Building resilience through inclusive development and gender-responsive life skills education for internally displaced adolescents in Nigeria

 

Ongoing conflict, violence and forced displacement in Nigeria has disrupted children’s access to and retention of quality education and has undermined their learning outcomes. Internally displaced adolescents in Nigeria face numerous barriers to accessing quality education, and the majority are at risk of dropping out permanently.

This project aims to improve education access, retention and learning outcomes for internally displaced adolescents in Nigeria by generating comprehensive evidence on adapting, implementing and scaling life skills education programs within existing education and humanitarian response systems. Among the factors to be examined are variations related to age, gender and displacement duration, as well as strategies for the integration of life skills into existing education systems, policies, organizations and institutions. Requirements for capacity building among local educators/teachers, community facilitators and education officials to deliver, adapt and sustain these programs will also be determined.

The project will work with education stakeholders and communities of internally displaced persons in Nigeria to co-design an age-appropriate curriculum adapted from UNICEF’s life skills toolkit that is relevant to their needs, culture and aspirations. The curriculum will be delivered through a gender-responsive and inclusive approach, using participatory methods and community-based facilitators. The research findings will inform the development of policies, programs and practices to scale up life skills education programs as a gender-responsive education intervention for crisis-affected adolescents in Nigeria and other countries facing similar challenges.

This project is funded through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, a joint endeavour with IDRC, to improve children’s access to and retention in education in emergencies and in fragile, conflict- and violence-affected contexts in GPE partner countries