Stop Violence Against Girls in School A cross-country analysis of change in Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique Stop Violence Against Girls in School • 1 Acknowledgements Dr Jenny Parkes and Jo Heslop, Institute of Education, University of London, for ActionAid International, 2013. The cross-country report stems from coordinated endline and longitudinal studies carried out by research teams in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique. Their contribution has been immense, including: In Ghana: Susan Sabaa, and GNECC With support from ActionAid Ghana and Songtaba In Kenya: Samwel Oando, and colleagues at the Department of Research at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) With support from ActionAid Kenya and the Girl Child Network In Mozambique: Francisco Januário, Helder Nhamaze and colleagues at Faculty of Education, Eduardo Mondlane University With support from ActionAid Mozambique, and AMUDEIA Finally, a special thanks to ActionAid staff in Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique, and in particular Tim Hess, who all played a key role in supporting and guiding the research. Thanks also to Antonia Simon, Emily Henderson, Tom Hughes, Claire Postles and Katie Hollingworth for their help with statistical analysis, proof reading and report preparation. The project has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund. ActionAid International @ October 2013 DESIGN: BARRY MCCANN - [email protected] PHOTOS: ACTIONAID 2 • Stop Violence Against Girls in School Foreword This report is the culmination of five years’ The research component of this work was implementation of ActionAid’s multi-country conducted by national research partners with project, Stop Violence Against Girls in School, an priceless collaboration of project partners in Ghana, initiative in Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique. The Kenya and Mozambique. As research partner of the project was financed by the UK’s Big Lottery Fund project, the Institute of Education, through Jenny and aimed at empowering girls and enabling them Parkes and Jo Heslop, has played an instrumental to enjoy their rights to education and participation role in coordinating the research across the three in a violence-free environment. countries and providing technical support throughout the project. ActionAid’s human rights based approach to development promotes education as a fundamental This report provides an insight into the key areas and enabling right, and this project illustrates the where progress has been made in the countries importance of a collaborative and integrated involved in the project since the baseline study in approach, from local to national and international 2009. It also discusses the challenges involved levels, putting girls’ rights to education at the centre. in this work, and makes recommendations for future projects. Learning from best practices and The achievements of this wonderful adventure experiences from the three countries will nourish future showcase ActionAid’s engagement since 2004 work by ActionAid and other organisations concerned (and 2008 for this project) on violence against girls with combating violence against girls at school and at school as key to ensuring safe and enabling promoting children’s rights to quality public education. environments for girls’ access, retention and performance at school. This project shows that Victorine Kemonou Djitrinou success is possible with a collaborative and integrated Education Program Development Coordinator, approach which addresses the root causes of the Transforming Schools phenomenon within and outside the school, and with ActionAid international involvement of all the key actors in the communities in October 2013 Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique. Stop Violence Against Girls in School • 3 Contents Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................................2 Foreword ........................................................................................................................................................3 Tables & Figures ...........................................................................................................................................6 Executive Summary .....................................................................................................................................7 Key findings: ......................................................................................................................................................7 a) Girls’ experiences, attitudes and responses to violence, gender and inequity ...........................................7 b) Shifting attitudes, knowledge and practices in families and communities .................................................8 c) Changes in schools as sites for challenging gender inequality and violence .............................................9 d) Legal and policy enactments on violence against girls: from national to local ...........................................9 Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................................10 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................11 1.1 Background to the project .....................................................................................................................11 1.2 Aims of endline study ............................................................................................................................11 1.3 Research on gender, violence and education in Sub-Saharan Africa ......................................................11 1.4 Conceptual framework ..........................................................................................................................14 1.5 Project contexts ....................................................................................................................................16 1.6 Key research questions .........................................................................................................................16 2. Methodology .....................................................................................................................................17 2.1 Research design ...................................................................................................................................17 2.2 Sampling ...............................................................................................................................................18 2.3 Ethics and safety ...................................................................................................................................20 2.4 Researcher selection and training ..........................................................................................................20 2.5 Data analysis .........................................................................................................................................21 2.5.1 Quantitative analysis ..............................................................................................................................21 2.5.2 Qualitative analysis ................................................................................................................................22 2.5.3 Report writing ........................................................................................................................................22 2.6 Limitations .............................................................................................................................................22 3. Girls’ experiences, attitudes and responses to violence, gender and inequity ...............24 3.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................24 3.2 Violence against girls in 2013 ................................................................................................................24 3.3 Physical violence ...................................................................................................................................25 3.4 Sexual violence .....................................................................................................................................27 3.5 Sexual coercion and exchange sex in peri-urban contexts .....................................................................30 3.6 Boys’ experiences of violence ...............................................................................................................30 3.7 Girls’ responses to violence ...................................................................................................................32 3.8 Changes in knowledge, attitudes and reporting behaviour .....................................................................33 3.9 Girls’ club effect ....................................................................................................................................35 3.10 Poverty, rurality and marginalisation .......................................................................................................37 3.11 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................39 4 • Stop Violence Against Girls in School Contents 4. Shifting attitudes,