Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), strategic and long-standing partner of the UNESCO IICBA, celebrated the 25th anniversary since its establishment in 1992. FAWE is the Pan-African Non-Governmental Organization which works in 33 African countries to empower girls and women through gender-responsive education. The celebration took place during the Conference on Girls’ Education in Africa held in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, from 21st to 25th of August 2017. The conference sought to identify strategies and opportunities for promoting young leadership and engagement in regional, continental and international education dialogue on gender equality with a specific focus on the African Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), and Agenda 2063. UNESCO IICBA, represented by Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki and Ms. Marcela Krejci, participated in this Conference.  A number of education ministers from the continent as well as the First Lady of Zambia attended the conference.

 
Yumiko made a presentation entitled “Analytical paper on the centrality of teacher’s pedagogy in achieving the gender equality goal and quality learning outcomes” during the session on teachers, referring to IICBA’s experience in Gender Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) in its work in TeachHer and other activities focusing on teachers’ roles. Other presenters in this session included AUC, Ministries from Ethiopia and Malawi, and VVOB.  The main goal of this plenary session was to examine evidence which shows that teachers and pedagogy are essential for good learning outcomes.  Both IICBA and VVOB elaborated GRP in teaching.   IICBA has been working with FAWE and UNICEF on GRP in Africa.  In TeachHer, IICBA worked with FAWE and CEMASTEA to foster master teacher trainers for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics) through activity-oriented and learner-centred pedagogy combined with GRP.