Improving Girls' Education (IGE) Project - Senegal

Existing statistics indicate that slightly more than a third of the rapidly growing sub-Saharan region’s population is between the age of 10 and 19. It therefore follows that substantial investment in their education and well-being need to be done in order to tap into the demographic dividend and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unfortunately, the population in this region have poor education and sexual reproductive health and rights outcomes. In West Africa, Senegal has the lowest girls’ enrollment rates, transition, and poor sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) knowledge among girls and young women. However for targeted interventions and better decision-making, there is need to build evidence. The IGE project is two-phased, involving the following components: Phase I: comprehensive scoping review to a) establish the status of education and the implications of SRHR for adolescent girls’ education in West Africa; b) an analysis of the policy environment; and, c) characterising the landscape of policy actors and organisations that have worked or are working in the Senegal girls’ education space. Policy and program actors will be engaged to engender policy formulation, refinement and/or better implementation. With this evidence, policymakers will be in a better position to access, synthesise, adapt and utilise available research evidence for informed decision-making. Phase II: exploratory study that will involve in-depth interviews with select program implementers of the interventions covered in the scoping review in phase 1; select ministries; educators; SRHR practitioners; and adolescent girls and boys who were beneficiaries of the selected programs.