Gender Analysis of Save the Children Norway’s Education Programme

Background and objectives

The purpose of the assignment was to conduct a gender analysis of Save the Children Norway’s (SCN) long term education programme and education in emergencies education programme. The aim was to determine the level to which SCN’s education programmes address gender equality, a key priority in the Save the Children (SC) Movement. SC aims for all programmes to be gender-sensitive by 2018 and all programmes to be gender transformative by 2030.

Methodology

The analysis consisted of three main parts: 1) a review of 26 education and education in emergencies proposals (including results frameworks and budgets) using the SC Gender Equality Marker (GEM); 2) an online survey shared with country offices and SCN Award Managers, resulting in 43 respondents; and 3) interviews with 19 SCN staff. Data was analysed using Microsoft Office Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences v. 24.

Key findings

Most of SCN’s proposals, 81%, do not meet the minimum SC standard of being gender sensitive, with the majority only incorporating gender elements to a certain extent. The area that country offices (COs) had the most difficulty incorporating gender into was allocating technical and financial resources to work with gender. 

Gender analyses are neither consistently used in the project design phase nor in the needs assessment phase. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) indicators for gender are very weak and are limited to data disaggregation by sex and age. Although the GEM is new, the Gender Equality Program Guidance & Toolkit was published in 2014 and only 16% of staff have ever used it. Most respondents, 86%, used gender analyses in the design or implementation of projects. The two most determining factors for use of gender analyses were (1) having a clear mandate on mainstreaming gender within teams and (2) confidence level in the understanding of gender mainstreaming. There are mixed views on where the responsibility of monitoring gender should lie, with mixed opinions on the roles of Technical Advisors (TAs), Award Managers (AMs) and Area Directors in the process. There is a perception that gender is not prioritised by senior management and SCN staff await a clear steer and mandate from their managers on how SCN expects to work with gender. Although there was agreement amongst interviewees that more resources need to be invested on staff time working on gender, there were mixed views about how the gender staff role should be structured

Recommendations

1. If SCN would like to improve the way in which it is working with gender, an investment needs to be made in human resources. It is recommended that SCN consider the recruitment of a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor who will be able to work on several cross-cutting issues.
   
   An alternative is to recruit a Gender Advisor on a short-term, two-year contract, with clear terms of reference and deliverables to capacitate the various departments within SCN to come to standard with regards to gender.
   
   
2. In the short-term, it is recommended that SCN borrow or purchase gender technical assistance from other members with strong resources on gender such as Save the Children Sweden.
3. 3. During the interviews, it was clear that several staff members had strong gender competence. It is therefore recommended to vet existing gender competence within each department to gain understanding of how each team can be better capacitated.
4. 4. For SCN to work systematically on gender, it needs to be embedded in the day-to-day activities of each department. It is recommended that each department delegate a ‘Gender Champion’ who monitors each department’s work on gender and supports colleagues in working on gender. The task can be rotated among team members every six months.
5. 5. It is possible that while gender may not be explicitly addressed throughout proposals, it would be addressed during implementation. It is therefore recommended that AMs evaluate the latest annual reports to determine the level of gender integration. The information should then be used to guide future annual plans.
6. 6. While outcomes agreed on with donors cannot be changed, it is possible to introduce activities that are gender-sensitive and that will contribute to reaching overall outcomes. It is therefore recommended that AMs identify where these gaps lie in their respective portfolios and support COs to introduce gender-sensitive activities in the remaining Norad framework period and in new project proposals.
7. 7. It is recommended that TAs identify gender-sensitive activities related to their respective thematic area that could improve the quality of projects and of gender mainstreaming.
8. 8. MEAL systems need to be introduced to allow for more in-depth data collection on gender. Current data collection is limited to sex and age disaggregation and this is not sufficient for quality gender programming. It is also important to support COs to introduce gender-sensitive data collection methods when conducting gender analyses.
9. 9. In SCN’s current structure, AMs have end-to-end responsibility for grants. Based on the outcomes of this analysis, the AMs workload with regards to addressing cross-cutting issues in addition to their current workload poses a risk in working systematically with gender and other cross-cutting issues. It is therefore important that the Programme Quality Department and International Programmes Department put systems in place that will facilitate a realistic way for AMs and TAs to work on gender going forward

Comments from the organisation

Save the Children Norway is currently developing a gender action plan for the entire organisation where the findings and recommendations from this evaluation is being reflected. In 2017, Save the Children International has also adopted a global gender policy.