This literature review investigates the kind of interventions that can help expand and improve girls’ education and gender equality. All relevant literature published since 1991 was identified and systematically reviewed by a team of experts.
A Theory of Change (ToC) was developed for the review which distinguishes between three kinds of interventions, namely those focusing on: resources and infrastructure; changing institutions; and changing norms and including the most marginalised in education decision making. It is hypothesised that while each kind of intervention can have a positive impact on improving and expanding girls’ participation in school, the greatest impact occurs when multiple interventions are used to facilitate change.
Key Findings:
- More research studies focus on interventions linked to resource and infrastructure and changing institutions than to engagement with norms and problems of exclusion. More studies were identified on the expansion of girls’ education, notably increasing enrolments, attendance, retention, grade achievement, learning outcomes and completion than on the links between girls’ schooling and gender equality more broadly in society.
- The effectiveness of resource interventions depends on careful targeting of educationally under-resourced families and thoughtful design of programmes to focus on girls most at risk. Complementary in-kind health interventions can enhance enrolment and lead to learning gains for both boys and girls. The effectiveness of infrastructural interventions is enhanced when they are linked with processes associated with learning and teaching. Interventions concerned with the distribution of resources and infrastructure were more likely to be associated with improvements in girls’ attendance, enrolment and grade attainment than with girls’ empowerment within school or broader gender equality outcomes.
- The literature points to the importance of having thriving teachers who are adequately supported to enhance girls’ schooling through education, training, reflection on attitudes and in-service continuing professional development. Effective interventions are associated with a ‘quality mix’, which is a combination of a number of different approaches to enhancing quality.
- A significant number of studies suggest that successful interventions associated with institutional change and policy within the education sector may also impact on gender equality outcomes more broadly. Interventions concerned with shifting gender norms and enhancing inclusion are under-researched and under-resourced.
- The relationship between changes in girls’ education and developments in the enabling environment of legislation, regulation and opinion formation is under-researched. There is an accompanying lack of studies on the links between girls’ education and empowerment outcomes.
