Stop Violence Against Girls in School: A Cross-Country Analysis of Baseline Research from Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique

The Stop Violence Against Girls in School project, launched by ActionAid and local partners in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique in 2008, uses a combined approach consisting of community-level initiatives, research, and advocacy to empower girls and reduce violence against girls in schools (VAGS).  This report provides a synthesis of research conducted by national research partners in all three countries, including the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition in Ghana, Own & Associates in Kenya, and the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, with support from the Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom, in a coordination and advisory role.

In each country, field-level data was collected with the assistance of community intervention organisations working on the project with the objective of answering the following questions:

1. "What are the constraints upon and opportunities for combating gender violence, discrimination and inequalities within legislative and policy frameworks and their implementation, at national, state and local community level?
2. What patterns of violence do girls experience in schools, homes and communities? How are these situated in girls’ everyday interactions and relationships? How are these linked to the political, social and economic context?
3. What are the gendered patterns of enrolment, completion and achievement in the project schools? What variations are there between the schools, and how do these compare with district and national patterns? What are the links with gender relations and violence?
4. What mechanisms are there for girls to contest violence, to express their perspectives and to influence decisions about matters that concern them? How can these be expanded?"

Detailed recommendations at country and project area level are outlined in the country baseline reports. Cross-cutting recommendations, excerpted from the report, include the following:

• “Lobby for more funds for girls’ education and gender sensitive education, welfare and justice budgeting; for the allocation of adequate support for quality education, provision of trained teachers (including women teachers), and effective protection systems for girls, especially in remote or underserved areas.
• Ensure that initial teacher training curricula and in-service training for teachers,...police and health officials, incorporate issues on gender, child rights and child protection. Teacher training should include alternative approaches to discipline.
• Work with Education Ministries to ensure that codes of conduct for teachers pay attention to VAGS issues.... Ensure that sanctions for perpetrators are stipulated and are consistent with national laws protecting children from violence....
• Work at school level to ensure codes of conduct are more visible and well understood well by children and adults alike [and] provide training and institutional support to strengthen school level policy....
• Review curriculum content and pedagogy on managing relationships, gender and sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, violence and conflict resolution.
• Work with parents, community leaders and schools to address issues of forced marriages and exchange marriage, and, in the Kenyan project site, female genital mutilation.
• Work with children, parents, school staff, community leaders, government officials and service providers on sexual violence and sexuality, in particular addressing tendencies to blame girls for sexual violence. Engage men and boys, as well as women and girls through reflective and dialogic methods. Advocate for government and NGO action to address this as a key issue.
• Build dialogue and reflection within communities about gender roles and the meaning of childhood in a changing context of education for girls.
• Strengthen links between schools and communities to support the establishment of sustainable child protection networks and reporting ... and to improve collaboration between religious, customary and civil systems for welfare and justice.... Share information with communities about existing laws and policies aimed at protecting children (for example codes of conduct) and ensuring their rights to education.
• Strengthen parent-school relationships....
• Support provision of safe, confidential services for girls; where these exist, strengthen capacity and lobby for expanded provision; where these do not exist, work to develop pilot models and lobby for government support.
• Conduct longitudinal research to examine and track the conditions and interventions that can best enable girls to build the confidence and capability to contest violence against them, protect themselves against violence and create an environment friendly to girls."