Open Seminar Held on Gender and International Development in Education

JICA-RI held an open seminar entitled “Gender and International Development in Education: Agendas and Challenges” on May 28.

First, Dr. Chizuko Nagaoka of Hosei University touched on the background and the objective of the book. She noted that whereas the elimination of gender disparity in primary education by 2005 in both the 2000 “Dakar EFA Framework for Action” and “the Millennium Development Goal(MDGs), as well as the “Education For All (EFA)” adopted in 1990, have shown a certain result, 58 out of the 86 countries where it has not been achieved are predicted to be unable to reach this goal even by 2015. Behind this lies the fact that the majority of children who do not attend school are concentrated in specific regions and countries with significant internal disparities.

Considering these situations, Dr. Nagaoka addressed that it was important to contribute to achieving gender equality in Goal 3 of the MDGs and Goal 5 of EFA through gender mainstreaming in education, along with access to education.

Ms. Koto Kanno of Mejiro University, the next presenter, reflecting her own field experience, posed a question: why education for girls has not become widespread, despite the activities of governments, NGOs, and other organizations, and despite regional and international networks. In response to this, she explained, “The approach known as “scaling up” of education for girls has recently received attention as an effective strategy. This “scaling up” refers to the necessity of reviewing every aspect of educational systems with a gender-equality viewpoint.” She also pointed out, “It is essential to enhance the awareness and ability of officers in governments and local authorities who act as mediators between schools and policy decision-makers.”

Dr. Mikiko Nishimura of International Christian University raised the following five findings from the book.

Lastly, as the message of this book for the Post MDGs, she mentioned the necessity of a paradigm shift, the goal of which pursues gender equality in a quantitative and qualitative sense. It is the shift from an access-centered approach focusing on eliminating gender gap in numerical terms such as school attendance rates and literacy rates, to an approach to eliminate the structural and fundamental factors of gender inequality or discrimination with focusing on the change of the traditional gender roles and the stereotypical way of thinking of men and women.

JICA Senior Advisor Keiko Mizuno made a presentation on the theme of “Approaches and new possibilities in eliminating gender disparity in Japanese cooperation in education.” She noted that Japan had sent a message of the importance of eliminating the gender gap at home and abroad. She also pointed out that in overall aid policies, the technical cooperation projects in basic education since 2000 have dramatically expanded through local bottom-up approaches.

Dr. Mizuno introduced a case study of the education for girls in Guatemala, explaining her experience in setting up the first Japanese cooperation of girls’ education, incorporating the WID (Women in Development) concept in the US-Japan Common Agenda in 1993.

The objective of this project is to promote primary education with considering multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and traditional gender roles in Guatemala. Dr. Mizuno’s team has tackled the elimination of gender disparity taking account of school, household and educational administration factors.

She also touched on the three-year project in Yemen that aimed to promote girls’ education by 2008, referring to the results of how those persons concerned such as religious leaders, guardians and headmasters and others changed in their attitudes.

The seminar saw not only women but men in a wide range of participants including practitioners, researchers and students in the field of gender and education.