concept of ‘influence’ as associated with sustainability emerged as a key theme. The associated concept of social sustainability, as opposed to financial or environmental sustainability, also emerged as a key theme. There were a number of connections and disconnections between participants’ views on sustainability and gender equality in education. Overall, however, there was greater coherency in defining gender equality in education, and this led to more exploratory and innovative thinking around what additional measures would be needed to monitor girls’ and women’s education in the longer term. The AGEE Framework was seen to be a useful tool for thinking about that process and improving data collection as crucial for building institutional conditions for gender equality in and through education. This paper concludes that data and evidence generated project level could contribute to wider initiatives concerned with building a broader data ecosystem to better understand and sustain gender equality in and through education. It also suggests how they might be assisted through better data collection and specifically, more reflective, holistic, and participatory approaches to data gathering using a number of complementary tools such as GESI, AGEE and various sustainability or scaling guides. Evidence and learning generated at the project level, however, often remain disconnected and underutilised in wider initiatives on gender equality in and through education. The valuable data, evidence and insights, as well as the voices and experiences of project level staff, are not always included in national and global data collection processes. The paper underscores the importance of including all stakeholders in discussions about data and draws out several recommendations and areas further research.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item