The Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE) project will target up to 16,500 highly-marginalised, out-of-school adolescent girls in 11 districts across Zimbabwe providing high quality learning opportunities to help them achieve and support them to transition successfully into formal education, training or employment (including self-employment). These districts include include low-income communities which are particularly vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks. Already economically precarious, these communities have been particularly impacted by Zimbabwe’s protracted economic crisis, with visible impacts on girls’ access to education.
Through a consortium of faith-based, academic and private sector partners, led by Plan International, the project will focus on providing high-quality, accelerated, non-formal education across 132 accessible and girl-friendly Community-Based Learning Hubs (CBLHs). SAGE aims to deliver sustainable and transformative change through skills training, improved access to financial resources, engagement with civil society and government stakeholders, and mobilising parents, boys and the wider community to adopt more positive gender attitudes to support and protect girls.
Activities
- Providing out-of-school girls with high-quality, accelerated learning in CBLHs and eliminating barriers to education through the provision of free, accessible, inclusive and flexible learning opportunities.
- Supporting girls to transition back into school through mentoring and engagement with government education staff.
- Supporting adolescent girls and boys to improve their self-esteem and life skills through the exploration of issues such as Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Plan International’s Champions of Change Model. This programme aims to advance gender equality through youth engagement, empowering girls and engage boys to identify and challenge harmful, negative masculinities that perpetuate discrimination and inequality.
- Improving access to Village Savings and Loans Associations and financial resources, community-based vocational training and local business mentor schemes to increase opportunities for the girls and their families.
- Working with communities including men, boys and local leaders to better understand and reflect on gender norms, adopting more gender attitudes and mobilise them to support and protect girls, including those with disabilities, through intergenerational dialogue and identifying champions of positive masculinity.
- Sharing evidence, research and learning - including girls' own voices and experiences - with key stakeholders to become more responsive to the needs of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe.
Plan International UK: https://plan-uk.org/
*Number subject to adjustment following identification of beneficiaries
