Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE)

The SAGE project supported 13,460 girls and was implemented by Plan International UK in Zimbabwe.

Marginalised girls in Zimbabwe face complex barriers to accessing education. These barriers are underpinned by gender inequalities including harmful social norms, high rates of gender-based violence and practices such as early child marriage. These barriers are compounded by factors including age, religion, economic status, ethnicity, geography, and disability. Financial barriers were identified by the project as a key barrier to girls’ access to school as girls are often required to contribute to household chores or income. Throughout the life cycle of the project, an overstretched education system was put under further pressure due to crises including COVID-19, Cyclone Idai, drought, the economic crisis and hyperinflation.

The project targeted highly marginalised, out-of-school adolescent girls, improving their learning outcomes and assisting them with the transition into formal education, training or employment. It did this by providing high-quality, accelerated, non-formal education based from Community-Based Learning Hubs (CBLHs). The project took a holistic approach working at multiple levels to promote and improve education for girls by tackling the root causes of gendered social and economic barriers and to create an enabling environment for transforming unequal gender norms.

Main activities

• Providing out-of-school girls with high-quality, accelerated learning in CBLHs. During COVID-19 a multi-modal delivery model enabled community volunteers to support girls via phone, at the household and in small community groups.
• Providing continuous professional development to community educators to enhance their capacity to deliver inclusive, gender-responsive pedagogies.
• Supporting adolescent girls and boys to improve their self-esteem and life skills through Champions of Girls’ Education (CoGE) sessions.
• Implementing the Integrated Skills Outreach Programme (ISOP) whereby girls are mentored and trained by local master craft people in a vocational training programme to increase livelihood opportunities.
• Working with communities including men, boys and local leaders to adopt more positive gender attitudes.

The project in numbers

Lessons learned

Working collaboratively with specialist partner organisations delivers results. In the SAGE consortium, all partners held unique expertise. Open University led on the technical aspects of teaching and learning. AWET and CBM spearheaded programming for Apostolic communities and girls with disabilities, respectively, by centring the lived experiences of members of these groups. AWET’s engagement facilitated access to Apostolic communities which have been traditionally more closed off and conservative.

Being responsive in a rapidly changing environment makes programmes relevant and effective, and this required real time data. Adaptive management proved to be critical for SAGE’s success. SAGE made substantial investment in its monitoring system, which surveyed girls, volunteers and caregivers and assessed learning regularly. The programme team used this data to track progress in real-time, identify areas of improvement and course correct as needed.

Co-designing is one of the most effective ways of enhancing implementation success and impacts sustainability. The programme was delivered in close collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe, and this contributed substantially towards achieving its goals. The co-design process was multi-stakeholder and involved relevant ministries. This allowed the programme to influence the NFE policy, curriculum and materials. Co-design also involved beneficiaries and communities. From the outset, programme design input was solicited through community dialogue, which continued through key implementation points.

Plan International UK: https://plan-uk.org/