UNGEI Blog

This blog post originally appeared on the Global Education First Initiative website on 16 May 2013.

By Sumaya Saluja, Youth Advocacy Group member of the Global Education First Initiative

In December 2012, civil society, with the technical support of the United Nations began an intensive process of planning national consultations on the post-2015 agenda in both developed and developing countries. Nine global constituencies (civil society, women’s associations, industry, trade unions, farmers associations, research institutes, government, elected officials and youth) were tasked with carrying out countrywide discussions across the eleven thematic issue areas laid out by the United Nations:

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This blog post originally appeared in the Education for All Blog of the Global Partnership for Education on 30 May 2013.

UNICEF launches 2013 State of the World’s Children Report
This is a joint blog by Jo Bourne and Rosangela Berman Bieler

Today, UNICEF launches the 2013 State of the World’s Children Report. As we accelerate efforts towards realizing MDG 2 and achieving Education for All, the new report draws attention to a large segment of children who are not in school and have long remained invisible, hidden and forgotten: children with disabilities.

© UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani

Children with disabilities are significantly less likely to be in school than their peers without disabilities. A 2004 study in Malawi found that a child with a disability was twice as likely to have never attended school as a child without a disability. The 2008 Tanzania Disability Survey found that children with disabilities are also 50 per cent less likely than their peers without disability to complete primary school and progress to higher levels of education. Continue reading →

This blog post originally appeared on the HEEALS Developing Community Network website on 12 February 2013.

This documentary film explores the importance of clean, hygienic toilets and safe drinking water in Indian schools to ensure that girls are empowered to exercise their right to education. It has been said that India is the open defaecation capital of the world, where people have more mobile phones than toilets. In the film, the non-profit organisation HEEALS (Health Education Environment and Livelihood Society) communicates about and advocates for the need to address the fact that only 44 per cent of schools in India have separate toilets for girls, and some schools only have a single toilet that is so unclean – and that carries not only the risk of disease but the risk of sexual harassment – that girls opt to drop out of school.

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This blog post originally appeared on Cisco’s blog site on 25 April 2013.

By Blair Christie, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer & Worldwide Government Affairs, Cisco Systems

Girls and careers in information communications technology (ICT). A contradiction?

Unfortunately that is the case in so many classrooms and companies around the world. Teenage girls use computers and the Internet similar to boys — they text, they take pictures on their phones, yet they are five times less likely to consider a technology-related career. In fact, in the OECD countries, women account for less than 20 per cent of ICT specialists. Today, on International Girls in ICT Day, I’m wondering how we can reverse that trend.

Blair Christie talking to girls at Fairmont Heights High School ©Cisco/2013

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at Fairmont Heights High School in Capitol Heights, Maryland. I had the privilege of talking to dozens of young women who are passionate about technology and are getting trained and certified in IT skills through Cisco’s Networking Academy program. I also met Ashley Covington, a Networking Academy graduate who is currently a systems administrator for the City of Baltimore public schools. Ashley told us that she loves her job and “I take pride in my data center.” That is music to my ears.
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This blog post originally appeared on the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Blog site on 22 April 2013.

By Chemba Raghavan, Regional Focal Point for the East Asia and Pacific Regional UN Girls’ Education Initiative

Last month, Dr. Cliff Meyers (UNICEF’s Regional Education Advisor) and I visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) as part of a country support mission. My role was to offer a regional perspective on gender in education and early childhood policies, initiatives and activities in the country.

Chemba with students from Gavuone Adventist Primary School. ©Chemba Raghavan

One of the most enriching parts of this trip was a visit we made to two schools in the Kupiano District of Central Province, a picturesque four-hour drive from Port Moresby. One school was a government school and the other is church run. In schools such as these, UNICEF is helping train teachers to run weekly child friendly school clubs. These clubs are supported by parents and community members.

The school clubs are particularly attractive to children because they are fun, relevant and help build children’s skills. As I chatted with the school administrators I saw that these clubs had great potential to bring children currently not in school back into the education system.
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