Government of Malawi/UNICEF country program 2002-2006

The objective of this paper is to assess the performance and responsiveness of the selected interventions towards Malawi attainment of Accelerated Girls' Education as stipulated in Unicef's Medium Term Strategic Plan, the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) and the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
The evaluation focuses on the Girl Child Education Interventions supported under the 2002-2006 Country Program. It also considers other sector interventions including Social, Policy, Advocacy and Communication (SPAC) and Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) that contribute to Girl Child Education. It covers both national, district, community and household level activities in Malawi.

The report relays the following findings on Girl Child Education Interventions:

•  Disparities still manifest in the upper classes with the percentage of girl enrollment  in the senior classes dropping out higher than that of boys.
• The evaluation has confirmed the often-made observation that cultural values and attitudes are deep-rooted in people's minds.
• There is a need for strong leadership from head teacher and good will from local chiefs for their effectiveness on girl child education.
• Poverty is one of the obstacles  to the effectiveness of sector programmes.
• There is low physical capital information and widespread shortage of teachers, learning materials and resources for supervision and monitoring of girl child education.
• The school feeding program has offered a unique opportunity to target girls and boost their school attendance.

The paper then makes the following recommendations:

• There is a need to support and enhance  the activities of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) unit in order to bring effective and efficient monitoring to all programmes.
• Recognising that cultural values and attitudes are deeply ingrained in human beings, any attempt at community dialogue and programming must be conducted with sensitivity and tact for effective results.
• UNICEF should take a leading role in lobbying the government to implement critical policy issues such as compulsory education.
• There is a need for closer collaboration and unity of purpose with faith-based organisations and the private sector in dealing with challenges faced by the youth – particularly with female adolescents.

In conclusion, the report points out that in addressing social and economic realities on the ground, the focus of interventions clearly tackles emerging issues, looking at both school and community-based factors. The design of young female interventions does acknowledge and work within the prevailing policy environment, with clear links to decentralisation, HIV/AIDS, OVC and ECC national policies. The lack of trained teachers  and pupil ratios are being tackled through a strategy of in-service training, although focus is required to address the lack of female teachers in rural areas.

In general, the UNICEF Country Office is following  an inter-sectional approach to design and planning of young female interventions with linkages to basic education. In the basic education sector, the database is not used to full effect, and more is needed to be done to ensure that relevant quantitative data on educational quality and access is collated and analysed. Furthermore, there are difficulties in using the LFA or PPAs measuring achievements which themselves are often not clearly articulated.