Changing Lives of Girls: Evaluation of the African Girls’ Education Initiative

Published by The United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF - this 144-page evaluation report examines the African Girls' Education Initiative (AGEI) as carried out in 34 countries. By sharing details about the design and operation of the programme, evaluation findings, and lessons learned, UNICEF hopes to illuminate capacity gaps in designing, implementing, and evaluating girls' education programming all over the world. The organisation also hopes to stimulate reflection on the importance of finding innovative ways for including excluded children, particularly girls, in education, and improving the quality, equity and equality in educational systems and services for all children.

As explained here, AGEI was launched in 1994 to contribute to the evolution of the UNICEF mission throughout the 1990s to support fundamental rights of all children enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Focusing on the right of girls to get an education within the Education for All (EFA) framework and hoping to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), AGEI involved a plethora of varied activities that were designed and implemented at global, regional, and country levels. With regard to communication, specifically, AGEI activities at the local level tended to focus on raising community awareness about the importance of girls’ education and promoting community participation in the activities of their schools, particularly in ways that supported girls. Activities at the school level included: (a) increasing girls’ access through such strategies as the provision of classroom places and incentive schemes, (b) improving the treatment of girls, once enrolled, through gender training of teachers and better peer support, (c) promoting retention, through such means as the provision of water, separate latrines for girls, feeding programmes and other incentives, and (d)
improving the quality of the instruction girls received, through revision and provision of teaching
materials and teacher training.

Evaluation data for this external evaluation (carried out by a team of consultants, led by the author of this report, David W. Chapman) were collected through a comprehensive review of project documents, 6 country studies (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Uganda), and interviews with key UNICEF personnel involved in the design and implementation of AGEI. Among the evaluation findings:

• Relevance: "AGEI was essentially based on a gender equity approach, which aimed at reducing gender discrimination and promoting social/economic self reliance of women through policies and programmes that increased access to basic education and training of girls. AGEI did not reach the level of a gender equality (empowerment) approach, which extends beyond access as well
  as quality issues surrounding basic education..."
• Role, focus and design: Although AGEI suffered from a weak programme design, it contributed to sparking a sustained discussion about the importance of girls' education and the best ways to
  encourage greater female school access, persistence, and achievement. Governments in several AGEI countries had finalised (or were close to finalising) national policies aimed at encouraging the educational access and achievement of girls; UNICEF's voice was identified by many as having played a key role in encouraging this action.
• Effectiveness: Programmes in some countries (e.g., Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Liberia, Togo, and Uganda) worked better than others. "One constraint on effectiveness was that the AGEI at its various levels was principally viewed as a female initiative that resulted in not gaining the full participation, support and involvement of men and boys. A critical gender analytical framework with adequate tools and methods were not developed in any consistent way."
• Efficiency: "Few government or UNICEF offices had clear or reliable information on the costs of the activities they believed had been successful..."
• Sustainability, replicability and mainstreaming: "The likelihood of governments or
  communities sustaining activities initiated by AGEI beyond external support appeared to be low..."

Following a discussion of lessons learned, the report describes the overall impact of AGEI, noting that "The changes that have occurred in girls’ participation, retention, and achievement over the course of the AGEI programme are the result of many factors in addition to AGEI both within and outside the education system. Consequently, increases in girls’ access cannot be attributed specifically to AGEI activities...It can be concluded, however, that AGEI was a significant force in making a widespread and meaningful contribution to improving girls’ education across Sub-Saharan Africa using a multi-country approach."