Using youth-driven solutions and technology to make schools safer and more inclusive for pregnant, parenting and gender-non-conforming youth

 

In many low- and middle-income countries, school-related gender-based violence (GBV) and discrimination keep too many young people from finishing school. Major evidence gaps persist, particularly in Francophone Africa. The goal of this project is to deepen understanding and assess innovations that could address GBV and discrimination in school settings in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali.

The project will focus specifically on GBV and discrimination against adolescent girls who are kept out of school due to pregnancy, and gender-non-conforming and LGBTQI+ youth. It will explore secondary school youth experiences of school-related GBV and discrimination and its impacts on their education and overall health. The project will also explore and assess several policy and practice innovations – including national and school-level policies that work to create safe and inclusive schools; workshops that address stigmatizing beliefs around gender; and digital technology to increase access to information about GBV and discrimination among youth – and the feasibility of scaling and/or adapting these to different contexts.
The project will include and focus on the perspectives of young people, who will be involved in developing solutions and disseminating findings from this research. The team will incorporate perspectives from key stakeholders, including teachers, school administrators and education policymakers, to understand school- and national-level policy and practice that can facilitate or impede the safety of pregnant adolescents and gender-non-conforming and LGBTQI+ youth in school settings. Findings will be disseminated via extensive stakeholder outreach and advocacy efforts.

This project is funded through the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange call for proposals: Knowledge and Innovation for Achieving Gender Equality and Social Inclusion at School.