Project profile — Improving Girls' Education for their Empowerment in Somalia

• Somalia (100.00%)

• Education, Level Unspecified: Teacher training (11130) (20.00%)
• Basic Education: Primary education (11220) (30.00%)
• Education: Lower secondary education (11260) (30.00%)
• Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions:
Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (10.00%)
Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (10.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Disability (significant objective)
• Children's issues (significant objective)

This project aims to improve access to quality education in Somalia for marginalized adolescent girls between the ages of 10 to 19, including nomadic girls, girls with disabilities and affected by conflict and violence. To encourage the enrolment and retention of girls, the project works with religious leaders, parents, men and boys to address barriers that hamper the demand for and access to education for girls, while strengthening the capacity of the government, schools and teachers to provide inclusive and gender-responsive education for girls. Project activities include: (1) renovating schools to improve water and sanitation for menstrual hygiene management and the re-integration of out-of-school girls into the education system; (2) providing scholarships for the most marginalized girls to cover tuition and basic school supplies; (3) supporting girls’ empowerment forums in schools that promote girls’ rights and agency as well as boys’ forums working on positive masculinity and gender equality; (4) training teachers, with a specific emphasis on female teachers,) on quality, inclusive, gender-sensitive curriculum delivery, including improved methodologies in literacy and numeracy teaching and techniques to support crisis-affected students facing mental health issues; and (5) supporting women’s rights organizations and adolescent girls’ organizations in their advocacy for girls’ quality education.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased equitable access to safe, quality, inclusive education and learning for in-and-out-of-school girls aged 10 to 19, including girls with disabilities and affected by conflict/displacement; and (2) improved equitable and coordinated provisions of quality gender-responsive and evidence-based formal and non-formal education to the end of secondary school for girls, including girls from rural and pastoralist communities.

Results achieved at the end of the project (October 2024) include: (1) reached 11,661 families resulting in 7,097 out-of-school girls enrolled during this period; (2) awarded 2,972 scholarships to girls (1292 in Jubaland, 840 in Puntland, and 840 in Somaliland) from most vulnerable, marginalized and minority families; (3) distributed sanitary kits to 10,475 girls consisting of sanitary pads, clothes soap, and pamphlets on menstrual hygiene; (4) provided school uniforms to 3,550 girls (1,350 in Jubaland, 1,100 in Puntland, and 1,100 in Somaliland); (5) trained and sensitized 529 district education officers, regional education officers, gender focal persons, and other ministry officials on barriers to attendance and learning faced by girls, in particular girls with disabilities and from other highly marginalized groups and how to address them; and (6) coached and supported 121 teachers (31 women and 86 men) on gender-sensitive, inclusive classroom practices, and gender-responsive lesson planning.

• Proactive disclosure