Somalia

The Girls' Education Challenge (GEC)  had three projects working in Somalia which improved learning opportunities and outcomes for 153,660 of the country's marginalised girls. 

Projects

Somali Girls' Education Promotion (SOMGEP-T) - completed implementation in March 2022

The SOMGEP-T project supported 32,862 girls.

Educational outcomes in Somalia and Somaliland are poor, and particularly poor for girls from rural and nomadic communities. Early marriage and extreme poverty are the main barriers to girls’ education, with poverty exacerbated by drought and conflict. Other barriers include pastoralism, displacement, being over age for their grade, a high degree of exposure to violence/conflict, orphan status, disability, belonging to a minority clan and having an illiterate mother (who is often experiencing financial hardship as a female head of household). In addition, social norms tend to place low value on girls’ education, placing higher value on her role in the home, and as a wife.

The project supported girls living in rural and remote areas, the majority of whom lacked access to education beyond primary level. It improved the quality and relevance of learning and supported girls’ transition into secondary education and employment. The project used an integrated approach that included: training teachers in formal schools; providing tailored accelerated learning programmes for early primary and upper primary/lower secondary; training community committees; addressing economic barriers faced by parents and gendered barriers at the community level; and developing girls’ leadership skills to boost classroom participation and shift traditional gender roles.

Educate Girls, End Poverty - completed implementation August 2020

The EGEP project supported 30,100 girls.  

Somalia has one of the lowest school enrolment rates in the world with over three million school-aged children out of school. The main barriers are the cost and opportunity-cost for parents of sending children to school. In many households demands for girls to support with chores at home or manage households increases with age, meaning that the older girls targeted by EGEP were likely to experience a particularly onerous burden of household tasks. Furthermore, early marriage and pregnancy are linked to early dropout. Girls also face several other barriers to education, such as low availability of sanitation facilities, lack of female teachers, safety concerns and social norms that favour sending boys to school. 

EGEP supported the hardest to reach girls, in mainly urban areas of Somalia, to increase their educational achievements and to successfully transition from primary to secondary education or vocational and employment opportunities. This was done through an integrated approach which focused on improving both academic and life skills of learners. The project worked at the system, school and community level to ensure holistic support to girls’ education, and to ensure core activities were sustained beyond the lifetime of the project. 

Leave No Girl Behind project

AGES

The AGES project supported 90,698 girls.

The project targeted the hardest to reach, out-of-school girls. It focused on girls engaged in child labour, married and divorced girls, internally displaced persons, girls from minority clans and excluded groups, and pastoralists. Many of these girls had never attended school. The project used a combination of formal and alternative education pathways to provide flexible learning options for girls who faced multiple barriers to effective learning. It worked with girls, families, communities, schools and governments to promote lasting change in education.