USAID Gable programme 1991-

GABLE is USAID's main initiative in promoting girl's primary education in Malawi. The purpose of GABLE is to increase the enrolment, persistence and achievement of girls in primary school whilst at the same time improving the overall quality and

efficiency of the primary education system thereby benefiting both girls and boys. The components of GABLE that have specifically targeted girls include: the waiving of school fees for non-repeating girls in primary school, revising the curriculum to make it more gender sensitive, training of teachers in the delivery of the new gender sensitive curriculum, and a social mobilisation campaign to encourage parents to send girls to school, and a scholarship programme for girls in secondary schools. Other components of GABLE are aimed at improving the overall efficiency of primary education by increasing the budgetary allocations to the education sector, especially primary education.

The motivation behind USAID's interest in girls' education in Malawi can be traced to its own gender priorities as well as the demands of Malawian women's groups. GABLE was seen by USAID as contributing in a major way to its key strategic objective in Malawi, namely the reduction of population growth. USAID personnel in Malawi were clearly influenced by research findings that linked female education to increased

agricultural productivity and reduced fertility and infant and child mortality and morbidity rates. Although gender equity in education was not part of government education policy, the partnership that the USAID mission forged with women's organisations, particularly NCWID, assisted in the project design of GABLE. Six factors that contributed to the success of USAID Malawi in addressing gender issues can be identified:

• Strong receptivity of Malawian women toward USAID/Malawi,

enhanced by the gender-balanced work force of the mission over the past decade.

• Strong and consistent commitment by mission management to address gender throughout the portfolio as a regular part of the programme project cycle.

• A highly qualified and resourceful WID officer who focuses attention on strategic interventions that have a significant and sustainable impact. • Consistent use of monitoring to identify effects of policies and

• Integration of gender considerations into on-going tasks as a regular part of the programme project cycle.

• As opposed to the location of the WID officer in the Programme and Project Development office (a technical office) which offers a

comprehensive cross-cutting view of mission activities and facilitates identification of key interventions (Romashko et al, 1994).

The experience of USAID in Malawi highlights the importance of organisational

factors in the incorporation of gender issues in the agency's overall country programme. USAID has adopted a new approach to educational development in Africa. Education Sector Support (ESS) is based on a set of agreements, established and agreed upon by USAID and the government. Through the non-project assistance (NPA) component of the ESS, funds are disbursed in tranches against agreed conditions reflecting the

implementation of key policy, institutional and budgetary reforms (DeStefano et al, 1995).

GABLE is a combination of project and non-project assistance. The conditions that were established to promote gender equity include the following:

• Implementation of a nation-wide system of school fee waivers for non- repeating school girls in primary schools.

• Preparation of a plan for gender-balanced community primary schools and implementation of targets set.

• After reviewing results of the pilot gender streaming study, develop a plan for nation-wide implementation of gender streaming in upper primary standards.

• Implementation of a nation-wide scholarship programme for secondary school girls.

With regard to more sensitive policy areas (such as schoolgirl pregnancy), USAID did not set explicit conditionalities. The problem of drop-out through pregnancy was

addressed by means of its SMC component which encourages girls to enter school at an early age so they can finish school before pregnancy emerges as a problem (Wolf, 1995)

education in total recurrent public expenditure from 17% in 1993/94 to 27% by 1997 and also increase the share of the primary education sector in total public education expenditure from 50% in 1993/94 to 62% in 1996/97. It is not entirely clear whether the government has met this target due to a variation in government estimates of

expenditure for primary education.

It is too early to gauge the impact of gender streaming. The MOE has met most of the GABLE conditions. But the problem with the NPA approach, however, is that it does not pay enough attention to the implementation of new policies and this can lead to MOE headquarters neglecting important stakeholders, such as regional and district offices.

3.4.3 UNICEF

Up to the late 1980s, UNICEF's activities in Malawi concentrated on improving child health and nutrition. Since the early 1990s, it has increasingly targeted the education sector with respect to gender although it still does not have a comprehensive education programme. UNICEF has followed both a mainstreaming approach in some of its projects and programmes and rather than relying on specific gender programmes to prevent a backlash that usually occurs if girls are targeted.15 Although the following programmes do have a strong gender orientation.

15 _{In this respect, UNICEF might well have learned the lesson from} GABLE's first waiving of school fees for primary school girls prior to October 1994, which was unpopular amongst parents who felt it discriminated against boys.

UNICEF has identified distance to school as the main obstacle to girls' education in Malawi. Consequently, the main thrust of their education programme is to bring schools closer to pupils' homes. Its two main education projects are Keeping Children in School (funded by NORAD) and Closing the Gender Gap (funded by CIDA). The major

objective of the first of these projects is to consolidate the gains made under the free primary education initiative by curbing drop-out rates as well as improving water and sanitation conditions in schools, with particular attention being given to toilet facilities for girls.

'Closing the Gender Gap' (funded by CIDA) which started in 1995/1996 seeks to address the following problems facing many children (particularly girls): the limited access to school of 6-10 year olds, inadequate and untrained teachers and lack of teaching and learning materials. The major strategies employed to address these issues include: the provision of learning materials, recruitment of female teachers (often paraprofessionals), training of school committees and supporting action research and

advocacy. Both of these programmes operate in remote areas where distances to school are great.

Promoting and strengthening community participation in the management of schools has been a central feature of UNICEF's approach. One UNICEF initiative has involved the construction of classroom shells, with communities providing labour for the

brickwork. PRA methods have been extensively used to help communities identify problems affecting the education of their children. To encourage community

participation in school governance and school committee, PTAs and local leaders are given training which has a gender component. UNICEF has also implemented advocacy and social mobilisation programmes to encourage girls to persist in school. Stories are produced for schools and communities as part of its Adolescent Girl Child Initiative in order to provide female role models. The main thrust of UNICEF's education

programme is to try and keep children in school by improving the quality of education and improving access for marginalised groups.

UNICEF does not impose conditionalities on governments and all plans and operations are developed in collaboration with government counterparts. There is little monitoring of gender in the education sector and the focus of UNICEF gender-related projects in Malawi is limited. There is an inherent assumption in these programmes that by increasing access, gender inequality will simply disappear. Although UNICEF's approach in Malawi is to mainstream gender, in the East and Southern Africa region UNICEF has just started implementing a girls' education project known as the 'African Girls' Education Initiative' (AGEI).16 _{Attempts to introduce a multimedia project that} attempts to raise the social status of the girl child (the Sara Initiative) have met with some opposition in Malawi as it is not considered to be culturally relevant17.

16 _{Funded by NORAD.}

17 _{The use of some images adopted from 'Meena' in Bangladesh such} Sara's pet monkey is seen as being inappropriate in the Malawian context.