Girls’ education in pastoral areas of East Africa

In pastoral areas worldwide, school enrolment, retention and achievements fall below national averages – and especial among pastoralist girls. Across East Africa, the Covid pandemic, ongoing conflicts and recurrent droughts are increasing poverty in ways that undermine any progress that may have been made in reshaping gender norms to favour girls’ inclusion in formal education. Although schools are now re-opening, many girls are failing to return to them.

The briefing paper “Education in East Africa’s pastoralist areas: why are girls still not going to school?” (2022, 12pp) by Caroline Dyer for the Karamoja Resilience Support Unit presents lessons from global and specifically East African experience to support concerned stakeholders in thinking transformatively about education inclusion in East Africa, particularly in the Karamoja area of Uganda. It focuses on education among pastoralist and agropastoralist communities, and particularly on girls’ education in these communities.

Posted on 17 November 2022 in Pastoralism & Culture, Pastoralism & Services, Pastoralism, Gender & Youth