The Joint Programme is an initiative under the framework of the Global Partnership between UNESCO, UNFPA and UN Women for Girls’ and Women’s Education – Better Life, Better Future, launched in 2011, which seeks to increase learning opportunities for adolescent girls and women and to find innovative solutions for some of the biggest challenges and obstacles to their education.
In Nepal, the Joint Programme was implemented from 2016-to 2021 in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology with financial support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in five districts (Accham, Bajura, Rautahat, Sarlahi and Sunsari), with a focus on 14 municipalities, where girls and women are socio-economically marginalized and do not have easy access to safe water, sanitation, health services and other basic needs, due to which their opportunities to quality education have been denied or compromised.
The Joint Programme adopted a holistic and multi-sectoral strategy to break the cycle of exclusion and vulnerability, working in and across education, health, youth, skills development, and women’s economic empowerment. To ensure girls’ and women’s right to education and create an enabling environment for the most vulnerable, the Joint Programme primarily worked on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), Functional Literacy Classes (FLCs), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), WASH facility upscaling and vocational training in close coordination with Local/Federal governments, schools and Community Learning Centers (CLCs).
Objectives
- To foster an enabling environment to improve the quality and relevance of education for adolescent girls and young women
- To empower vulnerable out-of-school girls and young women through increased access to quality education integrating Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and participation in the labour market
- To create safe and healthy learning environments in school through the provision of information on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), reproductive health and improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
- To enhance knowledge and attitudes at the community level in support of a safe and healthy learning environment