Can SWAps tackle gender bias in education?

Many education ministries are now committed to equalising access to education. Why, then, is gender bias still so apparent in schools? Could recent attempts to mainstream gender into Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps) boost female education? Can donors and governments work together to tackle gender and poverty inequalities in education?

A DFID-commissioned report from the Overseas Development Institute’s Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure uses research data from Ghana, India and Uganda to argue that sector wide donor support, rather than traditional project interventions, have most potential to effectively provide girls with the education to which they are entitled.

SWAps are frameworks developed by governments in consultation with stakeholders and donors to co-ordinate sector policies, priorities, performance measures, reporting and accounting. Ideally, donors use common procedures to support each SWAp. But the report finds that education donors rarely achieve this target.

Uganda has an impressive level of commitment to gender equality in education. Its Universal Primary Education policy includes provision of free education to four children in each household, at least two of whom are to be girls. However, despite effective decentralisation of education development, women are not able to participate equally with men, particularly in school management.

Ghana has less clear strategies and lacks a formal education SWAp. Resources and funds appear to be concentrated on higher primary grades (6-8) to the detriment of early primary education. More encouraging is Ghana’s experience of appointing District Girls Education Officers who are trained in participatory methodologies.

In India the federal government’s Primary Education Programme, DPEP, is a sub-sector scheme supported by donors. Although central authorities refuse to acknowledge it and are sceptical about the merit of dialogue with donors, DPEP is a SWAp in all but name. But adherence to central efforts to remove the overwhelming gender bias in education varies widely from state to state.

Common findings across the case studies include:

• ‘policy evaporation’ where formal commitments to gender objectives become weaker as they travel down the bureaucratic chain
• education sector donors, wrongly fearing that gender will be perceived as a Western agenda, shy away from promoting gender policy lest this undermine local SWAp ownership
• a tendency to focus on expanding female enrolments in primary education (access) with less concern for gender issues in education provision (quality)
• a concentration on the primary sub-sector with a tendency to neglect post-primary linkages and female promotion to secondary education and beyond
• no dialogue between donors and poor communication within donor agencies between departments with responsibility for promoting gender and education specialists
• donors are not recognising the gendered nature of power relations in the countries in which they work and are unfamiliar with local constituencies for women’s rights.

If SWAps are to become more effective vehicles for gender mainstreaming, donors need to:

• do more to promote post-primary female education
• recognise and work to tackle gender bias in curriculum development, text-book production, pedagogy and teacher training
• work with education authorities to develop targets and benchmarks to measure progress in gender equality
• look at how SWAps might address such barriers to female education as domestic and productive responsibilities
• use the SWAp process to promote decentralisation and encourage bottom-up pressures for gender equity
• talk more, share information and be open to learning.

Source(s):
‘Mainstreaming gender through sector wide approaches in education: synthesis report’ by M. Sibbons et al (Cambridge Education Consultants), A. Norton, Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure, Overseas Development Institute and A. Seel, Education Department, DFID, October 2000 Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 10 October 2002

Further Information:
Mo Sibbons
Cambridge Education Consultants
Demeter House
Station Road
Cambridge CB1 2RS
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1223 463816
Fax: +44 (0)1223 461007
Contact the contributor: ms1@mm-camb.mottmac.com

Cambridge Education Consultants, UK

Other related links:
'New solution? Can a sectoral approach to education meet international targets?'

'Getting gender onto the policy agenda'

Sector wide coordination of aid: are SIPs shaping up?

'With a Participatory Approach, Gender is not a Sensitive Issue'

KIT (the Royal Tropical Institute) hosts a collection of resources on Sector Wide Approaches