High Level Dialogue on Gender Equality in Education
Every year, the AU/CIEFFA convenes on the margins of the African Union Summit in January, a high level dialogue to raise awareness on issues relating to girls’ and women’s education. High level dialogues for the AU/CIEFFA are a platform to engage representatives from government, international organizations and other stakeholder groups to share experiences and discuss strategies for accelerating the implementation of national, regional and international frameworks aiming at promoting girls ‘access and retention in education systems.
Dialogue with Traditional and Religious Leaders
Involving traditional and religious leaders (TRLs)towards the empowerment of girls and women through education is one of the key pillars of the AU/ CIEFFA strategy. The AU/CIEFFA understands that traditional and religious leaders play a key role in reshaping mindsets and influencing the behaviors of their communities to promote girls’ access and retention in schools. Every year the AU/CIEFFA convenes a dialogue and capacity building meetings with TRLs to build their capacity as grassroots and national advocates for girls and women empowerment through education. As gatekeepers of African societies, traditional and religious leaders are capable of unlocking closed doors and related challenges that impede girls and women’s education by bringing every other key player on board. More specifically, their voices are critical to combat issues such as early child marriages and pregnancies.
Roundtable with Parliamentarians
The AU/CIEFFA takes the opportunity of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) sitting to tackle the role of African parliamentarians in enacting and reinforcing gender-sensitive legislation on girls' learning and their retention in school and hosts an annual round table discussion with Pan African Parliamentarians on the margins of the sitting of permanent committees of the PAP. Parliamentarians have legislative authority provides to pass laws for the respect of social, economic and political rights of their citizens. The Pan African Parliament which is comprised of AU Member States has been working in close partnership with the AU/CIEFFA to address and promote girls’ and women’s right to education for several years.
Youth Capacity Building Workshops
The African Youth are considered as a strategic asset that the continent should harness for the achievement of the aspirations of Agenda 2063 as well as the Sustainable Development goals. At the AU/CIEFFA, partnering with young people is considered as key to advancing girls’ rights to quality education in African communities, nations and the continent at large. Since 2017, the Centre, through capacity building workshops, is nurturing young Africans to become change agents. AU/CIEFFA’s Youth capacity building workshops are windows of opportunity to build a network of young advocates in favor of girls’ and women’s education in Africa. Organized on an annual basis since 2017, the workshop targets young Africans, especially for young women, to raise awareness on their role as actors within the society to influence mindsets and existing harmful practices hindering girls’ access to school and completion and hindering their future empowerment. Over 120 young people have been trained and are now significantly contributing to changing girls’ education landscape in their respective countries.
