Positive Gender Socialization in Education for Peace Building in Uganda

Post-conflict regions are often characterized by a weakness in resilience, social cohesion, and human security, which may be reinforced by gender inequality. Uganda’s Karamoja region lacks an organized approach to positive models of masculinity and femininity in schools and open discussion about masculine and feminine roles. The continued absence of these elements of positive gender socialization can serve to perpetuate inequality, inevitably confining women to traditional gender roles. Women constitute the largest proportion of out-of-school youth in Uganda, and their limited educational opportunities render them unable to contribute to this aspect of the peace-building process, which in turn may further delay progress in peace-building. In an effort to reduce gender inequality, UNICEF and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES)  implemented a program to encourage gender equality and positive gender socialization in primary schools. The program includes several trainings in gender, identity, and peace-building to build teachers’ capacity as agents of change to foster a change in gender social norms in schools. In addition, a subset of trained teachers receives reinforcing text messages through a mobile Short Message Service (SMS) platform. This program is being implemented in five districts within Karamoja region.