PREAM

Participatory Research on Education and Agency in Mali

Overview

PREAM is a three-year international collaboration between Plan International, McGill University, and the University of Letters and Human Sciences of Bamako (ULSHB), funded through the Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) program, a research initiative led by Dubai Cares together with The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE).

This research initiative complements work currently underway in Mali through IMAGINE, an education in emergencies project being delivered through a consortium of Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision, with support from Global Affairs Canada.

Background

Background
Main research question

Two girls are sitting in the classroom and looking at drawings hanging in front of the blackboard.

Background

The research builds on a recognition that education inequalities for girls exist within, and are impacted by, wider gender inequalities in their communities. Changes to local beliefs and behaviours around gender have been shown to directly support girls’ participation in education, while increasing girls’ education can have a significant impact on gender equality in the broader school environment.

However, the connection between gender inequality and girls’ education in conflict is unclear. Agency, defined as the power to make and act on choices, is considered an essential component of gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment. For this reason, PREAM aims to increase our understanding of this relationship and to generate valuable findings to inform policy and practice related to education and gender equality in conflict-affected settings in Mali and beyond.

PREAM’s main research question:

What is the relationship between the agency of adolescents (aged 13-18 years), especially girls, and their experience of secondary education in conflict-affected settings of Mopti and Ségou, Mali?

Using a participatory mixed methods approach, the research aims to identify the gendered differences between girls and boys in both agency and education participation to directly support interventions that aim to remove educational barriers for girls.

This is particularly relevant for fragile, conflict, and crisis-affected settings. The most significant gender inequalities and the greatest educational needs of girls are in crisis and conflict settings (INEE, 2019). PREAM therefore has the potential to greatly influence the design and delivery of education programming in similar contexts. Findings will also support a wider research agenda on the role of women and girls’ agency and education in conflict and crisis response, recovery, and resolution. Girls who are educated and empowered can provide a resource for change in these contexts.

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Research Design

The project’s qualitative approach uses child-friendly arts-based and participatory methods such as drawing and cellphilming (videos on tablets or cellphones), while a quantitative survey builds on adolescents’ insight into agency and education on a larger scale. Qualitative Data has been collected through workshops in Year 1, alongside a quantitative survey in Year 2. This data will inform the final qualitative workshops in year 3 with adolescents in Segou and Mopti.

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in Mali in 2012, a protracted humanitarian crisis and deteriorating security situation persist. Over two million primary-aged children are out of school, owing to poverty, insecurity, and harmful norms and practices like child labour and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) (UNICEF, 2019). Insecurity, including in the form of attacks on schools and threats to teachers, has left over 800 schools closed, curtailing the education of approximately 250,000 children (UNICEF, 2019).

The conflict has had a devastating effect on access to education, especially for girls, with primary education enrolment and completion levels dropping. Girls’ enrolment rates decrease with age, from 57% at primary level to 26% at the secondary level (UNESCO UIS, 2017). Mopti and Ségou regions have the lowest net enrollment rate in first cycle of basic education, while Mopti has the highest percentage of out-of-school children in Mali.

Findings, Publications & Resources

Research Team

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Idrissa Soïba Traoré

Idrissa Soïba Traoré holds a doctorate in the Education Sciences from l’Université de Paris 8. He is the author of some twenty scientific articles published in Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Tunisia, France, and Switzerland and of a book entitled École et Décentralisation au Mali, des logiques d’appropriation locale aux dynamiques de conquête de l’espace scolaire. He has successively held the positions of Section Chief and Chief of the Department of Education Sciences, Vice Rector and Rector of the Université des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Bamako. Professor Traoré is, at Africa’s level, the General Secretary of the board of directors of the leaders’ assembly of Aide et Action International. As a senior lecturer, he participated in several scientific and research activities including rapporteur at the colloquium on security governance in Mali (2014); mentor of the research team on the mutation of values as a factor of destabilisation of social cohesion at Mali’s Institute for Action Research for PEACE (IMRAP) (2015-2016); and participant at the colloquium on School Governance in the South at Bordeaux in France (2015). He has also been consulting and conducting research on numerous studies including on the following themes: Governance, Security and Human Rights in Mali with NDI (2014-2015); Cross-border access to basic social services with ANDAL Laboratory (2015); Early marriage in Mali with IDRC-WILDAF (2016-2017); The dynamics of local/community conflicts in the urban communities of Niono and Macina in the Ségou region with ARGA, AMSS, ALERT (2016); The cartography of intervening actors in the National Reconciliation of the Republic of Mali with IMRAP (2018); and an Enquiry in 45 communes in Central and Northern Mali as part of the USAID’s five-year peace consolidation, stabilisation and reconciliation program (2019).

Partners

Through PREAM, Plan International, McGill University and the University of Letters and Human Sciences of Bamako (ULSHB) are part of the Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) community, a research initiative led by INEE in partnership with Dubai Cares.

University of Letters and Human Sciences of Bamako (ULSHB)
Project contact: Dr. Moriké Dembele
McGill University
Project contact: Dr. Claudia Mitchell

Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares is a UAE-based global philanthropic organization that works towards providing children and youth in developing countries with access to quality education. Since its inception in 2007, the organization has successfully launched education programs reaching over 20 million beneficiaries in 60 developing countries. Dubai Cares also plays a key role in helping achieve the UN SDG4 on quality education. To learn more, please visit www.dubaicares.ae
INEE
The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is an open, global network of members working together within a humanitarian and development framework to ensure that all individuals have the right to a quality, safe, relevant, and equitable education. INEE’s work is founded on the fundamental right to education. PREAM falls under the E-cubed research envelope which is led by Dubai Cares and INEE.

Plan International Canada
Project contact: Roshan Tabari-Cherer
E-Cubed:
The Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) Research Fund aims to strengthen the evidence base in EiE, by supporting contextually relevant and usable research, and disseminating global public goods. Dubai Cares partnered with INEE in 2017 to design and manage this research fund. To learn more, please visit https://inee.org/evidence/e-cubed

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