Policies and interventions to remove gender‐related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of the evidence

Abstract

Background Gender disparities in education continue to undermine girls' opportunities, despite enormous strides in recent years to improve primary enrolment and attainment for girls in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). At the regional, country and subnational levels gender gaps remain, with girls in many settings less likely to complete primary school, less likely to complete secondary, and often less likely to be literate than boys. The academic and policy literatures on the topic of gender‐related barriers to girls' education are both extensive. However, there remain gaps in knowledge regarding which interventions are most likely to work in contexts with different combinations of barriers. Objectives This systematic review identified and assessed the strength of the evidence of interventions and exposures addressing gender‐related barriers to schooling for girls in LMICs. Search Methods The AEA RCT Registry, Africa Bibliography, African Education Research Database, African Journals Online, DEC USAID, Dissertation Abstracts, EconLit, ELDIS, Evidence Hub, Global Index Medicus, IDEAS‐Repec, Intl Clinical Trials Registry, NBER, OpenGrey, Open Knowledge Repository, POPLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, Research for Development Outputs, ScienceDirect, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, as well as relevant organization websites were searched electronically in March and April of 2019. Further searches were conducted through review of bibliographies as well as through inquiries to authors of included studies, relevant researchers and relevant organizations, and completed in March 2020. Selection Criteria We included randomized controlled trials as well as quasi‐experimental studies that used quantitative models that attempted to control for endogeneity. Manuscripts could be either published, peer‐reviewed articles or grey literature such as working papers, reports and dissertations. Studies must have been published on or after 2000, employed an intervention or exposure that attempted to address a gender‐related barrier to schooling, analyzed the effects of the intervention/exposure on at least one of our primary outcomes of interest, and utilized data from LMICs to be included. Data Collection and Analysis A team of reviewers was grouped into pairs to independently screen articles for relevance, extract data and assess risk of bias for each included study. A third reviewer assisted in resolving any disputes. Risk of bias was assessed either through the RoB 2 tool for experimental studies or the ROBINS‐I tool for quasi‐experimental studies. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics and reported outcome measures between studies, we applied the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach adapted for situations where a meta‐analysis is not possible to synthesize the research. Results Interventions rated as effective exist for three gender‐related barriers: inability to afford tuition and fees, lack of adequate food, and insufficient academic support. Promising inter...

“It’s the poverty”—Stakeholder perspectives on barriers to secondary education in rural Burkina Faso

“…Rheinländer et al, for instance, highlighted the role of sanitation for girls’ secondary schooling rates [ 64 ]. A recent review identified several promising interventions to remove barriers to girls’ school participation and learning in low- and middle-income countries, including lack of water and sanitation [ 22 ]. In terms of nutritional environment, school-based food assistance could provide students to have at least one proper meal a day, further improving both health and education outcomes jointly [ 23 , 65 , 66 ].…”

“…Our findings have several implications for future research. First, there is a need for well-designed studies on tackling barriers to schooling in settings where secondary schooling is persistently low [ 22 , 73 ]. Our work can inform future schooling interventions which aim to assess strategies to reduce the number of adolescents who leave school early.…”

“…Relatively little remains known, however, regarding barriers to secondary schooling, particularly in contexts where schooling is very low. For example, in a recent review of interventions to remove barriers to girls’ schooling in low- and middle-income countries only two out of >80 studies were conducted in Burkina Faso [ 22 ]. Both studies assessed broad efforts to improve the school environment, such as constructing entire schools and additional classrooms, and were focused on the primary school level [ 23 , 24 ].…”

Evidence on Programmes that have Supported School Return for Disadvantaged Adolescent Girls

“…There are mixed results on educational impact of programmes that promote safe spaces/girls' clubs and life skill development through female mentors. Psaki, Haberland, Mench, Woyczynski, andChuang, 2022 andAshraf cited in Psaki et al, 2020 found a small but statistically significant effect sizes of safe spaces on enrolment, though they observe that there no effects on absenteeism or academic skills. While providing a space for girls to meet with female mentors may reduce the isolation disadvantaged adolescent girls face in many settings and build their social assets, there is limited evidence that mentored groups alone can improve educational outcomes, especially academic skills unless key components on literacy, numeracy and financial training are integrated in such programmes (ibid).…”

Mainstreaming Gender Perspectives in Modular Instruction

“…Research consistently shows a lack of awareness and implementation of gender mainstreaming practices (Gurung & Rajbanshi, 2020;Kitta & Cardona Moltó, 2022;Nurhaeni & Kurniawan, 2018). Given the increasing recognition in research that gender equity calls for a strong intervention (Psaki et al, 2022;Shih & Wang, 2021), this research aims to identify the mainstreaming of gender perspective practices and the challenges in modular instruction. Recognizing the challenges in promoting gender-fair practices was essential in proposing intervention measures for crafting the syllabi and modules.…”