UNGEI Global 2012 Work Plan Implementation

Overall 2012 was an eventful year for UNGEI and was a time of delays, transitions and achievement. The most significant headlines include the completion of the evaluation and its recommendations for the way forward as well as leadership transition in the UNGEI Secretariat which provided both a challenge and opportunity in moving forward.

Outcome Area 1: National level policy frameworks promote girls’ education and gender equality:

The broad outlines of the UNGEI-GPE partnership at global and country level was agreed to and outlined in a joint concept note and terms of reference for the UNGEI representative, with an understanding that this will provide the guiding principles. The actual operationalization in countries would be agreed to on a case-by-case basis, based on the country needs and available capacities. The joint scoping work for operationalizing has been initiated in three countries: Lao PDR, South Sudan, & Nigeria.

UNGEI Secretariat successfully participated in key global advocacy events to ensure visibility for the issue as well as the partnership. These included:

A panel discussion organized as side event to the CSW annual meeting;
World Bank – Getting to Equal;
UNGEI side-event at the Global Education Meeting – Education For All (GEM-EFA);
Technical roundtable to mark Plan International’s ‘Because I am a Girl: the State of the World’s Girls 2012, Learning for Life’ report;
Discussion on the role of education in the post -2015 development agenda at the Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institute
Forthcoming panel on gender and skills development to coincided with the launch of the 2012 GMR.

Outcome Area 2: Good practice is known and institutionalized

UNGEI published two key documents to reflect and disseminate good practices in girls’ education. These include: a) Analytical mapping of gender tools in development/education completed and available on the website; b) Companion volume to E4 conferences featuring analytical chapters by Institute of Education/London University, UIS, UNICEF and World Bank.

The UNGEI website and social media outreach also witnessed increased traffic: in 2012 subscribers to Facebook witnessed 212% increase and subscribers to Twitter an increase of over 180%. YouTube views also increased substantially, with an increase of 155% in 2012.

UNGEI produced 4 blogs, 5 podcasts, 44 web stories, 4 newsletters, 3 press releases, 15 publications as well as other communication support to the Ugandan and 3 virtual meetings.

UNGEI also took the first step to towards becoming into a knowledge hub. The larger UNGEI Knowledge Management strategy is developed, and a plan to implement the recommendations within the UNGEI context will be prepared and implemented in the coming year.

Outcome Area 3: Effective partnership facilitated

The most significant milestone for 2012 was the completion of the UNGEI evaluation which reaffirmed UNGEI’s position as a global advocate for girls’ education and advocated for strengthening of its knowledge management and policy advocacy role. The evaluation spanned the global and regional level (EAPR) and in four countries (Egypt, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda).

The Kampala meeting in May 2012 was an important milestone in defining a forward looking agenda based on the evaluation recommendations and the accompanying strategic moment of reflection. Four key related areas have been identified in the way forward: UNGEI governance reforms; Knowledge Management, Capacity-building; & Policy Advocacy;

As part of the role in promoting partnership and collaboration, UNGEI Secretariat has supported the development of the FAWE Strategic Plan; and also extended support to the RFPs and UNICEF Country Offices to engage with the GPE partnership at the country level.

III.Constraints/Challenges/Opportunities:

As indicated earlier, 2012 was an eventful year for UNGEI and was a time of delays, transitions and achievement. The constraints primarily related to transitions in the Regional Focal Points in ESAR and EAPR as well the vacancy in MENA. The leadership transition in the Secretariat was also accompanied by overall slowing of pace which was expected. This was also further confounded by delays among partners, especially relating to agreement with GPE and delay in development of the KM strategy.

Ensuring that UNGEI remains a relevant and effective mechanism across the partnership is a critical challenge faced by UNGEI. For some members of the GAC it requires additional effort to remain engaged and motivated in the time of transition, even as we plan and anticipate governance reforms to make UNGEI decision-making more flexible and responsive to the larger external environment and needs. UNICEF is also reexamining its role as lead agency and technical partner within UNGEI, and to strengthen its leadership on the issues of girls’ education and gender equality.

The external environment in which UNGEI works is rapidly changing, introducing new opportunities as well as challenges. New and visible actors are emerging in the field and new initiatives are currently changing the geography of the education sector landscape. These include the revised GEM-EFA architecture where UNGEI remains a flagship initiative, launch of UNSG’s global initiative on education, the post-2015 deliberations and the GPE. Moving forward will demand a critical engagement with these initiatives as well as an expanded partnership to build momentum on the issue of girls; education.

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