Building teachers’ capacity to promote gender equality in education

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Under the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education: Better Life, Better Future, the UNESCO-HNA Partnership was established in February 2014 followed by the establishment of the Hainan Funds-in-Trust and the Hainan Cihang Foundation.

Two complementary projects were launched during the International Seminar on Girls’ and Women’s Education in September 2015 to support African and Asian countries to accelerate their progress in achieving gender equality in education, with particular focus on gender-responsive teacher training and professional development. The projects will be implemented over a period of five years, for a total budget of USD 5 million.

Objectives

Improve/expand access to all levels of education through targeted policies and interventions, with a particular focus on adolescent girls who are hardest to reach
Improve the quality and relevance of basic and secondary education to ensure that girls, especially adolescents, stay, achieve and transition through all levels of education and into the world of work
Make learning environments accessible and safe for all children, and eliminate school-related gender-based violence.

Two projects in seven countries

The first project seeks to strengthen global and regional advocacy, networking and communication to ensure girls’ right to education, and develop national capacities for gender-responsive education in Ethiopia, Ghana and Nepal. It is coordinated by UNESCO Headquarters, with UNESCO-IICBA providing specific technical support to Ghana and Ethiopia.

Highlights

Ghana: the project aims to ensure effective coordination of interventions by the Girls’ Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service and increase girls’ participation in science-related subjects
Ethiopia: the project aims to build human and institutional capacities at 3 Higher Learning Institutions and 12 upper and secondary schools in Gender Responsive Pedagogy; improve the knowledge and skills of adolescent girls on gender responsiveness and life skills; and create a gender responsive and safe learning environment at schools through community engagement
Nepal: the project aims to strengthen the capacity of key education stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of gender responsive policies and practices; increase high-level political support for adolescent girls’ education; and raise awareness and improve documentation of good practices for adolescent girls’ education

The second project aims at developing national capacity for gender-sensitive teacher policy formulation and building the capacities of teacher trainers and trainees, school leaders and teachers to promote gender-sensitive teaching and learning environments and practices, in Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. It is coordinated by the UNESCO Regional Bureau in Bangkok.

Highlights

Regional experts meeting on Assessing Gender Issues in Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Training in Asia (19-20 November 2015)
Regional training on Gender Assessment in Teacher Education in Asia (25-27 May 2016)
Development of country guidelines and a set of instruments for assessing gender responsiveness of teacher education systems

Event

Several countries involved in the UNESCO-HNA Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education participated in the UNESCO International Symposium and Policy Forum “Cracking the code – Girls' education in STEM” from 28-30 August 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand.