Looking forward to 2022: Centering Gender Equality in INEE’s Initiatives
Girls’ education is one of the key paths towards gender equality. However, girls and women living and learning in humanitarian settings experience multiple challenges and barriers to accessing education, many of which have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and other emerging and protracted crises. Recognizing the urgent need for action, INEE has been working closely with key gender and education partners, including the INEE Reference Group on Girls’ Education in Emergencies and the INEE Gender Task Team, to ensure that girls’ and womens’ needs are kept central to policies and programming for education in emergencies (EiE).
In early 2022, we looked back at INEE’s key achievements in promoting gender-responsive EiE during 2021. On the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD 2022), we’re taking stock of some of the key activities being carried out by INEE in 2022 so we can continue building on this momentum and advancing progress towards quality, safe, relevant, and inclusive education for women and girls in crisis and conflict-affected contexts.
Monitoring Progress Towards Girls Education
In 2022, INEE will launch the Charlevoix Funding Dashboard, an interactive dashboard which visualizes funding pledged and disbursed by donors and funding partners in support of the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education. Developed in collaboration with the INEE Reference Group on Girls’ Education in Emergencies and with the support of Global Affairs Canada, the dashboard provides a picture of what has been achieved as a result of the historic Charlevoix commitments to girls’ and women’s education. The INEE Reference Group on Girls’ Education in Emergencies serves as a platform for strategic exchange to support accountability and transparency in commitments to women’s and girls’ EiE.
Amplifying the evidence base on Gender and Education
The second editions of the Mind the Gap: The State of Girls’ Education in Crisis and Conflict Report and Closing the Gap: Advancing Girls’ Education in Crisis and Conflict will be launched in 2022, with thematic focus on distance education, school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), and climate change.
The Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE) is developing a Special Issue on Gender, to be published in 2022. The issue will explore a variety of ways that gender can have implications on educational access, curriculum, attainment, experiences and more. It will showcase the reality for girls and boys in emergency contexts and will offer rigorous research, insights from the field, and recommendations for future interventions and further research.
The INEE Gender Task Team is developing an evidence brief which aims to highlight key gaps in the evidence base on gender and EiE, provide strategic guidance and thematic content for new research initiatives on gender and EiE, and promote collaborative action to strengthen the evidence base on gender-responsive EiE.
The second season of Educate Us! Women and Girls on Learning in Humanitarian Crises podcast is in development. The podcast features the voices of women, girls, teachers, students, and field-based practitioners to share lessons and insights from the field on gender- responsive EiE. A bonus mini-episode in French is now available on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Audible. In the mini-episode, Éduquer une fille, éduquer une nation, we hear from a teacher in Niger on how she supported her students to continue learning during COVID-19 school closures.
Strengthening Capacity for Inclusive and Gender-Responsive EiE
INEE is updating the INEE Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery (INEE MS) for the first time in over 10 years. As part of the update, INEE undertook a systematic review of the MS with a gender and inclusion lens. In addition to in-depth review and analysis by a team of consultants, INEE members with expertise on gender and inclusion are being consulted in March 2022 to inform the update process. These actions will inform the planned full update of the MS taking place during 2022.
The INEE Inclusive Education Task Team recently organized a Side Event on Inclusive Education Case Studies and the INEE Minimum Standards at the Global Disability Summit 2022. At the Summit, INEE committed to updating the INEE MS with an inclusive education lens as part of the INEE MS Update process taking place in 2022. Watch the live recording of the video here.
In addition, the INEE Gender Task Team is planning to continue its webinar series, and will be rolling out webinars highlighting good practices and sharing technical recommendations and practical guidance on gender-responsive EiE.
Building on the virtual INEE Minimum Standards trainings and the INEE Gender Training Manual, INEE will be facilitating virtual trainings on Gender and EiE in 2022, covering key concepts and strategies in gender-responsive EiE.
Get Involved
The INEE Secretariat looks forward to continuing to promote gender-responsive EiE together with our members and partners. INEE publishes a regular Gender Newsletter, which you can sign up for to stay updated on our work on gender. You can also connect with other INEE members and EiE experts through our online platforms, including the INEE Community of Practice (CoP) and INEE Meet-Ups. If you want to learn more, or collaborate and join efforts for promoting girls’ EiE, please reach out to us at [email protected].