Many schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina still reflect the ethnic tensions that triggered the 43-month siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s. During that time, schools were destroyed and classes were held in basements and shelters. Today, some Bosnian schools house ‘two schools under one roof,’ with separate curricula for different ethnic groups.
In this video, Džemaludin Cauševic Primary School is featured as an exceptional institution of learning in Bosnia and Herzegovina open to all students. The school has adopted a new model of inclusive child-centred education known as child-friendly schools. This institution also made a special effort to reach out to Roma families who often miss out on education opportunities in the region. Džemaludin Cauševic Primary School brings children of all origins together, giving them equal opportunity to learn and thrive in helping to rebuild and reconcile a divided society.
This video is from UNICEF. For more information please visit UNICEF’s Back on Track website or click here for the story.
As we prepare for the INEE Policy Roundtable in November, we need your inputs into the three Framing Papers that are going to be the starting point for discussion and debate.
Please consider these three questions, and reply in the comments with your ideas and experiences:
1. What are some examples of post-primary and non-formal education approaches being used to build the livelihood skills of young people? - Can you describe a programme or policy that has tackled this issue?
- Do you have promising practice(s) or lessons learned to share?
2. How is education programming for youth financed? - What types of funding have you or your organization been able to mobilize for youth programming?
- Do you have challenges and recommendations to share about securing funding for youth programming?
3. What can we as education practitioners learn from other sectors about programming for and with youth? - Please share any good practice examples on effective youth programming from other sectors.
- Have you seen examples of sectors working together to address the needs of youth?
If you would like to share your ideas with the Framing Paper authors directly either by email or on the phone, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to make an arrangement.
Alternatively, you can download Case Study Templates with optional guiding questions here for Topic One, Topic Two, Topic Three.
The second World Humanitarian Day takes place this year on 19 August. The day will raise awareness of what it means to be a humanitarian aid worker by describing their work, explaining the principles that guide all humanitarians, and portraying the hazards that humanitarian aid workers face in the course of their work. World Humanitarian Day will also honour those who have been killed or injured in the course of their work.
This film is shot in over 40 countries, with the goal of showing the enormous diversity of places, faces and endeavors of humanitarian aid workers in 2010. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provides more details on the event. Click here to read more.
Philip Fayia Davis is a youth member of the INEE Adolescent and Youth Task Team. He is also a member of the Women’s Refugee Commission Youth Advisory Group and in his home country Liberia serves as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Christian HIV & AIDS Network of Liberia (CHANOL). As a trained peer educator, he is volunteering at the Family Planning Association of Liberia (FPAL) as a Program Volunteer and Youth Counselor at the Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center (VCT).
Here he reflects on his achievements and the challenges pertaining to HIV/AIDS education in Liberia by sharing details on his recent involvement in capacity building trainings and advocacy campaigns for churches, Christian organizations and schools and communities around the country.
Summary of my work
CHANOL is a non-governmental faith-based organization that seeks to combat the HIV & AIDS pandemic through a well-coordinated and consolidated approach within the Christian community and Liberia at large.
During the past months, the focus of my work was directly on the conduction of training in counseling and the basic package on HIV & AIDS for 25 churches and Christian organizations in five counties in Liberia. After the completion of the training, fully fledged HIV programs were established at various localities and small grants of US$500 given to each church.
Implementation of planned activities will be followed by data collection for evaluation and analysis to ascertain the impact based on the achieved results.
Participants at the HIV & counseling training
Success and achievements of my work
The HIV & AIDS pandemic is a global issue, gradually wearing out the young fabric of our society; CHANOL through a magnificent advocacy campaign themed “Breaking the silence to lift the burden of secrecy” decided to train HIV infected persons in advocacy and public speaking encouraging them to go public in the disclosure of their HIV status with the aim to minimize the issue of stigma and discrimination against People Living With HIV (PLWHIV). This event, the first of its kind to be held in the city center, brought together a cross section of students, journalists, policy makers and dignitaries. This is a success story for my work. Impact of this work includes how those with doubts about the HIV pandemic have come to believe the existing reality of HIV & AIDS. Those with negative perceptions of PLWHIV changed towards more positive perspectives and those considering Voluntary Counseling and Testing services less important decided to muster the courage to get tested and appreciate that there is still hope to life even if diagnosed positive. Finally, there were signs of encouragement in discussions on the succesful integration of PLWHIV into society.
Cross section of participants during the advocacy campaign
Through a UNFPA sponsored project that seeks to reduce teenage pregnancy, STDs and HIV & AIDS through the provision of and access to condoms, I was part of a team responsible for the posting and refilling of condom vending boxes at 300 public centers (clubs and street corners) for easy access to condoms. Approximately 300 cartons of condoms are distributed on a weekly basis. This project has drawn the attention of the government, leaving them with no alternative but to take charge of the refilling process through the Ministry of Youth and Sport.
Youth accessing condoms at various street corners
Inspiration for my work
FPAL, as the oldest Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights (SRH&R) organization in Liberia, complementing government efforts in the provision of quality, accessible and sustainable SRH services including family planning also envisages a society that has the opportunity to have children by choice not chance, where evey person enjoys good health, free from HIV & AIDS. Predicated upon these core values, my work as a program volunteer for these months surrounds training and awareness on the consistent and effective use of family planning methods, particularly barrier methods.
Spearheading training on condom negotiation for the Christian Association of the Blind brought together 50 young blind individuals from some African countries including Liberia to be trained as trainers on the consistent and effective use of condoms. This activity really inspires my work the most in that marginalized and disabled people, who most often are not incorporated in SRH & R programs, utilize this opportunity and are enthusiastic to learn and willing to impart knowledge to others. This experience really motivated me to work more with such groups.
Some of the biggest challenges facing the provision of education in my country
Challenges facing the provision of education especially in the sphere of Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights education are to be found within the traditional norms that forbid the discussion of sex and its implications amongst certain groups of people (youth) and locals which hinders the provision of SRH&R services to young people thus increasing SRH & R including HIV & AIDS related complications on a daily basis. Further, the inclusion of sex education in our national curriculum is missing and we, as social workers in this field, are often restricted by school administrators as to which health/SRH topics to discuss with and lecture students during our outreach work. Finally, the provision of the basic educational package on health, in particular SRH & HIV, is not available for disabled people. Hence, the vulnerability of these people is exacerbated when, due to ignorance, they are prone to risky sexual behaviors.
How being a member of INEE impacts on my work
Finally, being a member of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies and the Women’s Refugee Commission Youth Advisory Group has had great impact on my work. The INEE Minimum Standard tools encapsulated with community participation; access and learning environment; teaching and learning; educational professionals and education policy & coordination are very important to my work. Moreover, it encompasses these categories and brings into play cross-cutting issues that involve HIV/AIDS, disability and vulnerability through which I tend to realize the potential of disabled and marginalized youths and am thrilled to be working with them.
Siobhàn Foran is a GenCap Advisor with the Global Clusters in Geneva. She is currently working with OCHA Somalia and Kenya in Nairobi.
The views expressed are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily represent those of INEE.
The Gender Marker Initiative was launched by the Sub-working Groups on Gender in Humanitarian Action and on the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) to improve humanitarian programming and to make humanitarian response more efficient.
The gender marker will be mandatory in 10 countries in CAP (and CAP-like appeals) in 2011 – Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, DRC, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, oPt, Yemen, Pakistan and Haiti. GenCap Advisors are working with all 10 Humanitarian Country Teams to support the implementation of the initiative in CAP 2011. Guidance on the implementation of the gender marker initiative will be included in the CAP Guidelines 2011.
Recently, I arrived in Nairobi to work with the Somalia and Kenya humanitarian teams in developing their humanitarian funding appeal, which is known as a Consolidated Appeal Process or CAP (in the case of Kenya, the EHRP) for 2011. A CAP is a document that maps out the humanitarian needs, strategies, response plans, and associated projects and funding requirements and includes project sheets that reflect how each agency working in the sector proposes to work to achieve these.
Earlier in the year, together with some other GenCap colleagues, we reviewed five 2010 CAPs, which provided some interesting and useful insights, and which may assist education project designers in developing new projects or reviewing existing ones;
Very few project sheets in the CAP included meaningful sex-disaggregated data, which therefore ruled out the possibility of including a gender analysis.
From talking to project teams, we became aware of a great deal of good gender work that was not captured in the CAP project sheet proposals. Notwithstanding the space restrictions in the single-page project sheets, project designers need to improve the articulation of gender within their project needs analysis, activities and outcomes.
A number of education clusters/sectors identified gender dimensions in the needs analysis but seldom followed through into strategy with consequences for informing activities and related outcomes in the project sheets, i.e. the Needs Assessment – Activities – Outcomes continuum was not complete.
What does gender analysis in the needs assessment look like?
The foundation for a good gender project is having insightful gender analysis in the education sector needs assessment. It should always be possible to have at least one strategic, evidence-based sentence or paragraph that describes the needs or situation of men compared to women and/or boys compared to girls, which then serves to justify or shape project activities.
Gender analysis in the education sector needs assessment can include:
the distinct needs of female and male learners, teachers and other education personnel
the different risks that female and male learners and teachers face in accessing and staying in formal and non-formal education, and in travelling to and from and within the learning environment
what women, girls, boys or men say they can and want to do, or see done, to solve what they see as their most important problems in accessing education.
Applying a Gender Code to an Education Project
Code 0 A project codes 0 when there are no signs that gender issues are considered at all in the project design.
A project that contains cosmetic gender language such as ‘especially for girls’ or ‘particularly for preparatory boys’ is still a code 0. This is not meaningful. Meaningful gender analysis in the needs assessment explains ‘why’ or ‘how’ the situation is different for women/girls or men/boys, quantifies gender gaps or explains sex-specific needs, risks, roles or capacities in education.
Code 1 Code 1 projects have only one or two of the three essential components. That is, we see meaningful gender analysis in only one or two of the (a) needs assessment, leading to (b) one or more activities, and (c) related outcomes. In a Code 1 project, we see some of these three elements but not the needs-activities-outcomes flow. A Code 1 project signals that effort is only being invested in gender equality in isolated ‘bubbles’. This most often leads to a limited response to the needs and realities of women, girls, boys and men.
Many code 1 projects signal that the project team is aware and trying to advance gender equality, but still needs to invest more effort in project design.
Code 2a A code 2a would be awarded if the needs of women, girls, boys and men are identified in the needs assessment and it is clear that this information subsequently informs and shapes activities and outcomes. This is what “gender mainstreaming” means: the project is designed to contribute significantly to gender equality.
A project will be awarded code 2a if there is gender analysis in the needs assessment and at least one activity AND at least one outcome. This needs assessment-activity-outcome continuum is critical.
Code 2b The principal purpose of code 2b projects is to advance gender equality. Code 2b projects are targeted actions that are based on a gender analysis. There are two types of targeted actions; the first includes projects that identify one sex or a subgroup of men, women, girls or boys that has special needs or is being acutely disadvantaged (examples include an identified group of boy combatants or pastoralists, girls at risk of early marriage and/or pregnancy who do not or cannot attend school); the second includes projects that build gender-related services or better male-female relations. An example of gender-related services is a support and counselling service for girls and boys who are survivors of sexual violence. Projects that nurture better relationships often strive for more equal decision-making or more two-way communication between women and men, girls and boys. More equal and respectful relations between women and men and girls and boys are vital to cohesive families and communities.
Further Resources and Information
Tip sheets and other gender marker materials are available here.
Earlier this month, the INEE, together with the IASC Global Education Cluster and the IASC GenCap Project published a new Pocket Guide on Gender Equality in and through Education in Emergencies. This INEE Pocket Guide to Gender brings together essential gender equality programming principles and provides concrete strategies for putting gender equality into practice.
To download the document, see the INEE Gender Task Team webpage here.
This post was originally published by UNICEF here.
Kyle Knight is a coordinator in the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. He holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Duke University.
The views expressed are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily represent those of INEE.
In early July 2010, India’s education ministry, the Ministry of Resource Development, wrote to the chief secretaries of the eight states affected by Maoist militants known as Naxalites, and demanded that security forces occupying government schools vacate them and that schools damaged by the Maoists be rebuilt. Seven months earlier, Human Rights Watch published Sabotaged Schooling: Naxalite Attacks and Police Occupation of Schools in India’s Bihar and Jharkhand States, which drew attention to attacks on and occupations of schools in Bihar and Jharkhand. The report documents how the Maoists, a longstanding, pan-Indian armed militant movement, were targeting and blowing up state-run schools while police and paramilitary forces were occupying schools as part of anti-Naxalite operations and disrupting children’s education for long periods.
At the most basic level, the damage caused to a school’s infrastructure by a Maoist attack can cause the school to be unusable for an extended period of time. After the school building is damaged, classes may be held in an alternative location, but usually under harsh conditions that are not conducive to learning—and often outdoors. In addition to the displacement of classroom activities, the generalized fear and disruption that can result from such an attack leads to some students dropping out from school. Parents spoke of not wanting to send their children to school due to their fear of an attack. In one village Human Rights Watch visited, the school lacked any teachers; residents suspected the government-assigned teacher had fled because he did not want to work in a school in a dangerous area affected by the Maoist conflict.
However, Human Rights Watch demonstrated that it is not just the Maoists who are sabotaging the education of tens of thousands of India’s most marginalized children. Government security forces are as well.
The research focused particular attention on the disruption of education that takes place when government police and paramilitary police forces occupy schools. Despite claims that these occupations of schools as part of anti-Maoist operations are temporary, the research by Human Rights Watch showed that some schools remain fully or partially occupied for months, even years. Even during a partial occupation of a school by security forces, there is an almost immediate exodus of some students from the school. Girls appear most likely to drop out – the increased rate of girl students dropping out is linked to either perceived or experienced instances of harassment by the security forces. Sometimes, even without a specific instance of harassment, parents hesitate to send their girls to occupied schools for fear of them experiencing sexual harassment from male police officers or troops stationed there.
In addition to the issues of harassment and witnessing the at times ill-behavior of the security forces, space constraints caused by partial occupations can hinder education for many students. When security forces occupy even half of a school, it can create extreme overcrowding in the other half. Unpleasant and overcrowded school conditions make learning extremely difficult, and cause students to drop out as a result of their frustration. Students report overcrowded classrooms, and being forced to attend classes outside, where other school and community activities cause immense distraction.
When the security forces take over a school—no matter whether they displace the entire school population or occupy part of the school building while teachers and students attempt to carry on classes—they immediately begin to militarize and fortify the school buildings. Human Rights Watch documented the following fortification tactics: the establishment of reinforced sentry boxes on top of school buildings to shelter personnel armed with semi-automatic weapons; the digging of trenches around school properties where no boundary walls exist; and the construction of protective walls from rings of barbed wire and stacks of sandbags. Frequently, the security forces occupying the school also add the name of their unit to signs or graffiti on the school buildings. And even after the security forces vacate a school premises, they may nonetheless leave behind these militarized fortifications and markers, creating a risk that the school will be mistaken as a military target.
While police and paramilitary forces may be conducting operations against the Maoists to ensure the safety of citizens of Bihar and Jharkhand, school occupations regularly lead to children dropping out of school or attending less regularly. The presence of heavily armed police and paramilitaries in the same buildings where children are studying invariably has a detrimental impact on children’s studies and frequently puts the authorities in breach of their obligations to realize children’s right to education.
Benoît d’Ansembourg a travaillé dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique et au Sri Lanka pour mettre en place des programmes d’éducation primaires et post-primaires dans des situations d’urgence ou de relèvement. Il nous fait part de son enthousiasme à la sortie des nouveaux outils INEE qui viennent compléter une bibliothèque et une boîte à outils déjà bien fournies. Benoît est un ancien membre du Groupe de travail de l’INEE sur les Normes minimales et a aidé à organiser le lancement régional des nouveaux outils de l’INEE à Dakar, au Sénégal, le 25 juin 2010.
Les vues exprimées sont celles de la personne interrogée et ne représentent pas nécessairement celles de l’INEE.
Comment ne pas se réjouir de la parution d’une version plus user friendly des Normes minimales? Comment ne pas se réjouir pour tous ceux qui ont eu du mal à utiliser la première version parce qu’elle imposait une structure rigide au travers d’indicateurs contraignants mais vagues à la fois. Les indicateurs ont été retirés au profit d’actions clés qui sont des suggestions sur la manière de réaliser les Normes soulignant le caractère moins dirigiste et autoritaire de la nouvelle bouture. Dans sa forme et son format, le manuel a été profondément revu le rendant plus clair et plus facile à utiliser.
Les Normes sont devenues des normes pour l’éducation et non plus seulement pour l’éducation en situations d’urgence ce qui, en fait, élargi leur utilisation à d’autres contextes : pays fragiles, pays à faible revenu, pays tout court. Ceci répond à une réelle demande car beaucoup de pays qui ne connaissent ni les conflits, ni les catastrophes se sentent dans l’urgence en permanence. Les écoles des zones rurales n’ont plus vu d’enseignants depuis des mois, les bibliothèques sont vides, les sanitaires sont pleins et les toits des classes laissent passer la pluie.
Comment ne pas saluer le travail et la contribution collective de milliers de personnes venues du monde entier qui ont partagé leurs expériences d’utilisation de la première version des Normes pour enrichir leur mise à jour. Il ne faut pas, par contre, laisser l’arbre cacher la forêt.
Les Normes sont un livre clé de la bibliothèque de l’éducateur de terrain et de bureau mais il ne faut pas pour autant oublier tous les autres outils développés par l’INEE, son très petit secrétariat, ses volontaires dévoués et puis bien sûr ses membres passionnés venus des quatre coins de la planète. En 10 ans, l4INEE a su tirer le meilleur parti des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) pour rassembler les bonnes volontés et réunir les meilleures expertises dans une démarche participative et consensuelle.
Fort de ces acquis, de ces Normes et de ces outils, on se sent moins seul et plus fort quand on doit faire face à des situations d’apprentissage et d’enseignement indignes.
Cliquez ici pour accéder aux nouveaux outils lancés par l’INEE à Dakar le 25 juin 2010.
Recently, I arrived in Nairobi to work with the Somalia and Kenya humanitarian teams in developing their humanitarian funding appeal, which is known as a Consolidated Appeal Process or CAP (in the case of Kenya, the EHRP) for 2011. A CAP is a document that maps out the humanitarian needs, strategies, response plans, and associated projects and funding requirements and includes project sheets that reflect how each agency working in the sector proposes to work to achieve these.
In early July 2010, India’s education ministry, the Ministry of Resource Development, 
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