Strategies for advancing girls" education (SAGE) : SAGE final activities report

SAGE exceeded original targets for all its intermediary results: strengthened performance of public and private institutions; improved knowledge to implement policies, strategies, and programs; mobilized leadership; and broadened community participation. For example, more than 200 community-based actions to promote girls" education were recorded during year IV of SAGE, vs. a target of 5. SAGE emphasized engaging traditional and non-traditional partners across sectors in support of girls" education. Each country program developed a unique program based on prevailing conditions. The Guinea program is the most important example of this. SAGE Guinea provided invaluable TA to enhance the institutional and technical capacities of the National Alliance, the National Working Group, the Media Task Force, and the Local Alliances. Guinea also facilitated the formation of a national fund for girls" education (FONSEF). In Mali, the entry point for SAGE was the design of a life skills curricula for future integration into the national educational system as part of the Ministry of Education"s curricular reform program. SAGE Mali also developed training materials for female leadership training of parent association (APE) members and community action planning in support of gender equity. In each case, SAGE trained trainers of their partner PVOs/NGOs in order to render community-level training more responsive to persistent social constraints to girls" education. Fifty-one communities received leadership training, six from SAGE directly, the remainder from PVO/NGO trainers. In Ghana, SAGE strengthened the planning, monitoring, and evaluation capacity of the Girls" Education Unit (GEU) of the Ghana Education Service. SAGE also: facilitated a workshop to develop a handbook for regional and district girls" education officers; enhanced the capacity of school management committees (SMCs) in 35 communities to develop community action plans for girls" education; and facilitated the formation of girls" education subcommittees (in order to increase the number of active female members on the SMC) and of girls" clubs. To bring girls" education to the national agenda in El Salvador, SAGE conducted three roundtables (each chaired by the First Lady of El Salvador), one with the business and media sectors, the second with the religious community, and the third with NGOs and civil society organizations. Relevant partnerships were developed: with the leading newspaper, La Prensa Grafica, in which 15 two-page inserts of Palomitas de Papel were donated to SAGE; with SAMIX, the Radio Broadcast Association, which agreed to air 10 girls" education spots with influential figures; with Pollo Campero, a large restaurant chain, that is donating 50,000 paper placements with a message on the importance of girls" education; with Arrocera San Francisco, who is putting a message supporting girls" education on 20,000 bags of rice and beans; and with a textbook publisher, Educational Services Editors, which is putting a message on the back of each textbook, "Girls" education ... a door to development". SAGE Congo was challenged by the country"s political and economic instability, which has required parents to shoulder more and more of the financial burden of educating their children. In spite of this, SAGE trained 100 hundred teachers of their six pilot schools in girl-friendly classroom practices; provided gender training and action planning workshops in community sensitization; and developed a successful media campaign for girls" education. SAGE Congo was also very successful in developing partnerships with the religious sector. Ten large religious communities have undertaken consciousness raising events at school, in the community, and at church, and raised funds and provided subsidies to girls from poor families to ensure that they remain in school. The key to the multisector approach, as has been the case in these country programs, is its flexibility, adaptability to local realities, and ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities. (Author abstract, modified)