At the start of 2020, there were multiple encouraging signs around girls’ education. On the Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC), 41 projects were continuing to drive innovative and meaningful change for girls, teachers and their communities in 17 countries. We were continuing to gather crucial data and share our experiences and lessons on the global stage.
However, by the end of March, the emergence and spread of the new coronavirus had dramatically impacted the way the world was able to operate. Schools shut in almost every country. It quickly became clear that this would affect the objectives and activities of the GEC and its project partners and, crucially, the lives and education of the girls the programme supports.
GEC teams working across the globe have had to change tack rapidly and the efforts to mitigate against the worst impacts of the pandemic have been unprecedented in their speed and intensity.
The first, fundamental step has been the implementation of a rapid process for all GEC project teams to create response proposals to adapt and change their activities utilising GEC adaptive management tools and approaches. The highest priority has been working in partnership with projects to help them make sense of what is happening in their delivery contexts and develop strategies for action, despite huge levels of uncertainty. Our goal remains the provision of guidance and support for projects so that they can work to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the GEC girls, their families and communities, as well as their own staff.
Each project proposal is unique. The contexts in which each project is working are very different, as are the cohorts of girls they are supporting and the ways in which the virus and associated national responses, will impact on their communities. Nonetheless, the proposals all contain some essential elements. It is important that they link into government approaches and response plans. It is also important they continue to reach the most marginalised girls and that any new plans or approaches do not leave these girls even further behind. Where possible, projects aim to continue learning activities, supporting and developing distance learning activities. However, their priority focus is keeping in touch with girls and keeping them safe. Safeguarding mechanisms become even more vital to minimise gender-based violence, early marriage and pregnancy (GEC-developed guidance be found here). Health messaging is also an essential tool in keeping girls and their families safe and well. Moving forward, projects will also be planning how they can best help girls back into school when they are reopened in the future.
The Fund Manager is taking additional steps to support projects and has created a Covid-19 Taskforce to coordinate planning and communication regarding coronavirus-related activities. We are working with FCDO Country Offices to ensure coordination across FCDO programmes in each country and national initiatives. We are providing weekly webinars on ways to tackle some of the most pressing challenges and signposting to valuable resources and guidance (these can be found here).
Like many other organisations, overnight, the Fund Management team - spread across the globe - began to work in a very different way. Team members are all working from home and many have had to uproot themselves and their families to move across the world as part of repatriation arrangements. We have made every effort to ensure the safety and well-being of the team, recognising new pressures as remote working, childcare and other demands take hold. The lessons that we are learning from these changes are being passed on to our project partners as we support them in their activities. By remaining healthy, strong and motivated we can all continue to work hard and fast to ensure that the world’s most marginalised girls continue to be supported and educated by this important programme.
We will provide further updates on the GEC and, in a couple of weeks, we will provide more news about how projects are responding on the ground and detail about their adapted activities. In the meantime, on behalf of the GEC FM I want to thank everyone involved in the GEC for the incredible passion and drive that they are bringing to address these new challenges, to encourage everyone to follow national guidance, and to wish everyone good health and safety in these difficult times.