Download South Asia

Regional Report for South Asia
Global Advisory Committee Meeting, Paris, 31 January - 1 February, 2011
I. Introduction
This report covers the activities of 2010, follows the reporting guidelines of December 2009 and aligns
itself with the UNGEI Monitoring and Evaluation Framework of September 2010. Three key outcomes
are addressed in the UNGEI M&E framework: (a) Policy Frameworks; (b) Best Practices, and (c)
Effective Partnership. The report summarizes the achievements and challenges at the
country/regional level organized and framed according to the outcomes, outputs and indicators
contained in the framework as relevant. Given space restrictions, contents of the report are
summarized and often presented in bullet point. Further details are available upon request.
II. Regional Overview
The South Asia region continues to experience economic growth, along with increasing GDP per
capita. However, growth is unequal among countries, with intra-country disparities in various sectors,
including education. Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are classified as middle income countries (WB).
The region has made impressive progress towards the education MDGS, and only Pakistan and
Afghanistan are off-track. About 33 million primary school age children remain out of school in South
Asia, over half of whom are girls (Progress for Children, 2010). Education for girls and boys is further
challenged by ongoing conflict, insecurity, natural disasters and political instability.
Dakar follow up actions include:


Formation of the Pakistan Girls’ Education Initiative (PGEI) in December, 2010; and
Formation of the Afghanistan Girls’ Education Initiative (AGEI) in Herat, Western Afghanistan
in August, 2010
Figure 1
Figure 2
III. Achievements and challenges around the key outcomes at regional level
Outcome 1: National level policy frameworks promote girls’ education and gender equality
Progress
 Right to Education Act, India: the UNGEI partnerships were formed in various regions of
India, as one of the strategies to promote girls’ education with a focus on marginalised girls
 Education Act, Pakistan: the Act facilitated formation of the Pakistan Girls’ Education Initiative
(PGEI), the national country UNGEI partnership
 Draft Education Act, Nepal: Under review with input from the Nepal Parliamentarians for Girls’
Education, an initiative under the country partnership

Challenges
 Conflict, emergency and political instability in Pakistan and a political deadlock in Nepal are
both constraints to progress towards implementation in Pakistan and finalisation of the
Education Act in Nepal
 Country partners sometimes have no time for UNGEI meetings
Output 1.1 Policy change/New initiatives delivered by UNGEI advocacy efforts at national,
regional and international levels:

South-South cooperation: following the Nepal model of involving parliamentarians in girls’
education, a similar programme was launched in Bangladesh. At a high level event in
December 2010, a delegation of parliamentarians from different political parties of Nepal
shared their experience and demonstrated how women parliamentarians in Nepal set aside


their political/party ideologies and united for girls’ education and gender equality in education,
a cause they believed in.
New partnerships were formed in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan
Young Champions model under UNGEI, was consolidated and streamlined in Bhutan and
Maldives, scaled up in Pakistan, and is under implementation in Bangladesh, Nepal and India
Output 1.2 Knowledge and information about girls’ education and gender equality in education
strengthened by UNGEI relate communication strategies:




Synthesis paper on Disparities in Education with four accompanying advocacy briefs (Open
and distance Learning (ODL), Gender, Education in Emergencies and Disparities in
Education (UNGEI and UNICEF),
Gender Equality in Education Report Card (UNGEI and ASPBAE) disseminated by ASPBAE
through advocacy campaigns
Young champions’ Training Manual printed, disseminated and in use
Study on public private partnerships in Education (on-going, UNGEI and UNICEF).
Output 1.3 Monitoring and evidence-based policy making:



All countries use sex-disaggregated data for planning and reporting
Gender equality in education seen as a priority and reflected in national policy documents of
most countries
Nepal is participating in the global UNGEI evaluation and will attend the methodology
workshop in Cairo scheduled for January 2011.
Outcome 2: Best practices in facilitating girls’ education and gender equality are known and
institutionalized

Given the interest by other countries in the Parliamentarians for Gender Equality in Education
initiative, a regional consultation is planned for this year, possibly in partnership with SAARC
and UNESCO
Output 2.1 Good practices are documented and disseminated by UNGEI


The Gender Equality in Education Report Card as well as the Synthesis paper on Disparities
in Education both contain case studies of good practices in girls’ education
Further documentation exercises are planned for 2011
Outcome 3: UNGEI facilitates a good partnership for girls’ education



Each country partnership has between 12 and 20 orgnaisations. The Pakistan partnership
has nearly 200 members organised into smaller groups in various provinces
Capacity building of partners continued at country level (strongest in Nepal). The RFP
provided training on gender dimensions in education for the second consecutive year in
Afghanistan, and there is request for this training in 2011. Nearly 200 government
functionaries and lecturers of teacher training colleges, UNGEI partners and UNICEF staff
have been covered by this training
AGEI has been holding regular meetings chaired by MOE. Recently, SIDA was offered and
has agreed to co-chair AGEI, as recommended by the RFP following her mission to
Afghanistan and supported through advocacy efforts by the global secretariat. This is being
followed up.
Raka Rashid, UNGEI Regional Focal Point for South Asia
Kathmandu, 17 January 2011