From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#4 (March 1998), page 11 (part of Special Feature on the 2-year review of UNSIA)

Girls' education -- a priority of the Special Initiative

The UN Special Initiative on Africa stresses the need to improve opportunities for those most likely to be deprived of education -- in particular girls and women. Nineteen sub-Saharan African countries have female literacy rates below 30 per cent and less than half of 6-11 year old girls are estimated to be in school. These negative trends persist, despite the overwhelming evidence that investing in female education has a high return -- in greater earning ability for families, reduced fertility and infant mortality, and increased levels of public health.

UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank are all actively working to promote greater access to education for girls. One interesting effort is collaboration with the Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE), a pan-African non-governmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Mamphele Ramphele, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, led a FAWE delegation for a meeting with the World Bank in January.

She explained that FAWE is "a statement made by African women about their determination to have women drawn into policy development, implementation and evaluation at the national and international levels."

She said, "Africa has failed to develop in the way it could have, given the resources directed at it, because it left out an important sector. FAWE is tackling a major constraint to development; our mission is to ensure that women and girls are an integral part of the intellectual and technical resource base of Africa."

The idea for FAWE came from five African women education ministers who came together in the early 1990s with shared views on the poor status of female education in Africa and the slow progress towards the goal of education for all children. They agreed that to achieve universal education, political commitment was necessary. But equally important was the process of identifying obstacles to female participation and developing solutions. After gaining the support of 19 other senior women policy-makers in education, FAWE was launched in 1992.

Today, FAWE is working through 31 national chapters across the continent in advocacy and information dissemination on female education, strategic resource planning, and strengthening female leadership at the tertiary level. It also provides small grants for innovative pilot initiatives in female education.

Dr. Eddah Gachukia of Kenya, FAWE's executive director, said the organization today is "a strong force to move education policy forward and to reach beyond advocacy to ensure expanded access for all to education." World Bank Vice-President Jean-Louis Sarbib agrees. "Since 1992, FAWE has done a lot to sensitize from inside Africa the male ministries of education about the importance of girls' education and to achieve partnerships for the effective use of resources. That is no small accomplishment."

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