CHAPTER : LOUD AND CLEAR! FAWE AT THE HEART OF ADVOCACY FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN IN AFRICA

A road map for Advocacy

In 2022, FAWE developed the Advocacy Strategy for 2023-2027, which aims to advocate for the integration of genderresponsive approaches and policies in African education systems. The objective is to promote the acquisition of skills and competencies among girls and women, enabling them to contribute to and transform their societies.

As a recognized authority on girls’ education in Africa, FAWE’s Advocacy Strategy opens up numerous opportunities for collaboration and partnership with like-minded organizations. These potential partners include technical partners, development partners, strategic partners, and other key stakeholders who share common goals. The strategy serves as a platform to identify areas of collaboration and partnership that can further advance these shared objectives.

Gender is my Agenda Campaign (GIMAC)

Having served as the GIMAC Chair for over 7 years, FAWE through the Executive Director handed over the position during the 38th GIMAC session. In a colourful event that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the GIMAC partners feted the FAWE Executive Director for steering the ship and setting the pace for the campaign.

During the 38th GIMAC commemoration held in February 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, FAWE joined CSOs from Africa in the 38th GIMAC Pre-Summit CSOs Consultative Meeting on Gender Mainstreaming in the African Union and Member States held in Addis from the 1st to the 4th of February 2022. FAWE supported 4 youth to participate in the GIMAC young women advocacy training.

FAWE actively contributed to the production of the solemn declaration index report, a collaborative effort led by GIMAC. In addition, FAWE showcased its work during the pandemic and took the lead in the GIMAC education session, which centred around the AU theme of food security and food systems. Furthermore, as a precursor to the GIMAC commemoration in July, FAWE organized a pre-webinar aimed at gathering and consolidating the perspectives of civil society organizations (CSOs), regional economic communities (RECs), and schools on the AU theme of strengthening resilience in nutrition and food security on the African continent. The webinar attracted over 50 participants from across the continent, and their views were compiled and presented during the GIMAC education session held on July 12, 2022.

The development of the strategy involved a consultative process, including meetings with FAWE National Chapters, alumni members, and indepth discussions with the FAWE Africa Board and the Regional Secretariat. These consultations ensured that a wide range of perspectives and expertise were incorporated into the strategy, making it a comprehensive and inclusive document.

Moreover, during the same week, FAWE played a leading role in the education cluster at the 3rd RECS and African Union Meeting, in collaboration with the Global Partnership for Education and the World Food Programme. At this event, FAWE emphasized the crucial impact of food on education and provided recommendations that were incorporated into the outcome statement.

Commemoration of Advocacy days

Why does FAWE commemorate International Advocacy days? Well, International Advocacy days serve as important occasions to raise awareness among the general public about pressing issues, mobilize political support and resources to address global challenges, and celebrate and reinforce humanity’s achievements. In 2022, FAWE actively celebrated several international days that align with our mission and goals.

On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11, 2022), FAWE organized a webinar that provided a platform for knowledge sharing and enabled young girls and women to interact with and be mentored by female practitioners in various STEM disciplines.

On International Women’s Day (March 8, 2022), FAWE hosted a webinar that brought together women from diverse backgrounds and fields to share their testimonies on how they are breaking barriers within their spheres of influence.

On June 14, 2022, FAWE participated in the continental celebration of the Day of the African Child in Maseru, Lesotho. The aim was to meet with the Committee of Experts and explore collaboration opportunities between FAWE and the BFA program. FAWE supported the CSO Forum in documenting the voices of children on the AU theme of the Day of the African Child, which focused on “Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy & Practice since 2013”. FAWE provided support for the documentation process in Malawi,

Zambia, Mali, and Senegal. The recorded video was broadcasted during the continental commemoration celebration in Lesotho. This initiative was in line with objective 1 of the BFA program, which aims to empower girls to advocate for their education, and objective 2, which seeks to hold duty bearers accountable for the implementation of laws and policies.

During the International Day of Girls in ICT (April 28, 2022), FAWE participated in a webinar led by Eco-bank. This event paved the way for FAWE’s involvement in a high-level meeting on education organized by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Rotary International.

On 10th October 2022, with support from BFA project, FAWE joined FAWE Malawi in commemorating the international day of the girl child in Malawi.

The meeting brought together girls drawn from BFA project areas in Malawi, the deputy minister for education, and role models drawn from the discipline forces, health sector and the Judiciary.

On 25th November 2022, the start of 16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, FAWE hosted a Charity dinner to prevent girls from violence and raise more funds for needy girls. The hash tags were #16MillionPlus4Girls and #OrangetheWorld. Further on 8th of December 2022 FAWE joined FAWE Kenya, in a webinar to commemorate the 16 days of Activism Gender Based Violence.

Taboos cause challenges in menstrual health management.

By Beverly Mumbo Programme Officer, SHARE Project

Good menstrual hygiene management—the management of hygiene associated with the menstrual process—plays a fundamental role in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential.

Lack of access to information on menstrual hygiene and sanitary products, persisting stigma and poor sanitary infrastructure are causes of poor menstrual hygiene, which affects girls’ social, economic and academic well-being.

Women and girls who are unable to practice good menstrual hygiene management are often exposed to other reproductive health problems such as teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions, compromising their education because of a lack of access to proper menstrual hygiene, care and management.

Good menstrual hygiene management plays a fundamental role in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential.

While several women and girls across the world face challenges managing their menstrual health and hygiene, girls living in low-income households are disproportionately affected. The challenges are higher and the repercussions more severe as they are less likely to have access to information on menstrual health or sanitary products because of their economic circumstances.

For example, research indicates that 65% of women in Kenya are unable to afford menstrual hygiene products and are often pushed to engage in transactional sex to acquire the necessary products. While engaging in transactional sex, because of their lack of agency, women and girls are often unable to negotiate for safe sex and end up suffering other reproductive health challenges, including risks of contracting HIV/AIDS and other STIs.

In sub-Saharan Africa, many girls will miss 20% of their school year; some may drop out of school altogether. This condemns these women and girls to a cycle of poverty, reducing their participation in economic development and decreasing their health and social outcomes.

Programs that provide menstrual hygiene products

While some countries such as Kenya have programs that offer free sanitary products in public schools to ensure that the levels of absenteeism reduce, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders have had to step in to offer further support.

The different stakeholders have agitated for reduced costs of sanitary products and development and implementation of menstrual health management policies. These are necessary interventions; however, to be more targeted and effective, it is prudent to have menstrual health management conversations with girls at the menarche stage or while in schools to ensure that they get the necessary and accurate information at an early stage.

Because of the “taboo” nature of menstruation, households will not have conversations around menstruation—what it is, when to expect it or how to manage it.

Most young girls are often caught by surprise when they have their first period and do not know what to do.

Most are embarrassed and tend to hide rather than seek the necessary information. When girls do seek information, they often seek it from peers who may not necessarily have the correct information and end up misled.

Organizations such as the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) run programs to create awareness within schools to ensure that girls get the correct information on their menstrual health. In partnership with the Right to Play and WaterAid under the Sexual and Reproductive Health Education program, FAWE has taken a holistic approach in addressing menstrual health management.

Because the negative impacts of a lack of good menstrual health and hygiene cut across sectors, the consortium has taken a multi-sectoral and holistic approach in working to improve menstrual hygiene in the countries such as Ghana, Mozambique and Eswatini.

By working with the diverse ministries and schools at both primary and secondary school levels to address menstrual health management, FAWE expects that it and other reproductive health services and information will become easily accessible to girls.

FAWE Rwanda celebrates the 2022 World Youth Skills Day

On 15th July 2022, FAWE Rwanda together with partners celebrated World Youth Skills Day. The event attracted representatives of the Government, the Private Sector, Women entrepreneurs, Members of FAWE Rwanda Alumni and Scholars and FAWE Rwanda partners.

During the celebration of World Youth Skills Day, FAWE Rwanda beneficiaries exhibited some of their lucrative items.

Under the theme: “Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development’’, to commemorate the World Youth Skills day, FAWE through the FAWE Rwanda Career Women Center provided refresher courses to 24 young scholars/alumni of the Mastercard scholars’ and other young women supported by UN Women.

The training program was in business and entrepreneurship, digital marketing and communication /pitching to enhance the trainees’ skills in their business competitiveness. The young entrepreneurs were also trained on Sexual reproductive and health rights.

In her opening remarks, FAWE Rwanda National Coordinator, Ms. Antonia Mutoro explained that FAWE Rwanda is celebrating the World Youth Skills Day to highlight its contribution to the education sector and skilling of young women and girls and the impact of digital literacy and entrepreneurship.

“The 25 young women today are showcasing various businesses ranging from textile and fashion, agriculture, and technology. Among them they have created jobs for themselves and others and combined their businesses to create opportunities for about a hundred people. These are youth that would have ended up as job seekers but instead they are now job creators.” Ms. Antonia said.

In her address, FAWE Rwanda Chairperson Ms. Christine Mbabazi acknowledged UN Women Rwanda which financially supported the initial steps of the Career Women Center that hosted the trainees who were celebrated on World Youth Skills Day.

She also expressed gratitude to all partners, among them the Government of Rwanda, Mastercard Foundation, La Francophonie, UN Women, FAWE Africa, DOT Rwanda, HARAMBEE, Make Way and Malala Fund among others.

Ms. Mbabazi said, “Special Gratitude goes to the Government of Rwanda under the Leadership of H.E Kagame For the deliberate policy frameworks and Systems that have encouraged Youth participation and engagement.”

She added that “This has brought Young people, in particular Women, to positions of leadership in government institutions and the private sector.”

She concludes her remark with a quote by Larry Bird, a great American basketball player who said, “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

To date, FAWE has supported over 15,000 girls from disadvantaged backgrounds to go through secondary and tertiary education.

On behalf of the Minister of Education, the guest of honor, Ms. Rose Baguma, the Director General of Education Policy and Analysis in the Ministry of Education congratulated FAWE Rwanda for this big achievement, especially on the celebration of the World Youth Skills Day.

Child Rights and Education

In March 2022, FAWE participated as a panellist on climate change and education during the CSO Forum. FAWE discussed the emerging trends in climate change, the impact of drought in the Horn of Africa region, the effects of the conflict in Ethiopia leading to school closures and insecurity, and the challenges faced by schools as they reopened after the COVID-19 period.

Subsequently, in April 2022, FAWE received an invitation to join the management committee of the CSO forum of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). FAWE is represented in this role by the Deputy Executive Director. This position provides FAWE with an opportunity to advocate for girls’ rights, as the decisions made by the CSO Forum are conveyed to the Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

Additional articles include:

▪ Commemoration of World Teachers Day: Read: http://fawe.org/2022/10/05/investing-inteachers-is-the-first-step-in-attaining-globaleducation-goals/

▪ Menstrual Health Day article that ran in the GPE blog - https://www.globalpartnership. org/blog/taboos-cause-challenges-menstrualhealth-management

CHAPTER 3: TO WORK TOWARDS A STRONG INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY FOR FAWE TO DELIVER ITS MANDATE.

Moving in One Accord

The motto “be your brother’s/sister’s keeper” resonates deeply with FAWE, as we believe in supporting and assisting one another despite international boundaries. Our regional and chapter offices collaborate closely, providing mutual aid whenever necessary. In March 2022, FAWE partnered with Design for Change to enhance the capacity of national coordinators through a toolkit that complements gender-responsive pedagogy, focusing on innovative teaching methods.

In terms of programmatic support, FAWE assisted the Zambian Country Coordinating Group (CCG), led by FAWE Zambia, in developing a lobby, advocacy, and communication plan for the Make Way project, which is currently being implemented. Furthermore, FAWE supported FAWE Kenya in the recruitment of project officers for the Imarisha Msichana program.

FAWE also extended its support to FAWE Tanzania, FAWE Gambia, FAWE Kenya, FAWE Liberia, and FAWE Mozambique in organizing general assemblies and facilitating the induction of newly elected board members. We are thrilled to announce that FAWE South Sudan has officially reopened and is fully operational, and we are enthusiastic about serving the girls of South Sudan once again.

FAWE Revamps her South Sudan Chapter to Enhance Girls’ Access to Quality Education and Training Opportunities in South Sudan

On the 29th of July 2022, The Forum for African Women Educationalists re-launched the FAWE South Sudan National Chapter at the Ministry of Education of South Sudan. The newly revamped Chapter also took the opportunity to launch the Strategic Plan for 2022-20 FAWE South Sudan was established in 2009 in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and other national partners. Due to arising conflicts in the country, the National Chapter halted its activities in 2013.

With the high number of girls being displaced and experiencing limited access to education, FAWE Africa worked on the design of an inclusive, adaptative and forward-thinking Strategic Plan to address the issue of access to quality education in South Sudan.

Speaking during the launch event held in Juba, South Sudan, FAWE Africa’s Executive Director Ms. Martha Muhwezi said, “Women and girls should always be able to enjoy their rights to education. It is our duty to set the conditions for their effective participation in society.” FAWE Africa’s Executive Director Ms. Martha Muhwezi.

The revamping of the South Sudan Chapter will allow FAWE to train teachers and education stakeholders in Gender Responsive Pedagogy (GRP) and Gender Responsive Policy and Planning to enhance retention and good performance of girls at all levels of education.

FAWE South Sudan is also committed to support zero tolerance to School Related Gender Based Violence and other harmful practices due to the pervasive dominant patriarchal norms which normalize such practices that inhibit girls’ access to education and wellbeing in society.

The launch of the FAWE Sudan Chanter and Strategic Plan was held in partnership with the Ministry of Education.

Publications

During the course of implementing programmatic activities in 2022, FAWE developed several publications that aimed to disseminate knowledge and insights. These publications encompassed the 2021 Annual Report, STEM Report, School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV) manual, and policy briefs on teenage re-entry policies for school-going mothers. Furthermore, FAWE produced publications on Gender Mainstreaming in Education sectors in Namibia and Senegal. These publications have been widely distributed among FAWE stakeholders for continuous learning and sharing throughout the year. Additionally, FAWE released newsletters during the reporting period to provide regular updates and information.

The soft copy versions of these publications can also be found on FAWE’s website, www.fawe.org.

Other publications/blog can also be found in the links below:

- During international/Advocacy days FAWE published the following articles links below:

- https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/increasing-girlsinterest-and-participation-science-education-and-innovation

- https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/school-reentry-policies-must-be-effective-teenage-mothers-africa

- https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/tabooscause-challenges-menstrual-health-management

- https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/new-toolempower-african-girls-against-violence

FAWE also documented activities in form of documentaries. Links to the documentaries can be found below:

- 2022 FAWE Documentaries/videos, see the links below:

• FAWE/Norad project documentary - https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=bB3Ng5zdTP4

• WPP Academy 1&2 video - https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VoTz-KxyuxQ

• FAWE Academy 3&4 video - https://fawersmy.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/ebuyaki_fawe_org/

EbrF5NvTrblNuvzNrA6dAEwB9zGTMD4-AlXxpdxnsoQgLw?e=wkRbN0

• FAWE founders video - https://fawers- my.sharepoint. com/:v:/g/personal/ebuyaki_fawe_org/

EaIJModwk71BlqmBqJmK8t8Bux79gYOeE00IPaZso56r6Q?e=Gr9NTV

• Commemoration of Day of the African Child – video produced: https://fawers-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/ebuyaki_fawe_org/ EpOdE2JmXQRHoqcJmiqSBPEBefA7QcXvj

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Growing Staff Capacity in Information Technology

Through a partnership with EQUANET, FAWE facilitated the establishment of a technology-enabled online mentorship platform, enabling mentor-mentee pairings in 10 selected African chapters including Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mali, Zambia, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

FAWE also prioritized continuous staff capacity building following the implementation of the new financial system, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Microsoft Office 365. Staff members were equipped with the necessary tools and applications to enhance their day-to-day activities and overall efficiency. Furthermore, FAWE ensured the consistent maintenance of the current ICT infrastructure throughout the year to provide uninterrupted services. Additionally, the finalization of an ICT Data Protection Policy aimed to safeguard data and privacy.

To foster learning from peers, FAWE representatives embarked on a benchmarking visit to UNESCO IIEP, where they had the opportunity to gain insights and exchange ideas on establishing e-learning initiatives within FAWE. As a result of this visit, the development of an E-Learning strategy is currently underway.

1. Imarisha Msichana by Mastercard Foundation

2. Malala Fund 1

3. Echidna Giving Phase III 3

4. Wellspring Philanthropic

1. Co-Impact Gender Fund (FAWE, VVOB, Kenya University)

2. Lego Foundation

3. European Union call for proposal 2 years Tanzania and Zanzibar

4. Urgent Action Fund for Advocacy and Alliance building

5. FCDO grant “What Works Hub for Global Education”

FAWE Endowment Fund

FAWE board approved Britam Insurance as the holding entity for FAWE’s Endowment Fund. USD 150,000 has been invested as the kick-off fund.

Donor Round Table Meeting

A Private Sector Donor Roundtable was conducted in June 2022, which convened stakeholders from the private sector to discuss potential areas of partnership and explore the connection between the private sector and tertiary education. During the event, FAWE presented its Phase 2 vision to the attendees and advocated for their financial support.