Gender Equality in Education - Policy, Practice and the Girl-toGirl Strategy in Madagascar

This thesis is based on three months of field work in Morondava, Madagascar, and looks at efforts by global and national actors to achieve gender equality in education. These efforts are exemplified by the Girl-to-Girl Strategy, a UNICEF/UNGEI-initiated peer mentoring strategy. I place the strategy in the global education policy landscape, where there exists a large variety of actors and approaches to gender equality in education. I argue that Malagasy education policies, such as the Madagascar Action Plan, have to be seen in light of the increasing globalization of social policy, which can lead to less national sovereignty in the policy making. Madagascar has had great progress in education the last ten years, and it is now one of the few countries in Africa South of Sahara which has enrollment rates close to 100 in primary school. Despite the apparent gender parity in enrollment, girls are disadvantaged due to heavy domestic burdens, poverty, and gender stereotypes in society, which may keep them from reaching their potential, either by continuing their schooling, getting paid jobs and/or acquiring political positions. The Girl-to-Girl Strategy targets girls in primary school who are vulnerable to drop-out and repetition. I show that the strategy changes from policy level to practice, and illustrate how some big sisters' make significant efforts in helping the young ones in and outside school. I ask whether the improvement of girls' education should be placed solely on the girls. By analyzing the strategy through different theoretical lenses, I show the potential and the limitations of the strategy. Through an instrumentalist approach to gender equality in education, the strategy can be considered successful because it can contribute to gender parity in school. The strategy can also possibly fulfill the right to education, but it is more uncertain whether it can contribute to the fulfillment of rights within and rights through education. Through a capability approach we can only predict the positive short-term benefits of the strategy, such as increased motivation and reason to value school. The accounts of the girls in Morondava show that they are more motivated to go to school than before, and their parents and teachers reported that the girls are cleaner and behave better