Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures: Insights from Frontline Organizations
- R Research Project/Report/Study
I Inactive
Key Information
COVID-19 school closures pose significant operational and financial risks to frontline organizations delivering vital education services, including non-governmental organizations, school operators, and other service providers. In this survey, we ask these organizations about the challenges they are facing in light of COVID-19 closures, particularly for girls. The responses shed light on how COVID-19 is affecting education service operations—and what providers are doing in response. We uncover three major findings. First, 69 percent of the respondents believe that girls are at a greater risk than boys from COVID-19 school closures, with more than half of those respondents citing girls’ exposure to gender-based violence as a major concern. Second, close to half (42 percent) of the respondents report that their organization is experiencing budget cuts, with 73 percent of those respondents citing a drop in funding from private and philanthropic donors. Third, despite the financial and operational disruptions due to school closures and lockdowns, 89 percent of the respondents report planning and delivering additional vital interventions during the pandemic. It is crucial, now more than ever, that donors and policymakers support and engage with frontline organizations delivering vital services for girls and their communities.
Lead Implementing Organization(s)
Location(s)
Global
Activity URL
Government Affiliation
Non-governmental programYears
2020 - 2020
Partner(s)
Not applicable or unknown
Ministry Affiliation
UnknownFunder(s)
Not applicable or unknown
COVID-19 Response
New for COVID-19Geographic Scope
Global / regionalMeets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES
UnknownAreas of Work Back to Top
Education areas
Other skills
- Life skills/sexuality education
- Rights/empowerment education
- Social and emotional learning
Quality
- School facilities
Cross-cutting areas
- Adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
- COVID-19 Response
- Early/child marriage
- Economic/livelihoods (including savings/financial inclusion, etc.)
- Empowerment
- Female genital mutilation/cutting
- Food/water security
- Gender equality
- Menstrual hygiene management
- Nutrition
- Other aspects of sexual and reproductive health
- Sexual harassment & coercion
- Social and gender norms and beliefs
- Violence (at home, in relationships)
Program participants
Other populations reached
Not applicable or unknown
Participants include
Not applicable or unknown
Program Approaches Back to Top
Community engagement/advocacy/sensitization
- Community-based monitoring (e.g. school report cards)
- Community mobilization
- General awareness-raising/community engagement
- Technical assistance/capacity building to civil society organizations or governments
Curriculum/learning
- Gender-sensitive curricula
Health and childcare services
- Adolescent-friendly health services
Life skills education
- Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE)
- Gender, rights and power
Menstrual hygiene management
- Educating girls about menstruation
Other
- Informational interventions (e.g. returns to education)
- Other activities to end child marriage (not captured above)
Policy/legal environment
- Advocating changes to existing laws/policies
- Public-private partnerships
- System-wide review and reform
School-related gender-based violence
- Support in and around schools (e.g. peer counseling, adult-to-student counseling)
- Training of school personnel (including teachers)
- Violence prevention curriculum/activities for students
Social/gender norms change
- Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents
Teaching
- In-service teacher training – gender-responsive pedagogy
- Pre-service teacher training – pedagogy general
- Teacher incentives
Women's empowerment programs
- Advocacy/action
Program Goals Back to Top
Education goals
- Improved academic skills (literacy and numeracy)
- Increased grade attainment
- Increased school completion (general)
- Increased school enrolment (general)
- Reduced absenteeism
- Reduced grade repetition
Cross-cutting goals
- Improved critical consciousness
- Improved health - other
- Improved nutrition
- Improved sexual and reproductive health
- Improved understanding of sexual harassment, coercion, and consent
- Increased advocacy/civic engagement
- Increased knowledge of HIV, puberty, and sexual and reproductive health
- More equitable gender attitudes and norms
- Reduced adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
- Reduced child marriage
- Reduced school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV)
Additional Information Back to Top
Primary Contact
- Rita Perakis
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Assistant Director and Senior Policy Analyst, Global Education
- rperakis@cgdev.org