Gender and

Access to

Quality

EducationRania Zakhia

Education SpecialistUNICEF Lebanon

April 2016

Gender

Addressing gender inequality is integral to UNICEF’s work, both as a normative principle and as a core element of its refocus onequity. Disparities in children’s rights and well-being arise mainlyfrom three factors – poverty, geography and gender inequality.In many cases the disadvantage by gender —faced mostly by girls, but sometimes also boys — is in addition to the disadvantage due to poverty and geography.

Reference tools:• UNICEF Strategic Framework• UNICEF Gender Action Plan• SDGs

Gender mainstreaming in Education

Education is one of the most powerful and transformative strategies for promoting gender equitable societies. However, girls frequently encounter barriers to accessing quality education. UNICEF's overall focus on advancing girls' education includes: • Achieving gender equality in pre-primary and primary

education by promoting regular attendance and improved learning outcomes for girls

• Addressing barriers to girls' education in emergencies settings• Addressing school related gender-based violence• Addressing the gender aspects of early childhood care and

development

Gender Barriers and bottlenecks in Lebanon

• Attendance in Primary school: more boys than girls (Gender Parity Index: 0.96) for Leb and Syr

• Attendance in secondary school: more girls than boys (Gender Parity Index: 1.20 to 1.47)

• Correlation between boys drop out and child labour (mostly male Leb and Syr)?

• Syrian and PRS Girls: correlation with child marriage? • Access to school: transportation is a challenge for Syrian girls, especially

for 2nd shift hours due (fear for safety, cultural norms hindering girls mobility)

• No capacity of schools to deal with violence in schools, including GBV• Damaging and detrimental masculine and feminine ideals and

expectations (child labor for boys, child marriage for girls)

Suggested interventions

• Incentives for families to retain girls and boys at risk of child labour/child marriage (monitoring target girls/boys) with Social Inclusion and CP.

• Address violence/GBV in schools (Teachers/school counselors trainings, risk mitigation).

• ECE: use WGSS as a gateway to support the strengthening of 2 generations (women empowerment and ECE).

Thank you