“Discrimination against females
... occurs from the minute they are born. Across the world, in third world
countries, girls are denied any love and respect from their own parents because
of their gender! Is that fair? No, it is not, but these people cannot see that
women are humans too, they have rights as well...”.
- “komil”,
16, from the UK, quote from UNICEF's Voices of Youth discussion
forum | |
UNGEI brings gender onto High-Level Group
agenda The theme of this year’s Education
for All (EFA) High-Level Group (HLG) meeting, held in Cairo, Egypt, from
14-16 November, was early childhood care and education (ECCE). The HLG meeting
was preceded on 12 November by an UNGEI Technical Meeting titled “Gender and
Early Childhood Care and Education”, which examined the links between gender,
ECCE and school readiness. Discussion was based on the 2007 EFA Global
Monitoring Report (GMR), launched jointly on 26 October by UNESCO and
UNICEF.
Ministers of Education and education officials from
Burundi, Egypt, the Gambia, Ghana, Jordan and Kenya were among the participants
who discussed policies and strategies to better position gender-focused ECCE in
national plans and priorities. The outcomes of this technical meeting were fed
into the EFA HLG meeting, which presented an opportunity to influence countries
to make their programmes more gender-focused.
Although the GMR
2007 addresses the importance of gender equality, its focus is on gender parity
in preschools. UNGEI advocated for a more comprehensive approach addressing the
need for early gender socialization and moving beyond parity to
equality.
For more information on this meeting, visit www.ungei.org/cairo.
GirlsEd-Net launches first
eDiscussion UNGEI's online
discussion series was launched in October 2006. The first eDiscussion focused on
gender socialization, one of the most basic issues in early childhood
development, with important implications for girls in particular. The objective
of the discussion was to decide what is meant by gender socialization, when it
starts, how it can lead to discrimination and, most importantly, how it can
promote gender equity in a society. Participants explored some of the positive
and negative gender roles in their societies. Outcomes of this discussion were
fed into the UNGEI Technical Meeting in Cairo.
For consolidated
replies, or to sign up for future eDiscussions, visit www.ungei.org/listserve/index_1093.html.
Upcoming
events
23 Nov – Roundtable
on School Related Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Education for All:
Role and responsibility of stakeholders, UNESCO, Paris
1 Dec – World AIDS
Day |
