ECW Announces $1.35m Grant To Promote Gender Equality In Education

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – As part of its activities to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), has announced a $1.35 million grant to advance gender equality for global education in emergencies and protracted crisis responses.

ECW is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. It supports quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so no one is left behind.

The new ECW Acceleration Facility Grant will be delivered by Plan International UK, UNICEF and VOICE to address pre-existing gender barriers and risks that disproportionately impact girls impacted by conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises and emergencies.

Only around a quarter of vulnerable girls living in crisis-affected countries complete their lower secondary education, and adolescent girls are among the most marginalized and under-served groups of children in crises. Currently, over 42.2 million crisis-impacted girls are not in school.

Gender equality is at the forefront of ECW’s four-year strategic plan and financing strategy. This new grant will fund initiatives by the grantees that: address key systemic gender and gender-based violence gaps and bottlenecks in education in emergencies; support ECW’s multi-year programmes to operationalize innovative approaches; and develop public goods to advance gender equality and empowerment of girls around the world.

ECW will provide a $600,000 grant to Plan International UK to build stronger evidence and capacity for gender-transformative education in emergencies and protracted crises.

This work will support the design of evidence-based gender-transformative multi-year programmes in four ECW investment countries – and strengthen capacities of partners to deliver such programming in three countries.

This will be achieved through the development of a rapid gender analysis tool tailored for education in emergencies actors and capacity strengthening of implementing partners to design and put into action gender-transformative education in emergencies programmes.

ECW will also provide a $500,000 grant to UNICEF for an initiative that aims to advance gender-transformative education and strengthen the capacity of actors to monitor and measure the effectiveness of gender-based violence risk mitigation in the sector.

This is in line with ECW’s commitment to systematically integrate gender-based violence risk mitigation measures in all its investments. Notably, there is no commonly agreed upon methodology to measure this, so developing robust measurement methods and indicators to track interventions is vital.

This partnership will however contribute to fill a critical gap in guidance on the practical application of gender-transformative education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Similarly, VOICE will receive a $250,000 ECW grant to strengthen meaningful engagement of local women organizations in the education in emergencies sector.

As frontline responders during crisis, these organizations have unique access to and awareness of the realities faced by the girls that ECW and partners serve, and best understand barriers that they face to accessing safe, inclusive quality education.

This initiative would culminate in the creation of an operational research paper focusing on two ECW investment countries and a case for investment brief calling for greater donor support for local women organizations’ meaningful engagement in the sector.

Executive Director of ECW, Yasmine Sherif said without the safety, hope and opportunity that quality education provides, crisis-affected girls face grave risks of dropping out, child marriage, gender-based violence and other human rights violations.

“ECW is committed to ensuring every girl, everywhere, can access 12 years of quality education. “By investing in public goods and transforming the delivery of our education responses for these crisis-impacted girls, we are paving the way to deliver on the commitments of education for all and gender equality as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals”, she added.

Speaking in a similar vein, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Plan International UK, Rose Caldwell said her organization is committed to bringing its expertise in gender equality to this new partnership with ECW.

“Putting girls’ voices and specific needs at the center of our work to ensure greater access to education for all. These are the women of tomorrow – only by solving the inequalities they face now will greater opportunities open up for their futures”, she stressed.

UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell noted that breaking down the barriers that keep girls and young women out of school is one of the most effective ways to ensure equal access to education and build a more equitable world.

“This funding is critical in strengthening our work in addressing gender-based violence and discrimination in education. Together with partners, UNICEF is committed to ensuring that schools are safe places where every child can learn and thrive”, she added.

Executive Director and Co-founder of VOICE, Mendy Marsh said: “VOICE is thrilled to join ECW in delivering this grant to help address the inequitable power relation between local women- and girl-led organizations and the education in emergencies sector to create transformative change for equitable, non-extractive partnerships and coordination”.

In line with ECW’s new Strategic Plan 2023-2026, the Fund has committed to ensuring Acceleration Facility investments focus on initiatives to lift barriers to gender equality, mitigate gender-based violence risks, and contribute to the empowerment of women and girls in/through education.

ECW and its strategic partners are more committed than ever to leading the charge in support of gender equality in and through education in emergencies and protracted crises.

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