Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE)

Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE) is an innovative project which has developed an indicator framework for gender equality in and through education drawing on critical participatory discussion at local, national, and international levels and connections between these. The AGEE project is a partnership between universities in Malawi, South Africa and the UK, working with UNESCO and other UN agencies,  a range of civil society organisations and donors. AGEE has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation,  ESRC, the FCDO, IDRC-KIX and the British Academy.

Gender equality in education matters

Gender equality in education is commonly described by policymakers and educational planners in terms of gender parity. This entails counting ratios of girls to boys, and women to men, in relation to school enrolment, attendance, participation, learning outcomes or teacher training. This form of measurement misses many major features of gender inequalities in and through education. 

The AGEE project, aims to address this issue, enhancing the ways in which gender equality in education is understood and evaluated, by identifying the importance of seeing gender equality in education linked with other areas of social policy. 

The project has built from a range of research on gender, the capability approach, education, poverty, intersectionality, inequality and an orientation to participatory discussions. It has worked to develop innovative ways to evaluate gender equality in education. These aim to  avoid the limitations of relying solely on gender parity measures and deepen and extend discussion of data enhancing the ways in which policy is made and linked with practice concerned to address injustices linked to gender inequalities.

Local knowledge matters

The AGEE project team is working with partners in Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia and Sierra Leone and with cross national discussions. Through different phases  using a participatory methodology, it has worked to explore different understandings and experiences of gender and girls’ schooling. All these countries have laws and policies committing governments to gender equality in education, but all face challenges regarding complex, intersecting inequalities and assembling data to document and support social policy to address this. In reviewing the availability of data and the dynamics of accountability, discussion groups in each country have highlighted important real life issues for an evaluation framework.

The current phase of AGEE work  (2024-2027) aims to research how to bridge between the local, the national and the global in discussing data, how these are used in policy, and how enhanced work for gender equality in and through education can be supported.

The AGEE Framework: data matters

The AGEE Framework identifies six domains to monitor and evaluate gender equality in education: Resources; Values; Opportunities; Participation in Education; Knowledge, Understanding and Skills; and Outcomes. These six domains allow for monitoring and evaluating information on gender, and girls’ and boys’ experiences in school associated with access, progression and attainment and the range of relationships outside school associated with needing to address intersecting inequalities. 

The AGEE Framework has been adapted and refined through discussions with a wide range of stakeholders concerned with gender and education, seeking to make the Framework relevant and responsive to diverse contexts. We have compiled a substantial database of indicators and are assessing where there are gaps and how these might be addressed. A ‘global community of practice’ has been built, which brings together those working or interested in areas associated with gender equality, girls’ rights and education.