SI is pleased to launch its 2011 ECOSOC High Level Statement. The theme for this year is ‘Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to education’ which fits perfectly with SI’s focus on education and leadership.

SI’s statement focuses on the need to create safe spaces within the education system, both physical and virtual, to ensure that girls and young women are free from violence, exploitation and discrimination. The statement emphasises the importance of ensuring that education is accessible, acceptable, available and of good quality. Above all, solutions do not have to be costly or time consuming but they do need to be based a genuine dialogue, local partnership and a thorough understanding of the wishes of those we seek to help.

Summary of the SI Statement:

A school in

India has 700 students and no running water.  Without access to proper toilets and sanitation, many of the girls are forced to drop out.

In

New Zealand, adolescent girls attend schools every day where bullying destroys their self-esteem, confidence, and ability to learn.  In some cases, girls turn to self-harm, including cutting and substance misuse. 

In

Cameroon, high dropout rates leave generations of women without opportunity – with no basic literacy, maths, or vocational skills, they are at high risk of extreme poverty.  Sex work, unwanted pregnancies, homelessness, and isolation are daily realities.

Pinning the world’s hopes for the future of women and girls on increasing enrolment rates obscures the thousands upon thousands of stories like these.  An equal opportunity to learn in a safe space, free from violence, exploitation, and discrimination is no less a human right than the right to have one’s name on an enrolment roster. 

Despite increases in enrolment rates in recent years and progress towards
MDG 3, we live in a world where millions of women lack basic skills in reading, writing, and numeracy, in both the Global North and the Global South.  Quality and breadth of education must be as much a priority as enrolment.  Violence against women and girls, gender stereotypes, patriarchal systems, and the undervaluing of females create environments where girls cannot perform to their potential or may not be able to participate at all.  These barriers remain a constant challenge throughout women’s lifetimes.  Most educational aid targets children and adolescents, leaving already vulnerable women without access to learning opportunities.

How can we ensure that girls can both enrol in school and achieve their full potential?  How can we transform schools rife with violence, physical and non physical, into safe spaces for learning?  How can we improve the lives and status of the millions of adult women who were not afforded educational opportunities and are now past the traditional age for schooling? 

We build toilets.  We encourage partnerships.  We create safe spaces for learning for women and girls of all ages.  We talk to young girls and value, respect, and support their views. We reach out to marginalised women that society has overlooked.  We begin a genuine dialogue and, together, address needs.  And we see results. 

The situations in

India,

New Zealand, and

Cameroon are not hopeless; on the contrary, they are easily remediable.  Soroptimists in the

UK and

India teamed up to build six new toilets with proper sanitation facilities in a girls’ school in

Calcutta.  The toilets have come as a great gain to the girls who are eager to complete their schooling now that there has been a vast improvement in the health and sanitary conditions in the school environment. Absenteeism is almost non-existent. 

Across

New Zealand, Soroptimists are running workshops to educate girls on behavioural issues, text and cyber bullying, dating violence and girl fighting.  225 girls, 45 parents and all teaching staff at a local school were involved in the pilot workshop which is now being replicated in other schools. 

Soroptimists in

Cameroon started an Adult Literacy Programme to cater for older women who were deprived of education, female dropouts, and street girls.  Of the first intake of students, nine candidates were presented with the First School Leaving Certificate Examination (FSLC) run by the Government of Cameroon, and all nine candidates passed scoring 100%. 19 pupils will be entered for the same exam in the programme’s second year.

These solutions are not prohibitively expensive or time-consuming.  They do not rely on complex policies or research studies.  They do not need large powerful organisations with influence and authority to drive change.  What they do need are local women and girls, working together, to identify ways to make schools safe, to reach out to marginalised women, and to understand the unique needs of different groups of women and girls.  These solutions are simple yet effective, as long as the women and girls affected by the work are involved in the work.  This focus on safe spaces for education, marginalised groups, and the importance of both formal and non-formal education across the life cycle improves the social and economic status of women and girls, above and beyond what we can achieve by increasing enrolment rates.

To read the full statement, visit the resources page.