An Interim, Process Evaluation of the Promotion of Women in Education (PWE) program (West Africa)

Background

The Promotion of Women in Education (PWE) program is a network of twenty-one teacher organizations in fourteen West African countries. It was initiated by Education International (EI) Africa in 1997, and implemented from 1999.

Women in West Africa are disproportionately affected by serious issues such as poverty, political instability, religious and traditional practices, and not least by gender discrimination. Such issues have serious impacts on women's participation in the education sector. Women are underrepresented in the teaching profession and in teacher organizations, especially in terms of leadership. Women tend to have low levels of education compared to men, and often lack confidence and self-esteem.

The PWE program was established as a network with the following aims: (a) to promote the role of women in education; (b) to organize and train women leaders and encourage them to gradually take up union leadership positions; and (c) to form a network of women educators at local, national and regional levels.

The cooperating organizations funding PWE are the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF), Utdanningsforbundet of Norway and Lärarförbundet of Sweden. The Education International (EI) African regional office is responsible, along with the PWE Coordinating Committee, for the program design, monitoring, implementation and evaluation, in consultation with the EI and the participating cooperating organizations.

Purpose/objective

The purpose of the interim evaluation was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of PWE processes and activities. The evaluation was designed to consider the extent to which the PWE is meeting its objectives, and seek to identify appropriate and relevant strategies to meet the objectives.

The interim evaluation process, led by an external consultant, but with the close involvement of PWE staff and partners, was also designed to facilitate an internal review process. The aim was to build the capacity of the network to monitor its own development and progress towards agreed upon objectives, and to explore new approaches and strategies through which to meet those.

Methodology

The methodology for the interim process evaluation combined a) document review b) stakeholder focus group discussions c) face to face interviews with PWE staff and key stakeholders (particularly women teachers) in country d) discussion group/ interviews with EI staff in Lomé and e) email and/or telephone interviews with key staff from cooperating organizations (Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF), Utdanningsforbundet of Norway and Lärarförbundet of Sweden) f) evaluation questionnaires to all twenty-one African participating organizations.

Based on the evaluation framework, an evaluation matrix was developed in which the areas for review, and the key questions were aligned with possible evaluation tools and processes. At the end, the data sets were re-analyzed using a narrative analysis method to map the key themes, ideas and issues back into the evaluation framework.

Key findings

Although the evaluation was short, and only involved four of the countries participating in PWE (Togo, Benin, Ghana and The Gambia), the overall results indicate that the program is one of great significance to women teachers involved in teachers' unions in the region, and to the development of the teachers' organizations themselves. The evaluation process has generated evidence of impact at a number of different levels: impacts for individual women; impacts for organizational development and broader impacts in relation to government policy and socio-cultural attitudes.

The program also has some weaknesses which, if not addressed effectively, will hinder program development and constitute barriers to the full realization of the potential of the program. Identified weaknesses include an overly ambitious and somewhat confusing program framework (including objectives and expected results), a lack of clear targets, unclear roles, responsibilities and lines of reporting, and communication difficulties across the whole program. Financial management is one of the areas which suffer and in which recommendations made have not been taken up.

Recommendations

According to the evaluation, the PWE program is successful and has created real improvements for women teachers and educationalists in the region, as well as for their unions. In order to evolve, to remain pertinent to the different needs of the different member organizations, as well as to model an integrated approach to promoting women's participation and gender equality, it is recommended that the PWE should be more strategically defined as an integrated program of EI, rather than a semi-separate 'project' of EI. In this way, some of the difficulties around defining roles and responsibilities, job descriptions etc will be addressed, and opportunities will be enhanced for integrating gender equality into ongoing capacity building and support for organizational development of the EI affiliated national teachers' organizations. It will also facilitate synergies between the promotion of women in education and different EI programs, such as Child Labour, HIV/AIDS and Discrimination and minority groups. Such a shift will also support linkages between the PWE work in West Africa and the newly created other women's networks in Eastern, Northern and Central Africa.