End Gender Violence in Schools

Addressing School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) to promote safe and supportive learning environments.

A three year collaborative research project (2014-2017) undertaken by a team of researchers at IOE.

The project forms part of the End Gender Violence in Schools (EGVS) initiative led by the United Nations' International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) with support from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the UN's Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), in partnership with IOE.

EGVS combines research, capacity building and knowledge exchange, working closely with governments and national partners in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Togo, and Zambia.

The initiative aimed to:

  • generate robust evidence needed to foster effective policies and actions around school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV)
  • build evidence to better understand, inform and strengthen the process of policy enactment on SRGBV in Zambia, Ethiopia, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire.

The team at IOE led the action research for the initiative, including:

  • a rigorous review of global evidence (Parkes et al., 2016)
  • a scoping study in each of the four participating countries
  • action plans developed and implemented by country teams build evidence and address SRGBV in each national setting.

Code of conductReview of global researchScoping studiesCross-country reportTechnical briefJournal articlesBlog articles

  • Mainstreaming school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) within the education sector in Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia and Zambia - Jenny Parkes, Freya Johnson Ross, Rosie Westerveld and Jo Heslop (2017). UKFIET conference on Learning and Teaching for Sustainable Development: Curriculum, Cognition and Context, as part of the Panel "The politics of teaching on gender, sexuality and violence in Africa", held on 5-7 September 2017 in Oxford (UK).
  • Evidence-based policy and practice on school-related gender-based violence: findings from action-research in Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia and Ethiopia - Jenny Parkes, Sena Lee, Rosie Westerveld, Freya Johnson Ross, Jo Heslop and Elaine Unterhalter (2017).CIES conference on Problematizing (In)Equality: The Promise of Comparative and International Education, as part of the Panel "Pathways to Gender Equality and Preventing Cycles of violence in and through Education", held on 5-9 March 2017 in Atlanta (US).
  • Actors and shapers of policy enactment: Evidence from a four country study on school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) - Freya Johnson-Ross, Jenny Parkes, Rosie Westerveld and Jo Heslop (2017). CIES conference on Problematizing (In)Equality: The Promise of Comparative and International Education, as part of the Panel "Making policy work in gender and education", held on 5-9 March 2017 in Atlanta (US).
  • Reviewing the Evidence on Policy Enactments on School-Related Gender-Based Violence - Jo Heslop, Rosie Westerveld, Jenny Parkes, Freya Johnson Ross and Elaine Unterhalter (2016). Young Lives conference on Adolescence, Youth and Gender: Building Knowledge for Change held on 8-9 September 2016 in Oxford (UK).
  • Policy and practice to end gender-based violence in schools: A global review of evidence - Jenny Parkes, Changu Mannathoko (UNICEF), Jo Heslop, Elaine Unterhalter, Rosie Westerveld and Freya Johnson Ross (2016). CIES conference on Six Decades of Comparative and International Education: Taking Stock and Looking Forward, as part of the Panel "Envisioning schools free from gender-based violence: Using evidence for action", held on 6-10 March 2016 in Vancouver (CA).

  • Jenny Parkes, Project Principal Investigator, Reader in Education
  • Elaine Unterhalter, Professor of Education and International Development
  • Jo Heslop, Lecturer in Education and International Development
  • Freya Johnson Ross, Research Associate
  • Rosie Westerveld, Research Associate
  • William Nicholas, Research Project Officer

Contact us

Centre for Education and International Development (CEID)
Department of Education, Practice and Society
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL