Attachments
Executive Summary
Between 2019 and 2024, the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX), a joint endeavour between the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), supported 41 applied research projects focused on key challenges facing education systems across the Global South. These projects generated demand-driven and contextually relevant evidence about a wide range of innovative education programs, strengthened education stakeholders’ capacities and mobilized knowledge into policy and practice. The research projects involved stakeholders — communities and parents or caregivers, teachers and school leaders, education officials from the district to the national levels and other contextually relevant stakeholders — throughout the entire research process and were undertaken by a range of universities, think tanks, networks and NGOs.
This report synthesizes evidence generated from six gender equality-focused applied research projects that were part of that endeavour. While gender equality is a cross-cutting theme embedded in all GPE KIX projects, this report specifically highlights findings from six projects in which it was the core focus:
- Impact of Gender and Inclusive Pedagogies on Students’ Participation and Learning Achievement at Secondary School During the Pandemic and Beyond (Impact of Gender and Inclusive Pedagogies)
- Improving Knowledge on Gender Norms to Promote Gender Equality in Schools in Africa (Improving Knowledge and Gender Norms)
- Scaling a Youth-Led Social Support and Mentorship Program to Improve the Quality of Education for Marginalized Girls (Scaling a Youth-Led Social Support and Mentorship Program)
- School Leaders as Agents of Change Toward Equity and Inclusion (School Leaders as Agents of Change)
- Strategies to Prevent Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Foster Equity in Rural Schools (Strategies to Prevent SGBV)
- The Forum of African Women Educationalists’ Gender-Responsive School Model as an Innovative Response to the Challenge of Gender Equality (FAWE Gender-Responsive School Model)
These projects involved 20 partners across 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). By consolidating findings across the six projects, this synthesis identifies both generalizable lessons and particularities in findings, situating the specific contributions of grounded research in broader bodies of knowledge. This report informs regional and global education debates by highlighting important new knowledge and findings about innovations and approaches for addressing gender inequalities in and through education at national, regional and global levels.
Context
Over the past several decades, global education commitments such as Sustainable Development Goal 4 (“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”), supported by financial and other investments in education by governments, donors and other international partners, have led to tremendous improvements in access to education worldwide. However, systemic, gender-based disparities that affect both equal access to quality education and school completion rates for children of different genders remain, particularly in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of the Middle East.
Social norms are a key factor in the continuing prevalence of gender disparities in education. In numerous cultures, traditional gender roles assign domestic and caregiving tasks to girls, who also face gendered practices, such as early marriage, that can restrict their access to education. Boys are often encouraged to seek an education but are likely to disengage from school from early adolescence.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Education 2030 Framework for Action kick-started a new era for education commitments by presenting a more ambitious vision to guide the efforts of the global community. A key component of this vision is the importance of gender equality and the significant role that education can play in its advancement. Achieving gender equality in and through education is vital, but it requires more than a focus on expanding access to education for children of all genders. A successful approach to gender equality in and through education requires specific interventions — for example, political commitments; widespread institutional reform; and targeted interventions aimed at transforming power dynamics and challenging harmful and discriminatory gender norms, attitudes, behaviours and practices.
This report looks not only at the aims and achievements of the projects listed above, but also at challenges encountered and lessons learned for future endeavours.