Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
FAWE House
Chania Avenue Off Wood Avenue
Kilimani, Nairobi
PO Box 21394 00505 Ngong Road, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 3873131, 3873351, 3873359
Fax: +254 20 3874150
Email: fawe@fawe.org
Website: http://www.fawe.org
Contact: Dr Codou Diaw, Executive Director
Description
Founded in 1992, The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) promotes girls’ and women’s education in sub Saharan Africa. With headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, FAWE has a network of Chapters in 32 countries.
In 1991, a small but influential group of women gathered with the idea to work together in a concerted effort aimed at advocacy for policy reform and innovation towards improving the participation and performance of girls and women in all levels of education in Africa.
Following closely on the heels of the United Nations Women’s Decade Conference (1985), the World Declaration on Education For All (1990), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), FAWE aimed to leverage the strength of these and other international commitments and declarations, to make a difference in the education of girls and women in Africa. FAWE’s creation was closely allied to the Jomtien World Conference on Education For All in 1990. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation and sense of urgency by its five founders, by October 1992, an agenda and objectives had been adopted.
With a mission to work, together with its partners, to create positive societal attitudes, policies and practices that promote equity for girls in terms of access, retention, performance and education quality, through influencing the transformation of education systems in Africa. FAWE’s goal is to increase access to education and retention as well as improve the quality of education for all girls and women.
FAWE's vision is that gender disparities in education will be significantly reduced and more girls will have access to schooling, complete their studies and perform well at all levels. This is achieved around the following four areas of intervention:
Influencing Policy: Recognizing that without the appropriate education policies in place, there can be no effective gender transformation in the education systems, FAWE works very closely with Ministries of Education and education policy makers to influence policy in favor of girls’ education.
Advocacy: FAWE creates awareness through advocacy on the importance of girls’ education. FAWE advocates at international, regional, national and local levels.
Demonstrative Interventions: FAWE believes that it is important to demonstrate what works in addressing constraints to girls' access, retention and performance. National Chapters undertake numerous interventions at the school and community level.
Replication and Mainstreaming: FAWE identifies documents and disseminates the best practices emerging from its Demonstrative Interventions. The replication and mainstreaming of these best practices into the wider national education systems happens through Ministerial Consultations where the best practices are shared and discussed. National Chapters work closely with Ministries of Education in the processes of mainstreaming.
Track Record
In its 15-year history, FAWE is well on its way to accomplishing its goals and realizing its mission. Today FAWE has a presence in 32 African countries and its National Chapters serve as nerve centers for advocacy at the national level. This includes mobilizing Ministers of Education to support the FAWE agenda in their countries and the recruitment of development partners such as ADEA Working Group on Female Participation in Education and the Rockefeller Foundation.
FAWE’s Centers of Excellence have been replicated by Governments and NGOs, and they have established departments/units of Gender within ministries of education for monitoring policy follow up. There has also been acceptance by all member countries that eliminating gender disparities in education is a developmental challenge.
In addition to winning awards such as the Cormenian Medal by UNESCO for Success in Advocacy on Girls’ Education FAWE has also created the Agathe Uwilingiyimana Award for Innovation and the FAWE Award for Media Excellence (FAME) for the best documentation, media coverage and dissemination of issues on, and effective strategies for addressing obstacles to girls’ education.
2002 saw the creation of The FAWE Endowment Fund. The purpose of the fund is to ensure long-term financial sustainability of FAWE. With a goal of $15 million, it has been estimated that FAWE's programs will be sustainable up to the extent of 30% of its programmatic requirements.
Part of FAWE’s success can be attributed to its two Strategic Plans, the first from 2002-2006 and the Second Strategic Plan from 2008-2012. The initial one-year plan proved to be a major disadvantage especially for resource mobilization. The FAWE 5-year Strategic Plan 2002-2006 proved a major development in facilitating easier fundraising, longer partnerships and commitments, for sustained focus on FAWE goals. Various stakeholders participated in the process, including workshops and roundtable discussions with National Chapters.
Challenges
Over time, FAWE has faced numerous challenges.
Economic Environment: The creation of FAWE took place against the backdrop of a severely constrained economic environment. There was therefore need to tame ambition and go for interventions that were innovative and cost-effective. FAWE members needed to achieve more with fewer resources. Few African Governments were in a position to increase budgetary allocations to Education.
FAWE was concerned about donor fatigue and wary of being donor dependent. Some donors were wary of an NGO linked to government, yet FAWE needed to work closely with the government in order to affect the workings of education, and at the same time have independence of critiquing the way governments work.
Communication: Communication in Africa remains a major challenge and the initial task of finding FAWE members was severely challenged. The UNICEF and UNESCO regional offices proved to be invaluable partners in this process. Today, all FAWE members have e-mail addresses and communication processes have been streamlined.
Travel by air has improved tremendously but it was very cumbersome getting members, especially those from West Africa to FAWE meetings, yet it was critical for all members, regardless of geographical location, to participate.
Language barriers in Africa remain a problem. The location of its headquarters was often seen as leaning towards one side. To remedy this divide a small office in Conakry, Guinea was established to facilitate communication.
Mobilizing for a Critical Mass: Early on, FAWE recognized that women in high-level positions ran the risk of being isolated, especially those not already associated with NGOs in their countries. Yet mobilizing a critical mass of people with influence in the society, especially at the community level, was seen as critical to advancing the FAWE agenda. In a few countries, such mobilization was viewed with suspicion where FAWE Ministers were accused of creating parallel systems of government. The strongest FAWE National Chapters are today in countries where there was no such conflict.
Instability: Frequent ministerial reshuffles in some countries posed the problem of instability in FAWE membership. This led to the recognition of the urgent need to create National Chapters as part of institutionalizing the FAWE mandate. The clarity of the FAWE agenda together with the vigor adopted by some members also made individuals visible and soon international organizations were luring them to join their ranks. Some of the most active FAWE members at the national and regional level ended up at UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank. Initially viewed as a blow to FAWE at the country level, these movements helped popularize FAWE internationally, while at the same time reinforcing the urgent need for FAWE to strengthen networks at the national level.
Quality Assurance and Control: From its inception, FAWE established a Technical Committee made up of experts in several relevant fields to vet the quality of and prioritize the proposals submitted for funding, and to monitor the quality of all FAWE products and outcomes.
Overcoming Opposition: Most Ministers of Education, who were male, failed to acknowledge the gender issue. If girls were not in school, it was the parents to blame, not the government, they argued. The rights-based approach enshrined in ‘Education For All’ was difficult to sell in some communities. So were strategies for addressing sensitive issues such as early marriage, female circumcision and the dowry system. Political will did not always translate to action. In countries where political will was accompanied by action, significant progress has been achieved.
Opportunities
Today, FAWE stands out as a leading authoritative voice in the education of girls and women in Africa, with several credits and awards to its name. FAWE is a leader in female education at national, continental and International levels. Its far-sighted funding strategies – which include the establishment of an endowment – make it a model for ARO sustainability.
