Virtual, Low-Tech Approaches for Transient Young Children and Families for Resilience Building and Positive Parenting during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Written by Fabiola Lara (Save the Children, BEC Early Childhood Education Working Group Co-Chair)

If there is anything that these past 20 months have taught us all it is to be flexible and nimble. That is exactly the approach that Save the Children took in a recent project entitled “Reducing the effects of toxic stress in young children on the move through positive parenting and resilience building in Iraq and Colombia” funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). The one-year project ended in September 2021 and was designed at the start of the pandemic when there was still so much uncertainty about what lay ahead. Given the focus on transient young children ages 0-5 years and their families, one question was clear – “How could they continue to be supported during COVID-19 social distancing measures and reduction of services?”.

Evidence points to the importance of the early childhood years and positive caregiver-child relationships, particularly in uncertain times. Opportunities for play, exploration, and bonding relationships between caregiver and children enable children to become resilient and better cope with frustration, fears, and worries they may experience later in life.[i] At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, children on the move were (and continue to be) at further risk of facing significant, negative impacts on their health, learning, wellbeing, and safety in addition to those they may already be facing from forced displacement.[ii] Added stresses on families, particularly during “stay at home orders” and quarantines, has led to increased cases of domestic violence.[iii]

As part of this project, two main technical approaches (Save the Children’s Resilience Building and Transformative Male Caregiving approaches) were adapted and implemented for conflict-sensitivity and responsiveness to the changing dynamics and needs of the intervention communities in Iraq and Colombia. Both approaches, first piloted in El Salvador, were adapted for delivery using WhatsApp (calls and group chats) as well as standard phone calls and SMS text messages. In Iraq, the approaches were implemented in Bardarash and Gawilan camps to access 500 Syrian refugee families and in Colombia, 360 Venezuelan migrant families living in informal settlements in La Guajira.

As part of the Resilience Building approach, primary caregivers (largely women, but some men as well) in both countries were convened in 12 virtual caregiver group sessions that covered topics spanning self-care, managing emotions, setting goals and routines, protecting children from harm, and bonding across various activities with children. For the Transformative Male Caregiving approach, men gathered in male-only groups for ten sessions that covered parallel topics as the Resilience Building approach but also focused on goal-setting and reinforcing positive behavior that supports individual and family wellbeing. In between sessions, caregivers shared audio, video, and photo footage in chat groups of their engagement with their co-parenting partners and children such as family activities, reflections, and achievements. Additionally, expectant, new, and long-time male caregivers received key messages and nudges via SMS messages on topics related to self-care, support to children, and support to co-parenting partners. Primary caregivers (both men and women) received activity kits with games to complete, together with their children, to reinforce positive and playful caregiver-child interactions.

Initially, Save the Children faced some challenges, in both Iraq and Colombia, during implementation as the majority of caregivers were not accustomed to using smartphone-based platforms or were using them for the first time. Once caregivers received support and became more familiar, other challenges emerged. Regular access to data network connection was not always guaranteed as constant movement of families and periods of limited- to no- communication (between staff and families) occurred. Additionally, men were initially not accustomed to convening in a support-group setting and therefore their participation was difficult to secure. In both contexts, Iraq and Colombia, men typically associated any support related to children and caregivers as exclusive to women and thus would often refer their wives or encourage them to attend.

Despite these setbacks, the project produced meaningful gains and garnered positive feedback from families. Though barriers to network connection persisted and families continued to move (and in some cases, return), both men and women regularly shared positive changes and the impact the project had on their own lives. In both Iraq and Colombia, men reported feeling closer to their children and observed positive changes in their children’s behavior now that they were more engaged in children’s lives, thanks to their participation in the sessions.

“I always depended on my wife to raise and tutor my children. I was the person they feared. After joining the transformative male caregiving sessions, I feel that I am now using my time more efficiently for my children. I have a closer relationship with them now and they are no longer afraid that I will beat them. Instead, they run to me when I arrive home. I see that my children feel happier and I have almost stopped smoking too.”

— Salim (Syrian refugee father, Gawilan)

Men also reported that their motivation to continue participating in sessions was due to how critical it was for family unity. Project staff reported that men also naturally became a source of support to each other and would encourage other men within their group to keep participating and, in some cases, would show up to others’ homes (as restrictions allowed) to listen in on sessions together, which further reinforced their commitment to participating.

During group sessions, women shared that having a space to connect with other women allowed them to seek support outside of their families and find mutual encouragement from other women in similar circumstances. They also reported higher engagement from their husbands/partners in household tasks and responsibilities resulting in them feeling less stressed and more supported.

““I am now pregnant with my fourth child and my husband is a completely different person now than he was with our other three children. He is so attentive to my [individual] needs but also helps with the children, even does washing, cooking and other household chores.””

— Marta (Venezuelan migrant mother, La Guajira)

Through the feedback gathered from caregivers regarding the changes they were experiencing in their own lives throughout their participation, it is clear that this project and its approaches addressed critical needs of families on the move. Learnings from this project emphasize the need for adaptable, flexible delivery options to reach families during movement as well as the importance of addressing all caregivers, both men and women. The burden can no longer fall on one caregiver and strategies that directly address one caregiver while indirectly reaching the other fall short of addressing whole-family approaches that emphasize family harmony and commitment to wellbeing. The International Education industry needs to ensure that both men and women are equally supported because, in doing so, children and caregivers have the most to gain– leading to healthy, positive home environments that can mitigate stresses and adversity factors. More investment in the early years (especially as it relates to the intersectionality between gender, early learning, well-being and child protection) is critical, particularly for children and families in humanitarian and crisis settings. Program implementers need to make sure that these families continue to be supported and that innovative approaches address the dynamic nature of their situations. 

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[i] Bunce, Maureen; Rickards, Anna. 2004. Working with Bereaved Children: A Guide. Children’s Legal Centre

[ii] United Nations. Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on children. 15 April 2020. Retrieved from:

https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_children_16_april_2020.pdf

[iii] Human Rights Watch (9 April 2020). COVID-19’s Devastating Impact on Children. Retrieved from: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/09/covid-19s-devastatingimpact-children

Girls Inspired to Use Digital Approaches to Enhance Education Transitions

Written by BEC member World Vision (Zayid Douglas, Alisa Phillips, Janelle Zwier and Danielle McCadden)

World Vision believes in fostering girls’ agency and safe education transition for them to create bright futures for themselves.  In the past year and a half, when girls have experienced school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed the importance of harnessing a broad range of high- and low-tech distance learning approaches that are locally relevant and sometimes locally made from locally available materials.  We have used these methods to reach girls across the different education transitions, from pre-primary to primary, continuing through to secondary and Technical Vocational Education and Training. 

Young children, up to the age of 5, go through the most rapid brain development.[1]  Strategic investment in quality pre-primary education for young girls and boys is, therefore, critical to positively impact an individual’s lifelong learning outcomes and societies overall.[2]  To improve girls’ and boys’ life outcomes, we recognize that there is urgent need to increase quality programming that incorporates health, nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and early learning.[3]  Investing in this type of holistic pre-primary programming  that is play-based supports girls’ readiness to primary school and is essential for their development and success in primary school and beyond.  Children enjoy ‘playing to learn’ by using manipulatives [4]and interacting with their environment.  The pre-primary level is also a time of transition for both girls and boys as they meet new peers and learn to listen and follow new routines and instructions from teachers. The Rwanda Care and Comfort for Children on the Move project[5] emphasizes play, responsive caregiving, and positive parenting to support the development and transitions of young children.  In this project, technology plays a key role by using audio sessions, developed in partnership with Sesame Workshop, that deliver playful parenting messages to caregivers for them to actively engage in their children’s learning. 

Most of World Vision’s education programming and advocacy efforts focused on girls is done at the primary and secondary school levels.  We know that beginning in the early grades, peer-to-peer learning and mentoring is important for girls to build their self-esteem and agency to succeed throughout school.  Even at an early age, it’s important to motivate girls to be inspired to achieve more than what social norms might dictate.  The All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD), a partnership of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision and the Australian Government, advances EdTech innovation and research to improve reading outcomes for marginalized children in low-resource contexts. Through one innovation supported by this partnership, we learn about the story of a brave young girl named Grace.  Grace doesn't hesitate to experience new things and explore a new world as she takes a journey to space, something she's always dreamed about.  (To learn more about the author and the story of Grace in Space - go to the Global Digital Library [available for free download].)

Even as primary school-aged girls like the character Grace aspire to attend school and complete their education, they often experience increased home responsibilities, household chores, and greater and differing expectations about their role in the family as they age.  In primary school, we also begin to observe how gender dynamics influence cooperative or peer learning in the classroom.[6]  Even if girls can use technology in the classroom, access to technology outside of school time is not always afforded to girls, due to systemic and structural barriers that must be removed for girls to reap its benefit.[7] 

It was especially important to remove barriers to learning for secondary school girls during school closures due to COVID-19. In many cases, this not only involved improved hardware and software required for accessing technology, but also raising awareness with caregivers on the role of distance learning, the importance of using the technology, and the benefits of girls’ and boys’ (continued) learning while not being able to attend class in person.

Photo Credit: IGATE 2021

The World Vision-led Improving Gender Attitudes, Transition, and Education Outcomes (IGATE-T) project[8], funded by UK Aid through the Girls’ Education Challenge, revealed that there are entry barriers to digital learning related to girls’ lack of, or low foundational, literacy and numeracy skills, which often co-exist with the presence of less educated caregivers. Literacy and numeracy are essential for accessing digital skills; given the crisis of learning, particularly around literacy, this typically adds an additional layer of marginalization for girls.  The IGATE-T endline found that in some communities, students with uneducated caregivers were less likely to be supported to attend community learning. These caregivers were least likely to engage with learning activities disseminated via WhatsApp. 

However, girls like 13-year-old Esnath still found a way to access learning and motivate other girls to continue their education, even in the face of these obstacles.  When schools closed in Zimbabwe, the IGATE-T program applied many strategies, building networks of community volunteers and girl peer leaders to remotely deliver literacy, numeracy, and life skills content using WhatsApp—eventually supplementing with print material.  Intermediary community members and teachers worked to contact girl peer leaders and add those with access to phones to WhatsApp groups.  Still, very few could access WhatsApp, even if they had access to a mobile phone—thus broadcast SMS was added.  As a result of the outreach efforts by dedicated community members and teachers, 39% of peer leaders (382 of 977) were reached with these mobile platforms, most were of secondary school age.

During this time, Esnath was an instrumental peer leader in Chivi district, Zimbabwe.  She mobilized girls to attend community learning circles during school closures. Esnath shared, “At Nehanda CLC I am the secretary of peer leads and my duties are as follows; I lead on discussions and share some sessions. One of the sessions I did is on Peer Pressure, I told my friends not to get married early and finish school.’’ Esnath works closely with the champions at the center and refers girls who may need assistance and counselling.  She also maintains reading and study material that she shares with 9 other girls in her village.

““As a Peer leader I make sure that other children wash their hands before and after collecting their reading cards as I write their names down. I also select lessons on the radio for others to listen””

— Esnath

Evaluation findings confirmed that girls like Esnath who participated in peer learning sessions accelerated both their leadership and literacy skills. 

In the IGATE-T project, while the focus was on increasing girls’ primary school completion and increasing secondary school access, retention, and learning outcomes, not all girls were able to successfully make the transition to secondary school.  For girls who do not transition to secondary or do not complete due to multiple barriers, including pregnancy, vocational training and non-formal learning offers them an alternative.  In these cases, there is potential for skills development via coaching and support, peer facilitation, non-formal routes to qualifications, and opportunities for last mile delivery of quality content.  In all cases, access barriers, including gatekeepers to technology or resources, need to be addressed. Removing these barriers and making smart investments in technology-enhanced learning can open up new worlds of ideas, role models, and networks of support to often-isolated girls and young women.

When vocational training sessions for out of school youth disbanded abruptly in Zimbabwe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attempts to group and network out-of-school adolescents and young women remotely were difficult, as only 30% could be reached and put into WhatsApp support groups—versus 53% for boys. The majority had to be reached via intermediaries, including project community volunteers (who were also vital in recruiting the WhatsApp support group members, while around 12% of out of school adolescents and young women were no longer traceable.  These WhatsApp support groups and intermediaries firstly provided social support and maintenance of communication channels for alternative content delivery and dissemination of adapted resources (e.g., business skills consolidation guides), followed by mobilization and support for transition opportunities,[9] including modified vocational training courses (due to COVID).   These groups have evolved to become a lifeline in helping maintain girls’ social capital through ongoing networking and coaching, independent of the project.

Example of exchange between mentor and girl peer leader on topic of assertiveness and peer pressure.

Across the world from Zimbabwe, the USAID-funded Puentes project in Guatemala’s Western Highlands makes a concerted effort to introduce skills-based, educational, and entrepreneurial opportunities to youth ages 15 to 24—utilizing technology as a bridge to these groups.   With the advent of COVID-19, Puentes further expanded their education and training programming offerings with increased transmission of information and education through means such as using virtual platforms to teach courses virtually and provide guidance and support via text message—easing access, and removing barriers, to such life-enhancing information. For several years, Puentes has also provided courses via radio, and recently rolled out a web-based version of its core skills curriculum.  The increased flexibility and accessibility of such information has further supported youth with atypical schedules or those who are some distance away from Puentes centers. Youth with families, like Yesenia, a young mother who dropped out of secondary school when she became pregnant, are given the chance to continue their life skills education and training—giving them a new lease on life. In the words of Yesenia, they are given “…. the opportunity to focus on (our) goals and to dream.” Financial challenges brought on by the pandemic have driven some of Puentes’ older adolescent girl and female youth participants to engage in new livelihoods opportunities, often to generate income to support themselves and their families. Some are utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook to launch their small businesses.  

This all goes to show that through a wide range of digital technologies, girls across various age groups can be equipped to continue their education and training in both formal and informal spaces and live out their dreams.

In most places that World Vision works, girls still face a variety of hurdles that impact their ability to successfully transition between childhood and adolescence, and from adolescence into adulthood. This includes the risk of gender-based violence, including child marriage, and other barriers that leave them with limited schooling and skills-building opportunities as they age. We need to ensure that girls can safely access the digital technologies they need to support and enhance their pursuit of education and learning opportunities. We need to call on global actors to continue their investment in education programming that breaks the barriers limiting girls from living out their full potential. If passed by the US Congress, the Keeping Girls in School Act would mandate that USAID and US Department  of State  address various barriers including normative barriers that limit girls from pursuing quality secondary education including those that dictate girls’ interactions with technology . We are in this together. We must work to make sure that our girls stay connected to those resources and aids that help them stay on the path to a bright future.

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[1] Joan Lombardi on Getting the Most Bang for the Buck: Quality Early Education and Care, 2011
[2] Stepping up Early Childhood Development:  Investing in Young Children for High Returns, Dendoba, Amina, Sayre, Rebecca, Wodon Quentin, Elder, Leslie, Rawlings, Laura, Lombardi, Joan, World Bank, CIFF, 2014. 
[3] Early Childhood Development Coming of Age:  Science through the Lifecourse, Advancing Early Childhood Development:  From Science to Scale, Vol. 389, Issue 10064, January 2017.
[4] Manipulatives are defined as a hands-on approach where a learner uses objects to perceive an educational concept, etc.
[5] A Gift from the United States Government
[6] White Paper:  Learning through Play at School, Parker, Rachel, Thomsen, Bo Stjerne, The Lego Foundation, 2019. 
[7] EdTech Hub, Clear evidence, better decisions, more learning.  Girls’ Education and EdTech:  A Rapid Evidence Review, July 2020, Webb, Daniel, Barringer, Katie, Torrance, Rebecca, Refugee Support Network, Mitchell, Joel, Edtech Hub
[8] The IGATE-T Project since inception, has reached 40,928 primary and lower secondary girls in rural Zimbabwe.
[9] These transition opportunities include modified vocational training courses (due to COVID), standard operating procedures, attachments, part time continuing education, and start-up support.

Safety Matters!

When it comes to quality education, safety matters.

Student potential for academic achievement is maximized when the learning environment is positive, safe, and nurturing with effective instruction. Their social and emotional development thrives when teachers and children have a voice in school affairs; and when there are effective avenues for communicating about, responding to, and preventing threats to safety. USAID's Reading MATTERS Conceptual Framework asserts that the best reading outcomes are achieved when children's well-being is nurtured and guaranteed.

Image Credits: USAID Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (RTI)

Safety during COVID-19
COVID-19 has exacerbated underlying social and gender inequalities. Governments worldwide now also face the prospect of reopening schools, though not all students will have the ability to re-enroll. For learners who can return to school, learning loss will be just one of numerous challenges. Families have experienced increased stress and anxiety due to economic hardship. It will be more imperative than ever that teachers and school leaders collaborate with families to promote access to quality education that is safe, relevant, and promotes social well-being[1], particularly with a trauma-informed lens.

To gain some perspective on what this might mean, the Basic Education Coalition (BEC) Gender & Girls Education Working Group (GGE WG) consulted with several organizations that have worked with donors, governments, and communities to plan and sustain safe learning environments. While no situation is precisely the same in any school or in any country, here are some lessons these organizations have learned (in alphabetical order by country) around what fostering a safe home learning environment, as well as a safe return to school, might look like in these unprecedented times.

Afghanistan
When it comes to safety, the USAID-funded Afghan Children Reading (ACR) program, implemented by Creative Associates International, recommends the following:

Engage parents in children’s reading & social-emotional learning (SEL)
As stated in USAID’s Education Policy (2018), social-emotional learning (SEL) refers to a range of cognitive, social, and emotional skills that affect how children and youth manage their emotions, interact with others, and solve problems[2]. SEL is important to foster within both parents and children in order to develop and maintain a safe home learning environment. With the significant number of students across Afghanistan who continue to be out of the classroom due to primary school closure, Creative’s Afghan Children Reading program is working through various mediums, including radio, IVR/SMS, social media, and phone calls, to continue early grade learning and SEL at home. As part of this COVID-19 response programming, Afghan Children Read is sending gender-responsive tips to parents via SMS/IVR and online posters to help them support their children’s home-based learning and social-emotional learning. The tips include suggestions for parents to engage boys and girls in active and fun learning activities. Both mothers and fathers are encouraged to model effective listening, cooperation, and problem-solving skills to their early learners—all important to a safe home learning environment. Preliminary findings from ACR underscore that the tips are more effective when the content is locally-defined within distinct communities.

Liberia
Building on experiences from the Ebola epidemic and guided by the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative's (UNGEI) Whole School Approach to Prevent School-related Gender-based Violence (SRGBV), the USAID-funded Accelerated Quality Education for Liberian Children (AQE Liberia), implemented by Education Development Center/EDC, works with communities to address school-related gender-based violence and promote safe, equitable, and empowering learning[3] environments for students ages 8 to 15.

When working to improve safety in communities, AQE Liberia project staff advocate for the following approaches:

1. Measure, understand, reduce
   As gender gaps and barriers differ across regions, contexts, and education levels, collecting data to inform activities is critical. For example, a Gender Analysis, Safe Learning Environment (SLE) Assessment, and/or a Rapid Education and Risk Analysis provide vital information to inform activities such as teacher training, site selection and rehabilitation, materials development, and community engagement. In Liberia, the SLE Assessment provided data on teacher and learner experiences relating to corporal punishment, bullying, sexual violence, school climate, health, and environmental hazards in and around the school grounds. Ongoing analysis of Parent Teacher Associations’ action plans can also help the community and the project refine content and approaches to implementation to increase the likelihood of success.

2. Build school-family-community partnerships using a multi-sectoral approach
   School leadership and community engagement are critical to designing equitable, safe, and empowering learning environments. Through training, action planning and discussion, key stakeholders (including officials from various Ministries such as Education, Health, Gender, etc., PTA members, law enforcement, community social and health workers, county gender coordinators, and traditional leaders) learn about issues in their communities, as well as support and services available to them locally. And, more importantly, these activities put higher-level decision makers in the same room with community members, helping to build consensus about practical ways to promote safety.

Image Credits: AQE Liberia (EDC)

Photo Credits: World Vision

Malawi
World Vision is drawing from the experience in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, when schools were closed for eight months in Sierra Leone and girls were greatly affected when schools reopened. During that time, teenage pregnancy rates doubled by some accounts, with 11,000 adolescent students becoming pregnant[4]. To support girls and ensure their safety, World Vision is implementing the Safe and Nurturing Schools (SNS) program in one area in Nkhata Bay in the north of Malawi to prevent and respond to school-related gender-based violence. The program engages teachers, students, and community members (such as school management committees, PTAs, and faith leaders) in ongoing group education sessions to dialogue about social norms that are not only barriers to young mothers' re-entry but the safety of all girls and boys. This type of ongoing discussion forum will be especially critical during COVID-19 and once schools reopen. 

Specifically, World Vision Malawi will be concentrating on the following to ensure all girls and boys are returning to school and learning:  

1. Remove barriers to reentry
   Collaboration between ministries and communities is key to removing barriers to reentry. In Malawi, World Vision will facilitate collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social welfare, and communities to support a re-admission policy that allows young mothers to re-enroll in school to continue their education. Safe and Nurturing Schools student clubs, teacher groups, and community groups (especially trusted mothers’ groups and faith groups), will be instrumental in reinforcing this policy to ensure the safety of all students and reduce barriers to young mothers' re-entry.  

2. Encourage positive discipline and gender-sensitive pedagogy
   Another important component of safe learning environments is training teachers in positive discipline and gender-sensitive pedagogy[5]. World Vision Malawi will continue training teachers in positive discipline as part of the Safe and Nurturing Schools program, building off of evidence from the Good School Toolkit Program in Uganda[6].       

Tanzania
When working to improve safety for students, the USAID/Tanzania Tusome Pamoja Project, implemented by RTI International, encourages a focus on the following:

Build social-emotional learning (SEL) in teachers
As a pivot to COVID-19 the USAID/Tanzania Tusome Pamoja Project focused on four pillars of school safety through a remote support program with teachers. Before COVID reached Tanzania, Tusome Pamoja had engaged a cohort of teachers from the Iringa District in a co-creation process to review, adapt, and select both teacher and student-based activities that promote SEL, social classrooms, and positive and supportive school climates. When COVID reached Tanzania, Tusome Pamoja began a virtual co-creation with the same teachers using a mobile learning platform, Cell-Ed. For ten weeks, teachers engaged with this virtual content and learned what they can do in their classrooms to ensure positive and safe learning environments, much of which focus on classroom management practices and teachers’ SEL and well-being. Teachers’ own social and emotional competencies must be developed and cared for in order for them to be ready, able, and willing to address those of their students and to serve as champions of safety in their schools and classrooms.

Image Credits: USAID/Tanzania Tusome Pamoja Project (RTI)

Uganda
When planning for the recovery phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (USAID/LARA), implemented by RTI International, recommends the following:

1. Assess the safety risks
   Conducting a collaborative school mapping risk assessment helps to identify safety risks in and around the school. Potential risks may include stigma, discrimination, and bullying between students. Based on learning from the HIV and AIDS pandemic, risk assessments can be led by the school governance body (including students, caregivers, teachers, local actors, and faith leaders) and are essential to adapt approaches to the current context.

2. Engage teachers, learners, and parents in SEL Activities
   The USAID/LARA program highlights the importance of engaging teachers in the change process. To nourish SEL in students, we must prioritize SEL in teachers so that they are ready to support their students as they grow and develop. During school closures, helping parents to support their children’s continued learning is critical for mitigating school drop-out and learning loss. At the same time, parents and their children can benefit from practical tips to support their SEL, wellbeing, and overall safety.

Image Credits: USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (RTI)

Image Credits: RTI International

Looking ahead
All students have the right to a safe and equitable learning environment and, while safety matters all the time, it is particularly essential during and after an emergency. As governments shift their focus and resources to reopening schools and, in some cases, providing virtual or blended learning options, it is imperative that the focus on safety not be lost. This focus on safety, and the provision of safety measures, can only be successful if it includes a gender lens. Coordination will be essential across sectors and between Ministry officials, school administrators, teachers, parents, and community leaders. Only then will we be able to mitigate the inequalities and safety issues exacerbated by emergencies.

Engaging with this blog
We hope these shared recommendations will help to inform school reopening plans and promote a much-needed emphasis on safety. We also realize the benefit of gleaning expertise from the broader development community, and we invite you to join the conversation. Please take a moment to leave a comment or question on this topic below, including reflections, lessons learned, case studies, or best practices to promote safety in the home and school.

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Who we are
The Basic Education Coalition (BEC) is a group of leading US-based organizations and academic institutions working together to promote global peace and prosperity through education. By leveraging our collective technical expertise and combining advocacy efforts, BEC members raise a unified voice to ensure US policymakers support and strengthen education for the developing world. Over the past six months, BEC’s Gender and Girls Education Working Group (GGE WG) has met regularly through a series of virtual learning exchanges. Safety was the first of three themes we tackled and, as a working group, we shared best practices and common challenges to promoting safety during this pandemic and beyond. As a group of local and global implementers, we are committed to sharing knowledge, experiences, and promising approaches about what works with the broader development community via this blog post.

A special thanks to our contributors (in alphabetical order, *denotes key authors):

• Alisa Phillips (World Vision)*

• Amy Deal (Education Development Center)

• Audrey Spencer (Chemonics International, BEC Gender & Girls Education Co-Chair)

• Elizabeth Randolph (RTI International)

• Hannah Kuntz (Education Development Center)*

• Hassan Mulusi (Raising Voices)

• Hope Wambi (Raising Voices)

• Janet Shriberg (Creative Associates International, BEC Gender & Girls Education Co-Chair)*

• Judith Oki (Education Development Center)

• Julianne Norman (RTI International)

• Lorpu Manneh (Ministry of Education Liberia)

• Mary Cummings (Education Development Center)

• Mary Sugrue (Education Development Center, BEC Gender & Girls Education Co-Chair)*

• Paige Morency-Notario (Basic Education Coalition)*

• Takudzwa Kanyangarara (United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative—UNGEI)

• Yolande Miller-Grandvaux (FHI 360)

References
[1] World Bank (2019). Ending Learning Poverty: What Will It Take? World Bank, Washington, DC. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
[2] USAID (2018). USAID Education Policy.
[3] UNGEI. [n.d.] A whole school approach to prevent school-related gender-based violence.
[4] Bandiera et al (2018). The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola: Lessons from an Empowerment Program. UNFPA (2018). Recovering from the Ebola Virus Disease: Rapid Assessment of Pregnant Adolescent Girls in Sierra Leone.
[5] World Vision (April 2020). Baseline Survey for Safe & Nurturing Schools. Malawi Institute of Education.
[6]Knight, L., Allen, E., Mirembe, A. et al (2018). Implementation of the Good School Toolkit in Uganda: a quantitative process evaluation of a successful violence prevention program. BMC Public Health 18, 608.