Attachments
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) example shows how the Education Cluster leveraged OCHA’s strategic commitment to cross-cutting issues to increase Gender / GBV risk mitigation measures integration and enhance Education in Emergencies (EiE) response monitoring.
What is the background?
The DRC’s education sector remains severely affected by successive humanitarian crises – armed conflicts, inter-communal conflicts, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics – affecting the access, continuity, quality and learning conditions of school-aged children and adolescent girls and boys.
Girls and adolescent girls are more likely to be excluded from education. Although the gender gap is moderate between 6 to 11 years (28% out-ofschool girls, compared to 26% out-of-school boys), it becomes much more prominent for 12 and 13-yearolds as girls account for 60% of out-of-school children 1 . The reasons behind school exclusion based on gender are numerous and complex, varying from general insecurity, a male-dominated education workforce, poverty and strong gender stereotypes, often leading to a preference for boys’ education. Girls are also subjected to early and forced marriage and pregnancy, forms of GenderBased Violence (GBV) that are reinforced by deep-rooted harmful social and cultural norms and lead to school dropouts.
At school or on their way to school, girls are more likely to be exposed to different types of GBV, including rape and abduction. One in five girls is pressured by teachers to perform sexual favours in exchange for better grades. Although these acts are punishable by law, GBV committed by teachers is not systematically reported because schools are in too great need of teachers. In addition, the stigma attached to rape survivors prevents girls who have experienced rape from returning to school, increasing their drop-out rate.
The Humanitarian Country Team’s commitment to cross-cutting issues, including GBV Risk Mitigation (GBV RM), is an incremental process which started in 2019 at the initiative of the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR).