Emerging findings, East Africa - Girls Education Challenge, 2021

Emerging Findings:

The

impact

of COVID-19 on girls and the Girls’ Education Challenge response

Focus on East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia)

This Focus on East Africa brief summarises emerging findings around the impact of COVID-19 on learning, wellbeing and return to school from Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. It is one of a series of five regional Emerging Findings briefs which covers the time period from March 2020 to June 2021. It is primarily aimed at East African national governments, INGOs and NGOs working in the region who are interested in understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on learning, wellbeing and return to school. This brief has continued relevance because of the ongoing uncertainty and continued impact on schools and, in some cases, school closures and learning. It outlines interventions that support the reopening of schools and the continuation of remote learning where schools remain closed.

The evidence presented in this paper around learning, wellbeing and return to school from the GEC projects in East Africa was collated from March 2020 to June 2021.

Summary

IMPACTS ON GIRLS’ LEARNING

• School closures and lockdown measures have resulted in significant educational disruptions in East Africa and there is emerging evidence from projects on the negative impact on learning outcomes.

• Across the three countries, projects found that girls’ domestic workloads and childcare burdens have increased and have negatively impacted their ability to engage in learning. This is linked to economic hardship, which COVID-19 has exacerbated.

• The inability to access distance learning was a common issue across all three countries due to the lack of internet and electricity, and a lack of access to radio, television and phones.

• The students and families least likely to have access to remote learning were those from the poorest households, remote or rural areas and refugees.

• Solutions: Projects used a mixed-modality, community-based approach to address the barriers to learning that girls faced. Interventions included the provision of worksheets and printed materials, learning support from teachers and community volunteers, a book borrowing system backed up by local teachers and community volunteers to provide further support via phone, and small learning groups.

IMPACTS ON GIRLS’ SAFETY AND WELLBEING

• There has been a sharp increase in cases of gender-based violence (GBV) reported across the region, which has been corroborated by projects in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

• Projects have reported increased cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia and Kenya.

• Projects also reported increases in child marriage across all three countries and increases in teenage pregnancies in Kenya. In addition, increased economic hardship has worsened protection issues for girls, with families resorting to negative coping mechanisms such as early marriage or child labour.

• The impact of lockdown and social isolation on girls’ mental health has also become apparent. Projects in Ethiopia and Somalia reported an increase in the number of girls feeling worried, anxious or depressed.

• Solutions: Project interventions included life skill sessions (particularly on sexual and reproductive health), counselling, training of community volunteers on psychosocial support, community awareness-raising and outreach, and linking girls to protection services.

IMPACTS ON GIRLS’ RETURN TO SCHOOL

• East Africa has the highest percentage of learners at risk of dropping out or non-enrollment compared to other regions in Africa. Reasons include increases in care, domestic and work burdens, early marriage and early pregnancy.

• In Ethiopia, many schools were not prepared to ensure that COVID-19 transmissions were minimised and that schools were safe when they reopen.

• Projects reported child marriage and increased migration rates for paid work an increasing issue in Ethiopia, negatively impacting return rates to school.

• Kenyan GEC projects noted that reasons for girls’ dropout included early marriage, engaging in activities to supplement income or opting for employment, relocation or migration, pregnancy, and being prevented from attending school by a spouse.

• Solutions: Project interventions included regular contact and outreach to girls by teachers and community workers to ensure learning and reenrolment. They also provided material support and worked with community groups to identify and follow up with any girls at risk of dropping out. Let Our Girls Succeed (Kenya) used thematic learning material that included content on the different barriers to return to school so that children tackled the topic as they learned.

Introduction Emerging findings

During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted 188 countries to enforce national school closures and lockdowns, impacting approximately 98.5% of the world’s student population.1 As the year progressed, studies and reports began to note how these school closures and lockdowns disproportionately affected women and girls, particularly the most marginalised.2 Several tools were developed to track the educational effects of the pandemic. However, most did not include extensive information on girls’ education.3 This brief presents the work carried out with projects to provide a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on girls’ educational opportunities and life chances, particularly in the 17 countries in which the GEC operates.

This paper focuses on the East Africa region, specifically Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia,4 and is part of a series of regional papers5 that provide a comprehensive review6 and analysis of 90 studies, articles and reports produced on or within the 17 GEC countries regarding the impact of school closures and lockdowns on girls’ learning, safety, wellbeing and return to school. The review also includes analyses of COVID-19 impacts specifically on GEC girls, drawn from GEC projects’ quarterly reports.7 GEC projects further validated and elaborated upon these findings and analyses during two workshops and reviews of an initial paper conducted in March and April 2021.8 These workshops also explored and discussed GEC project activities and interventions that have shown promise with regard to addressing COVID-19 impacts on girls.

Overall, the types and degrees of COVID-19 impacts on girls varied across countries and contexts within individual countries (e.g. rural or urban locations). However, a common theme emerged, irrespective of country or context, that COVID-19 exacerbated existing constraints and created new ones on girls’ educational opportunities and life chances. For example, school and community education centre closures and lockdowns increased girls’ vulnerability to sexual violence and increased their domestic chore burden as they cared for siblings and sick relatives. Girls who lacked access to mobile phones, radios or electricity before COVID-19 were disadvantaged even further during COVID-19, as this access was needed to participate in most distance learning activities. Subgroups, such as girls with disabilities, also faced increased stigma, discrimination and safeguarding risks.

Figure 1 provides illustrative examples of the many new or exacerbated constraints (noted in yellow) experienced by girls in most GEC countries and contexts, including the girls served by projects in East Africa.9 These constraints are located within the different levels of the education system: the home and community level, school (closure) level, and system and policy levels.

The following sections summarise the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ learning, safety, wellbeing and school return in the East Africa region (Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia) and provide an overview of the GEC activities and interventions that address adverse impacts.

Figure 1: New and exacerbated constraints on girls’ access to education10

System and policy constraints

School closure constraints

Inadequate recruitment of female managers and teachers

Loss of learning and skills for an initial 3 months.

Home and community constraints made worse by lockdowns

Inadequate pre-service training on gender responsive pedagogy

Inadequate gender awareness, focal points, monitoring at national, regional or district level

Potentially 6 -9 months

Girls’ extra domestic work increases with all children at home and/or if parents become ill

Teachers disengage, stop practicing skills, nd other work

Time away from school leads to girls losing con dence in their learning abilities, increasing the risk of drop out

Girls forced to contribute to the family’s income (farm labour, market)

Girls working on their own are vulnerable to ‘survival’ transactional sex situations

Parents arrange an early marriage to o set family poverty

Parents lack the capacity/time to support learning

Family migration to nd food/ work

Family violence increases

Constraints on a girl’s capability to learn

Lack of access to phones/radios/electricity prevents girls from accessing distance learning

Lack of SRH, sexual abuse, manipulation, rape can lead to pregnancy

Girls do not go back to school due to early pregnancy

Girls’ mental health deteriorates

Girls do not know or have the con dence to claim their rights

When schools reopen, families can no longer pay for exam fees, uniforms, etc. Boys are prioritised.

Inadequate access to sanitary products during menstruation

Ministry of Education distance learning interventions are not gender responsive and overlook the most

Social norms deprioritise gender throughout government COVID-19 response

MoE COVID-19

Strategy has

Inadequate gender budgeting, planning, M&E

School is no longer a pathway for reporting violence for girls

Girls lack the protection, support, and resources that schools provide

Insu cient national policies for gender, sexual harassment, pregnancy re-entry Inadequate district referral pathways and response for SRGBV

Impacts on girls’ learning

School closures and lockdown measures have resulted in significant educational disruptions in East Africa, negatively impacting girls’ learning. Whilst schools are currently open across the three countries, UNESCO global monitoring of school closures shows that Somalia experienced 19 weeks of school closures, Ethiopia 31 weeks and Kenya 37 weeks (as of July 2021). While the full extent of the impact of learning outcomes is unknown, some emerging evidence from projects of the negative impact. For example, the Expanding Inclusive Education Strategies for Girls with Disabilities project (Kenya) has found a drop in literacy and numeracy levels of some girls, especially those with parents unable to provide support for learning.

Projects in all three countries found girls’ domestic workload increased because of worsening economic hardship, which impacted their ability to engage in learning. In Ethiopia, 70% of young women spent more time on household duties during lockdown than young men (26%). In addition, 46% of young women undertook increased childcare due to COVID-19 compared with 19% of young men.11 GEC girls echoed this. In Somalia, 71% of girls reported an increase in domestic workloads. This is linked to economic hardship. 33% of girls are experiencing food insecurity and 63% reported a lack of cash income at home (as reported by the AGES project, Somalia). Increases in domestic and childcare burdens are likely to contribute to a more pronounced learning loss.12

An inability to access distance learning was a common issue across all three East Africa GEC countries. In Ethiopia, only 5% of students could access online learning during the lockdown13 as most of the population have limited or no access to electricity.14 The STAGES project (Ethiopia)

found that 42% of supported girls could access education programmes via radio, 4.4% via TV and 31.5% via phones. Both the Let Our Girls Succeed (Kenya) and AGES (Somalia) found that those who reported engagement in remote learning had higher learning outcomes than those who did not participate. Interestingly, AGES supported girls who participated in life skill clubs had a much higher engagement in distance learning, demonstrating the importance of investment in confidence and decision making.

As with other regions across the GEC portfolio, the most marginalised girls are the least likely to have access – those from the poorest households, remote areas, and refugees.15 For example, Let Our Girls Succeed (Kenya) found that the learning gaps between urban and rural girls widened during school closures.16

Projects across the three countries used a mixed-modality, community-based approach to address the barriers to learning that girls faced. For example, the Excelling Against the Odds project (Ethiopia) provided teacher-designed worksheets backed up by community volunteers to keep in touch with girls and families and support them with their learning.

In Somalia, AGES developed printed learning materials and a book borrowing system backed up by local teachers and community volunteers to provide further support via phone. Jielimishe (Kenya) also used multiple distance learning modalities backed up by community mobilisers who supported those who could not access digital platforms. Educate for Life (Kenya) set up small learning groups at learning centres and used these centres to distribute workbooks and dignity kits.

In Kenya, Let Our Girls Succeed used a mixed-delivery model by expanding the role of Community Health Volunteers to include the delivery of printed learning materials, monitor girls’ engagement with learning activities and encourage caregivers to support learning at home. This was supplemented by radio lessons and the formation of reading camps. Research has shown that reading camps combined with paper-based learning resources have had the greatest impact of learning and have mitigated against the constraints of some girls not living with literate household members, or having limited access to radio programmes.

Ethiopia

Literature review findings: Less than 5% of students could access online learning during lockdown (Glennerster et al., 2021). Furthermore, more than 80% of the population live in rural areas with limited or no access to electricity ( Tiruneh 2020). Malala Fund 2020b survey found that only 13% of students could access TV and radio distance learning initiatives and the majority found them insufficient. In addition, 70% of young women spent more time on household duties during the lockdown, compared with only 26% young men. 46% of young women undertook increased childcare, compared with only 19% young men (Young Lives 2021).

Project findings:

STAGES consulted with girls and 57.6% of them indicated that chores increased and the majority of comments started with “I am worried about my education” and then stated various worries (e.g. whether exams will go ahead, whether they would transition). However, 42% of girls could access radio educational programmes safely, 4.4% were able to access TV educational programmes safely and 31.5% could use mobile phones to attend educational programmes safely.

Core interventions:

Excelling Against the Odds developed worksheets backed up by community volunteers to keep in touch with girls and families to make sure they allowed girls time to focus on education. Activities were facilitated by community workers, community volunteers, principals and teachers. Content included teacher-designed grade-level worksheets tailored to the girls’ learning level. The worksheets and examination practice papers complement the government’s planned to catch up and revision classes.

STAGES adapted their work with community-school structures to keep in close contact with girls, providing key messages about continuing to study at home, and on keeping safe and well during school closures. They

strengthened the ‘ecosystem’ of support to girls via existing government structures as well as working through newer structures including Mother and Father Groups, which were able to be close to girls, and providing key messages via local radio.

Kenya

Literature review findings: Girls and refugee children are likely to face devastating consequences due to a lack of educational resources at home (Parsitau et al. 2020). Unequal access to technology, prohibitive internet costs, unreliable internet access (OCHA2020a).

Project findings:

Expanding Inclusive Education Strategies for Girls with Disabilities has seen a drop in literacy and numeracy levels of girls, especially those with parents unable to provide support for learning.

Let Our Girls Succeed was unable to trace and support a handful of girls who migrated out of urban settings due to economic challenges. In addition, a rapid assessment survey showed that learning gaps between urban and rural girls widened during COVID-19.

Core interventions:

Let Our Girls Succeed used a mixed-team delivery model expanding the role of community health workers to include the delivery of printed learning materials to girls, collecting written exercises for teachers and coaches to mark, monitoring girls’ engagement with learning activities and encouraging parents and caregivers to support learning at home. Supplemented by the provision of radio and the formation of community learning groups, girls accessed tailored tutorials developed by teachers in line with the national curriculum. In addition, life skill topics were integrated into the community and home learning material.

Jielimishe used multiple distance learning modalities (learning centres, radio, home learning materials), backed up by community mobilisers who visited those who could not access digital platforms. Additional activities focused on engagement with parents and activities were facilitated by teachers and community mobilisers. The project developed content to address literacy and numeracy gaps identified in internal and external assessments and government material.

Educate for Life used small learning groups at learning centres, serving as hubs for dignity kit and workbook distribution. Mentors, community health workers and facilitators implemented activities.

Somalia

Literature review findings:

School closures left more than 1.3 million children with no access to education, in addition to the 3 million school-aged children not enrolled in schools (Mawere 2020).

Project findings:

SOMGEP reported that 39% of girls were able to spend over two hours a day on education activities (CARE 2020).

AGES reported that 71% of students saw an increase in domestic workload. In a COVID-19 analysis report, 71% of students reported increased workload, 53% reported studying at home, 40% reported practising by themselves at home, 28% taught by family members, and 16% taught by neighbours. 30% of students have continued to receive support from teachers, 61% spend more than two hours a day studying at home, and 40% spend more than one hour. Girls who reported engagement in remote learning had significantly higher reading comprehension (8% points) and numeracy (38% points) scores in a July to August assessment, compared to their peers who had not participated. 33% experienced food insecurity and 63% reported a lack of cash income at home, increasing from 27% to 15% in 2019. GEC girls had a much higher engagement in distance learning, demonstrating the importance of investment in confidence and decision making.

Core interventions:

AGES developed remote content (printed materials), backstopped by facilitators providing further support via phone or SMS or WhatsApp and a book borrowing system. Local teachers and community volunteers facilitated this and the content focused on micro-lessons that addressed vital skills and topics. As a result, remote learning has continued post-school reopening.

SOMGEP developed remote content (printed materials and online content shared via WhatsApp) and facilitated book sharing processes. Formal school teachers and accelerated education facilitators provided support via phone, WhatsApp and in-person meetings (with social distancing). Girls’ Empowerment Forums (girl-led groups) also supported peers through socially distanced meetings (in small groups) facilitated by formal school teachers, accelerated education facilitators and adolescent girls engaged in Girls’ Empowerment Forums.

Impacts on girls’ safety and wellbeing

Sharp increases in gender-based violence have been reported by government agencies across the region, with a 48% increase in cases reported.17 This is corroborated by GEC projects across all countries that have reported increases in gender-based violence and sexual abuse, including increased cases of female genital mutilation reported in Somalia and Kenya. SOMGEP (Somalia) reported concerns with the lack of a functional legal system to act against perpetrators. In Kenya, there have been increases in teenage pregnancies due to school closures reported in 2020 compared to the previous year.18 STAGES (Ethiopia) surveyed with girls: 31% felt at risk of sexual violence or abuse, 21% felt at risk of domestic violence and 19% felt at risk when moving within the community.

Projects are also reporting increases in child marriage across all three countries. Both the AGES project (Somalia) and the Educate for Life project (Kenya) are concerned that losses of livelihoods and income, and increased economic hardship, have increased protection risks for girls. AGES has reported an alarming deprivation of basic needs, with 33% experiencing hunger, 47% having limited access to drinking water and 63% having no cash income for extended periods. There is a high risk of families adopting negative coping mechanisms such as early marriage and exploitation of children for hazardous or illegal labour in such circumstances.

The impact of COVID-19 on girls’ mental health was also apparent, with projects in Ethiopia and Somalia reporting an increase in the number of girls feeling anxious. For

example, girls supported by the Biruh Tefa for All project in Ethiopia reported increased feelings of social isolation, with many girls feeling that they are not cared for or loved. Excelling Against the Odds (Ethiopia) reported increased mental health concerns, with 56% of girls feeling worried or anxious. In Somalia, 60% of girls felt ‘very sad or depressed’ daily, with the majority saying this had worsened since COVID-19 started. Reasons provided were COVID-19, the uncertain environment and a lack of basic needs (as reported by AGES).

In Somalia, the AGES project used Girls’ Empowerment Forums to discuss the challenges girls faced and worked with the Ministry of Education Gender Focal Points and Community Education Committees to address protection issues. In Kenya, project interventions ranged from conducting community conversations around teenage pregnancy (Jielemishe) to using the community health volunteers that formed part of their mixed-team distance learning delivery model to help ensure girls’ psychosocial wellbeing as well as identifying issues and referring learners to local counselling networks as needed (Let Our Girls Succeed).

In Ethiopia, there has been an increase in child marriages. Projects have worked to address this by working with community representatives to sensitise them to the issues that girls were facing (STAGES) and intervening or negotiating with families if there was prior knowledge of a marriage being arranged, and referring those who escaped early marriage to local officials and service providers (Excelling Against the Odds).

Ethiopia

Literature review findings: There has been an increase in child marriages ( Wuilbercq 2020).

Project findings:

STAGES saw increased child marriages which impacted on return to school. A rapid assessment report showed that since schools closed there has been an increase in girls feeling worried and anxious (56.6%), girls being asked to marry (31.2%), risk of sexual violence and abuse (29.8%), migration for paid work (27.1%), domestic violence (21.2%), risk of attack when moving within the community (19.3%), and risk of attack when travelling outside the community (18.0%).

Biruh Tefa for All reported increased feelings of social isolation, with many girls feeling that they are not cared for or loved.

Core interventions:

Excelling Against the Odds implemented activities that intervened and negotiated with families if prior knowledge of an early marriage being arranged. In addition, newly married girls and those escaping an early marriage were referred to local officials and service providers, e.g. Women’s Officers and Health Extension Workers, for psychosocial and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) support. The project also supported married girls to register for school. Additional activities included the distribution of health and social wellbeing leaflets and health extension workers awarenessraising on COVID-19, psychosocial support (PSS) training and guidance for focal teachers and community volunteers. STAGES worked with community representatives (e.g. Kebele leaders), headteachers, woreda level political leaders and education officials to sensitise them to girls’ issues. The project provided gender and inclusion responsive pedagogy training (including COVID-19, safety, wellbeing and safeguarding) to over 400 government-recruited teachers. Additional activities included local radio messaging on safeguarding, health and wellbeing. The project also provided emergency items to 144 schools as children returned (soaps, disinfectant, jerry cans and sanitiser).

Kenya

Literature review findings:

There was a 35% increase in GBV cases and 50% increase in violence against girls in the first half of April ( World Vision International 2020). A national helpline reported a more than 10-fold increase in calls (Bhalla 2020a). The was also an increase in GBV (Ford 2020) and FGM being reported (Bhalla 2020)

Project findings:

Let Our Girls Succeed and KEEP saw an increase in early marriage and pregnancy.

Jielimishe saw increases in child abuse.

Educate for Life saw that a loss of livelihoods and source of income aggravated sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases.

Core interventions:

Let Our Girls Succeed used a mixed-team delivery model of safety as community health volunteers were able to help ensure the girls’ psychosocial wellbeing by identifying any issues at the household level and referring learners to local counselling networks as needed.

Educate for Life built on existing reporting systems and policies to ensure that those who did not have internet or signal had access to reporting mechanisms (e.g. water points with suggestion boxes and walk-in set up in inaccessible places where girls could meet with mentors). Additional activities used SMS platforms and toll-free lines to identify and follow up with those at risk of GBV. Radio messaging in place of community meetings. Topics included the importance of keeping children safe, the project produced messages on child safeguarding, GBV and Safe Return to School.

Jielimishe conducted village-based mentorship and sessions on SRH and community conversations around teenage pregnancy.

Somalia

Literature review findings:

There hass been an increase in domestic violence, sexual violence against girls and FGM ( WHO 2020).

Project findings:

SOMGEP has qualitative reports of increased early marriage and the lack of a functional legal system to act against perpetrators.

AGES’ early marriage data does not differ from the general trend pre-COVID-19. However, a COVID-19 analysis report suggested that there was a high risk of families adopting negative coping mechanisms such as early marriage and exploitation of children for hazardous or illegal labour in the face of such extreme circumstances. Aa large proportion have been deprived of basic needs more than ten days: 33% experiencing hunger; 47% limited access to drinking water; 43% lack access to medicines; 63% no cash income for extended periods. In addition, 60% of the girls feel “very sad or depressed” daily; 92% of those affirmed that this had worsened since COVID-19 started. COVID-19 (82%), insecure environment (67%) and lack of basic needs (45%) were the main reasons offered for why people thought they might be depressed and anxious.

Core interventions:

AGES used Girls’ Empowerment Forums to discuss challenges such as pressures and relationships with parents. In addition, the project provided support to Ministry of Education (MoE) gender focal points, mentors, and Girls’ Empowerment Forums to develop and implement action plans to follow up on dropout cases and work with Community Education Committees (CEC) local leaders to address protection issues. Additional activities included psychological first aid (PFA) training for teachers. The project also worked with CECs to follow up on dropout cases, focusing on girls with disabilities and minority children.

Impacts on girls’ return to school

A UNESCO report shows that compared to other subregions in Africa, East Africa has the highest percentage of learners at risk of dropping out or non-enrolment in both 2020 and 2021. Dropout was a concern across all three countries. The longer the duration of school closures, the less likely a student is to return to school. Reasons for non-return included the need to enter the labour market to contribute to household income, early pregnancy and increases in care and domestic duties. In Kenya, there were initial reports of students failing to return to school, particularly girls, because of early pregnancy, marriage or work burdens.19 In Ethiopia, many schools were not making preparations to reach out to those least likely to enrol and only 5% of schools have handwashing facilities with soap and water.20

Whilst we do not yet have national enrolment data from Somalia, SOMGEP reported that only 80% of the primary students, 66% of those enrolled in accelerated education and 67% of the non-formal education students resumed classes. In Ethiopia, STAGES noted that national enrolment data showed that about one million students from the region did not return to a previously enrolled school. They also noted that child marriage negatively impacted girls’ return to school as they migrated for paid work. Kenyan GEC projects noted that girls’ absenteeism and dropout included early marriage, engaging in activities to supplement income or opting for employment, relocation or migration, pregnancy and being prevented from attending by a spouse. KEEP (Kenya) noted that boys’ most frequently mentioned challenges were child labour, drug abuse, mental health and psychosocial issues.

Project interventions varied across the region. Excelling Against the Odds (Ethiopia) attributes its high return rate of 98% to the close contact and strong relationships that teachers and community workers maintained with girls throughout the school closures. STAGES (Ethiopia) increased its resources to support married girls to return to school. In addition to using the mixed-team distance learning delivery model as a way to identify and follow up with any girls at risk of dropping out, Let Our Girls Succeed (Kenya) used thematic learning material that included content on the different barriers to return to school so that children tackled the topic as they learned.

The AGES and SOMGEP projects in Somalia worked with Community Education Committees (CECs) to follow up on dropout cases, with a particular focus on girls with disabilities and minority children.

Ethiopia

Literature review findings: Only 60% of principals and 41% of teachers indicated that their schools were making preparations to support the less likely to re-enrol (Cambridge Africa 2020). In addition, just 5% of schools in Ethiopia (1% in rural areas) have handwashing facilities with soap and water (Malala Fund 2020b).

Project findings:

STAGES national enrolment data shows that about one million students from the region did not come back to school that were previously enrolled. However, GEC project enrolment was high (primary school: 90% of girls, 89% of boys; secondary school: 96% of girls, 93% of boys).

Core interventions:

Excelling Against the Odds supported community workers, community volunteers, principals and teachers to remain in contact with girls throughout the school closures and built on existing relationships with families and girls. They were involved in creating the distance learning worksheets and back-to-school awareness campaigns (radio and community). Emerging results show that there was a high retention rate of students at 97.89%. Teachers reported that school attendance is far better in GEC target schools than in other schools.

STAGES saw an immediate increase in resources to support married girls to return to their education, boosting social and emotional learning support through teaching and the counselling support provided by Girls’ Education Advisory Committees. The project facilitated teams made up of Mothers’ Group members and Woreda Gender Officers to visit the homes of girls who were married during school closures (72 girls), to find out if they might return to school and encourage their families to allow them to do so. Of the 72 girls, 65 have returned to school when they reopened.

Literature review findings:

Thousands of children failed to report back to school, with girls forming the more significant part of these figures (Kimuge et al., 2021).

Project findings:

Educate for Life found that the reasons for increased absenteeism and dropout included girls engaging in activities to supplement household income, relocation, marriage, being prevented from attending by their spouse, opting for employment, or opting out of the project to pursue other family and personal interests.

KEEP cited that the most frequently mentioned challenges amongst girls who did not report to school included early marriage, pregnancy and child labour. In contrast, the most frequently mentioned challenges for boys were child labour, drug abuse, mental health and psychosocial issues.

Core interventions:

Let Our Girls Succeed used a mixed-team delivery model to ensure the return to school (with suspected dropout risk reported). Thematic learning material included content on the different barriers to return to school so that children tackled the topic as they learned. Additional activities included using local radio stations to engage parents in vernacular discussions about return to school. Emerging results from a rapid assessment survey demonstrated daily attendance ranged from 89% to 91%. Class 8 figures show the regular attendance rate for cohort girls was 96.7% (lowest county recording 93%; highest recording 99%).

Somalia

Literature review findings:

Before COVID-19, it was estimated that of 4.5 million school-aged children, only 1.5 million (35% girls, 41% boys) were in school (Mwanjisi 2020).

Project findings:

SOMGEP reported that as schools reopened, only 80% of primary students returned. However, accelerated education saw a return rate of 66% and 67% non-formal education students resumed classes.

Core interventions:

SOMGEP documented improved inclusive retention strategies, particularly for children with disabilities in alternative basic education and accelerated learning programmes. In addition, attendance improved as teachers worked with mentors, CECs, Girls’ Education Forums and parents to follow up with dropout cases to ensure a holistic approach, reaching 18,421 at-risk girls. Emerging results show that headcounts conducted in March 2021 saw 75% of the girls attending class, despite a significant COVID-19 outbreak in Somaliland.

AGES implemented follow-up protocols with dropouts and students with high absenteeism rates (deemed to be at risk of dropping out). Teachers, CEC members and Girls’ Empowerment Forums were engaged in tracking processes. Results show that as of June 2021, 97% of the girls who had missed class reported follow-up actions being taken. According to the respondents who reported follow-up actions being taken, 100% received support from teachers; 43% from female mentors; 36% from CEC members; and 34% from Girls’ Empowerment Forums.

What next?

This paper has reported the emerging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls’ learning, wellbeing and return to school. Projects have reported what they did in response to COVID-19, the activities they implemented and the pivots they made to programming. As we move into the next phase of COVID-19, where COVID-19 case rates are rising in some places, the need to continue collecting evidence and documenting the evolving challenges girls face and what interventions are needed are successful or not is crucial.

The evidence reported here will be revisited in 2021 through projects’ discussion and reporting, resulting in an updated paper. The intention is to find out and document, as schools reopen, evolving challenges faced by girls, what interventions were successful and why, using project data, assessment data and reporting.

Annexes

A: GEC East Africa project glossary

Project Lead Organisation Project name (linked to GEC website project page)

ActionAid Education for Life (EfL)

Avanti

Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere International (CARE International)

Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE)

ChildHope UK

Educational Development Trust (EDT)

iMlango Transitions

Somali Girls Education Promotion Project – Transition (SOMGEP-T)

Country Funding window21

Kenya LNGB

Kenya GEC-T

Somalia GEC-T

Adolescent Girls’ Education in Somalia (AGES)

ChildHope: Excelling Against the Odds

Let Our Girls Succeed (Wasichana Wetu Wafaulu)

I Choose Life (ICL) Jielimishe

Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) Expanding inclusive education strategies for girls with disabilities in Kenya

Link Education (Link) Supporting Transition of Adolescent Girls Through Enhancing Systems (STAGES)

People in Need (PIN) CHANGE

Population Council Biruh Tesfa for All (Bright Future)

Relief International (RI) Educate Girls, End Poverty – Transition (EGEP)

World University Service of Canada (WUSC)

Kenya Equity in Education Project (KEEP) Phase II

Somalia LNGB

Ethiopia GEC-T

Kenya GEC-T

Kenya GEC-T

Kenya GEC-T

Ethiopia GEC-T

Ethiopia LNGB

Ethiopia LNGB

Somalia GEC-T

Kenya GEC-T

B. Collation of findings

TThis paper brings together two types of data and information regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on girls’ learning, safety, wellbeing and return to school:

1. Contextual findings for the East Africa region, including information and data at the national level or a particular area or city.

2. GEC project findings, entailing information and data about project beneficiaries.

Both these sets of findings have their limitations. Based on the GEC review of country-level research and data at the time, it became apparent that there is a shortage of rigorous research conducted on the impacts of COVID-19, particularly regarding adolescent girls. This can be attributed to several factors, including the recentness of the pandemic, the limited systematic focus of response efforts and research on adolescent girls and the lack of gender-disaggregated data.22 Most global, country or regional-level reports based their predictions or estimates of effects mainly on data from previous crises such as the Ebola outbreak in 201623 or on emerging evidence from countries with reporting systems in place.24 This UNESCO paper (2021) provides a snapshot of predicted patterns of dropout across Africa. No comprehensive or rigorous research has been conducted on the impacts of COVID-19 on adolescent girls in Global South countries. Information and data presented in this paper should, therefore, generally be viewed as indicative.

At the GEC project level, the rigour of findings varies from project to project. Reports of COVID-19 effects on girls span a wide range, including anecdotal findings from project Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and results from robust surveys or assessments. Given the different types of data reported and the differing sizes of projects, sample sizes for this GEC project information and data vary. This is understandable and not necessarily problematic, as this paper aims to provide an understanding of what we know and do not know via the collation of information at project and country levels (with further validation from workshops).

The following sections present this collation of information on the impacts of COVID-19 via three thematic areas:

1. Impacts on learning (i.e., loss or gains and why these occurred)

2. Impacts on safety and wellbeing (particularly regarding pregnancy, early marriage, GBV and mental health)

3. Impacts on girls’ return to school

For each theme, country and context, data are presented together with GEC project-level data for comparative purposes. It should be noted that the findings presented, particularly with regard to learning, highlight the impacts on girls’ opportunities to learn as opposed to the actual achievements in this area. There are several reasons for this:

1. National exams for many countries have been delayed or cancelled due to school closures (exam data are also limited to students in exam grades, which applies to a relatively small proportion of GEC girls)

2. No comprehensive or rigorous assessment of learning achievements has been conducted in GEC countries (that has been published or is in the public domain), generally due to the difficulties of inter or intranational travel

3. GEC projects have conducted only a very limited number of learning assessments for similar reasons. However, the assessments that have been conducted are certainly noted in the findings.

With regard to girls’ safety, it is only possible to understand levels of ‘negative achievement’ via reports of violence, marriages, pregnancies, FGM etc. Unfortunately, reporting systems on these incidents at district or national levels before COVID-19 were patchy at best in many countries. However, GEC projects actively pick up these incidents regarding their beneficiaries due to increased capacity development in safeguarding and the Fund Manager’s SHE system.25 That said, wellbeing is a much more nuanced and complex area to report systematically. However, projects have reported on cases they have noted.

Finally, reporting on achievements in girls’ return to school is the most straightforward area to track and measure and, as such, many projects and countries have been able to report on this.

As discussed, the limitations in both global and GEC data make it difficult to draw any hard and fast conclusions about the impacts of COVID-19 on girls. Hence, this paper aims to more broadly provide an understanding of what we know and do not know at this point. However, our growing understanding of COVID-19’s impacts on girls’ opportunities to learn, be safe and return to school will prepare us for when robust data on achievements (or lack thereof) is produced. More importantly, it has already allowed GEC projects to develop strategies to improve girls’ opportunities in the face of school closures and lockdowns and will continue to do so.

Endnotes

1 See UNICEF 2021

2 See de Paz et al. 2020 and UN Women 2020

3 Education tracker tools are summarised here: https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/8-tracking-tools-covid-19-data-education

4 The countries listed here are not meant to represent East Africa as a region, rather they are the projects included in the GEC in this geographical area.

5 There are 5 Emerging Findings briefs that cover South Asia, Southern Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and East Africa. Click here to access the GEC website resources page.

6 Literature was collected via a wide online search and included documents produced from March 2020- March 2021. All documents cited in this paper are listed in the bibliography where links are available.

7 Annex A provides a list of all Girls’ Education Challenge Transition (GEC-T) and Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB) projects in East Africa.

8 These workshops initiated the GEC’s broader strategic refresh, which aims to set the direction of the GEC from 2021–2025. Please note that not all GEC projects were represented at each workshop; hence, additional validation was gleaned through circulation of this draft report.

9 It should be noted that the figure does not unpack additional constraints due to intersections with disability, ethnicity and other forms of marginalisation.

10 It should also be noted that under normal circumstances (prior to COVID), there are also numerous constraints at the school/classroom level.

11 Young Lives 2021

12 160420_Covid_Children_Policy_Brief.pdf (un.org)

13 Glennerster et al. 2021

14 Tiruneh 2020

15 See Parsitau et al. 2020 and UNESCO 2021

16 Girls supported by STAGES who reported engagement in remote learning had significantly higher reading comprehension (8 % points) and numeracy (38 % points) scores in July-August assessment, compared to their peers who had not participated

17 UNWomen 2021

18 Mersie 2020

19 Kimuge et al. 2021

20 See Cambridge Africa 2020 and Malala Fund 2020b

21 The GEC has two funding windows GEC-T and LNGB. Projects funded through the GEC-Transition window primarily reach girls in the formal education system and projects in the Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB) window focus on reaching out-of-school girls primarily through community-based education initiatives.

22 See Rafaeli & Hutchinson 2020

23 For example, the Malala Fund 2020a draws on data from the Ebola epidemic and estimates that approximately 10 million more secondary school-aged girls could be out of school after the crisis has passed, if dropouts increase by the same rate. Other estimates/predictions include: Save The Children International 2020a estimates that 9.7 million children may never return to school post-COVID-19 and that an additional 2.5 million girls are at risk of child marriage and adolescent pregnancies are expected to rise by up to 1 million in 2020. World Vision International 2020 estimates that as many as one million girls across sub-Saharan Africa may be blocked from returning to school due to pregnancy during COVID-19 school closures. UNESCO 2020 estimates that about 24 million students (from pre-primary to tertiary) will be at risk of not returning to education. UNFPRA 2020 estimates a one-third reduction in progress towards ending GBV by 2030, including FGM and child marriage.

24 For example, in some countries with robust reporting systems in place, reported cases of violence against women have doubled (UN 2020)

25 The GEC FM incident reporting system used primarily for safeguarding and fraud cases.

Find out more: learningteam@girlseducationchallenge.org | www.girlseducationchallenge.org

The Girls’ Education Challenge is a project funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (“FCDO”), formerly the Department for International Development (“DFID”), and is led and administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Mott MacDonald Limited, UK, trading as Cambridge Education as subconsultants, working with organisations including Nathan Associates London Ltd. and Social Development Direct Ltd. This document has been prepared only for FCDO in accordance with the terms agreed with FCDO and for no other purpose. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the other entities managing the Girls’ Education Challenge (as listed above) accept no liability to anyone else in connection with this document.