Source: FAWE
This month, FAWE embarks on a new five-year strategic plan that aims to bring about positive change in girls’ education in Africa and, ultimately, contribute to the continent’s long-term development.

Girls’ education is central to all aspects of development. It has repeatedly been proven to have a multiplier effect, with positive sustainable impact beyond the education of the individual.

Yet although the case for girls’ education is beyond doubt today, sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for 50 percent of all out-of-school children. In 47 out of 54 African countries, girls have less than a 50 percent chance of completing primary educationi. Today 55 percent of African women still cannot read or writeii.

To address this, FAWE has defined two key strategic objectives for 2013-2017: to enable girls and women across Africa to access quality education, complete their studies and perform well at all levels; and to ensure knowledge and learning on gender and education are managed and shared for the benefit of all those working in the field.

This will entail creating linkages among key players, including families, communities, schools, local and regional authorities, national governments and girls, and joining up their actions to help create an environment conducive to quality education for girls.

In addition, FAWE will partner with academic institutions, governments and NGOs to document knowledge on and practices in gender and education in Africa, combine this knowledge, and create new learning and models. Ultimately, FAWE’s goal is to create, together with like-minded partners, a knowledge hub for the latest thinking and research on all aspects of gender and education in Africa.

FAWE will also address the need for consistent messaging about gender and education by developing ‘calls to action’ to prompt support for girls’ education and making every effort to heighten awareness amongst specific audiences about the issues of girls’ education and how they can actively contribute.

Girls and young women will be key partners for FAWE during the five-year period. Core to FAWE’s work is a belief in girls’ self-reliance and mutual support. FAWE will thus work to develop a generation of independent girls with the ability to lead others.

The organisation will devote resources to developing the leadership of girls who have benefited from its programmes, encouraging them to maintain their involvement, act as role models and mentors for other girls, and work for the wider cause of girls’ education in Africa.