Sharing is caring: barriers to girls’ education in Tanzania [ARCHIVE]

  • Skills & Education
  • Gender
  • 11 May 2017

At Well Told Story we’ve spent the past six years learning about our 15-24 year old audience, guiding them to become the captains of new norms, attitudes and behaviours among their peers and within their communities. We have also developed unique research tools to generate insights and understanding, as well as to track our progress, and enhance the outcomes of our engagement with young people in East Africa.

In the past we’ve shared these insights and findings through reports, blog posts and presentations. But we have been looking for new, improved ways to share what we are learning and to contribute to the on-going national discourse around issues that are critical for youth in East Africa.

So we held a webinar to share what we’ve learnt with the people we think care most about the issue. We presented our key research insights, generated by six months of Shujaaz media designed to better understand the barriers to girls’ education, an outcome of an ongoing collaboration with DFID funded project EQUIP in Tanzania.

Our research insights generated a vibrant discussion among the representatives of teachers, parents, students, development partners and the municipal education office. The webinar concluded with agreement that more needs to be done to:

>challenge existing beliefs amongst many communities that educating girls is a waste of time; and,

>to reinforce the notion that girls can be successful and be positive role models within their community, in ways similar to the Shujaaz national media campaigns.

We were encouraged by the positive feedback from those who attended the webinar and will continue to share more of our insights in new and innovative ways throughout the year.

We are holding our next webinar at the end of May where we will discuss issues related to youth and governance in Kenya in the run up to the elections in August. This is as part of our ongoing partnership with the Hewlett Foundation, Omidyar Network and the German Embassy.

Naomi Maina is Senior Manager, Project Delivery, at Well Told Story.

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