Accountability for gender equality in education

The study aims to develop an indicator framework for gender equality in education that supports work on gender equality indicators for the SDGs, particularly target 4.7 and 4a:

• Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)

The indicator framework will be reviewed by a technical committee set up for this project with representation from United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) and the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM)

Indicator framework as a mechanism for accountability

A key focus of this research is to explore how evaluating learning outcomes links with the wider agenda for gender equality and women's rights.

The study intends to investigate, in selected countries, how such an indicator framework is regarded as a mechanism for accountability. The project is being implemented in two countries: South Africa and Malawi.

The project's objective is to develop an indicator framework to track aspects of gender equality in education in order contribute to the measurement and evaluation of gender sensitive and inclusive learning environments, which include learning outcomes.

A key aspect of the project is to undertake technical work in relation to SDG4 in combination with examining critically how indicators are regarded as a technique of accountability for gender equality in education. This will entail generating the indicator framework through critical participatory discussion at local, national and international levels in conjunction with technical expertise.

Stakeholders

There will be engagement throughout the project with key stakeholders from the academic community, government, key international development agencies, and relevant civil society organisations, including representatives from the international women's movement.

• Professor Elaine Unterhalter, UCL Institute of Education
• Professor Relebohile Moletsane, University of Kwazulu-Natal
• Dr Dorothy Nampota, University of Malawi
• Dr Rosie Peppin Vaughan, UCL Institute of Education
• Dr Helen Longlands, UCL Institute of Education
• Dr Catherine Jere, University of East Anglia
• William Nicholas, UCL Institute of Education

Related links

• University of Kwazulu-Natal
• University of Malawi
• University of East Anglia

• Silvia Montoya, Director at UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS)
• Nora Fyles, Director of the Secretariat for the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)
• Steve MacFeely, Chief Statistician, Department of Statistics, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
• Nicole Bella, Senior Statistician and Policy Analyst, Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM), UNESCO
• Pali Lehohla, formally Statistician-General, South Africa
• Antonia Wulff, Coordinator, Education International (EI), the world federation of teacher unions
• Ireen Dubel, international women's rights and gender equality expert

Advisory committees in South Africa and Malawi are being constituted.

Publications

• Unterhalter, E. (Ed.) (forthcoming 2018). Measuring the unmeasurable in education, Abingdon: Taylor and Francis.
• Unterhalter, E. S., North, A., & Ward, O. (2018). Accountability for gender equality (pdf, 0.8mb), paper commissioned for the 2018 'Global Education Monitoring Report Gender Review: Meeting our commitments to gender equality in education', Paris: UNESCO.
• Unterhalter, E. (2017). Negative Capability? Measuring the unmeasurable in education ' Comparative Education, Vol. 53 (1): 1-16
• Unterhalter, E. S. (2015). Measuring gender inequality and equality in education.  Proceedings of workshop hosted by UNGEI. UNGEI.

Blogs

• Beyond numbers: achieving gender equality in education #DontIgnoreHer The Education and Development Forum
• Making gender equality a reality in education: what will it take? Global Partnership for Education