The document summarizes a study on the implementation of gender equality and education policies in Kenya and South Africa in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It finds that in both countries: 1) MDG goals were interpreted narrowly in terms of reporting and numbers rather than meaningful engagement or discussion. 2) There was blame placed on the poor for lack of progress, rather than examining lack of resources or historical factors. 3) National officials and others blamed "cultural values" and communities rather than taking responsibility to address issues like poverty that impacted gender equality.

1. “Blaming the poor”: Marginality,
disconnection and the implementation of
policy on gender equality and education in
Kenya and South Africa
Amy North, UCL Institute of Education

2. Marginality, disconnection and the
implementation of policy on gender equality and
education in Kenya and South Africa
• In Kenya and South Africa MDG goals on education and gender
equality were interpreted in terms of reporting, counting or
“procedural fairness” with little space for critical discussion or
engagement
• In both countries blame and practices of boundary setting were
evident between those delivering and receiving education in the
context of poverty.
• The poor, rather than the institutions, the limited resources, or the
history of international and national relationships were blamed for
lack of achievement of gender equity.

3. Global organisations: critical but strategic
engagement with the gender parity target
• Focus on access/parity ‘…has skewed the way we look at education...
and the whole box of teaching and learning and what actually
happens in school has somehow got lost in this ten years of push for
access. (Staff member, Donor agency 7a, 28/01/2009)
• But…So in that sense the MDGs is a weaker document for women and
for the women’s agenda. It’s not agenda for women… but the good
thing about the MDGs and the declaration is that it put gender, it
brought it into the mainstream…. MDGs is something that’s being,
it’s on everybody’s lips... it’s part of a movement that has definitely
made it possible, to finally consider that gender equality should be
right up there among, as a global gaol, fundamental to the progress of
societies…. (multilateral 10)

4. Kenya: Gender as counting
Gender parity seen as a useful way to manage data and reporting across
hierarchies upwards from the provincial level to the global. Frameworks
understood in terms of reporting and counting numbers of girls and boys:
• What [I] like about the EFA, the MDG and other international commitments
is that they give us something to work towards. For example, when you talk
of this near gender parity at the national level... We talk about the regional
disparities, and then the government is able to address those regional
disparities… So they give us something to benchmark, they give us
something to work towards, and they give us a hope. And they tell us
where we are. Because without them we would just be process oriented.
We [instruct officials that we] expect to have this result by this time, by this
year. And they give us reports on a yearly basis. (Kenya National Official 10,
02/04/2009)
• …in our gender policy we have been keen to incorporate both boys and
girls in school we make it plain. Our agenda is to have both boys and girls in
school. (Kenya National Official 5, 21/05/2008)

5. South Africa: Procedural fairness
A gender-blind approach to equity was a key feature of policy text and talk in
the South African department of education, where there was a concern with
procedural fairness and a view that you either “do gender” or “do poverty”
• Like I say, it (gender) is much more secondary to us because we deal much
more with poverty and poverty is poverty whether you are male or female
(SA National Official 16, 14/11/2008)
• So that’s why I say it’s more and more poverty alleviation. I think that’s
what would make life easier for many children to attend school irrespective
of their gender. (SA National Official 11, 14/11/2008)
• We deal with hunger and hunger does not discriminate. For us gender
doesn’t come out as an issue. (SA National Official 16, 14/11/2008)

6. Blaming the poor: Poverty, ignorance and cultural
essentialism in Kenya
In the face of pessimism about achieving the MDG targets, what are termed
'cultural values’, and the communities that practice them, are blamed by officers
for gender inequality.
• So poverty contributes a lot. Ignorance also, and poverty is closely related to
ignorance. Where there is poverty there is a lot of ignorance (National Official 12,
7 April 2009)
• The other parent who is illiterate, can trade off his daughter for a few cows which
will die even after a few days because of drought ... if they are ignorant and
illiterate, they marry off their daughters at a very young age. (National Official 12,
7 April 2009)
• Poverty honestly is still an issue here. And it is a major contributing factor to
prostitution … We are now seeing a [ethnic group] woman doing prostitution.
And you see a mother sending her girl to go for men so that they can have a
packet of unga at the end of the day. Cause you know you don’t have any other
source of income. (District Official 2, 28 November 2008)

7. Blaming the poor: Poverty, ignorance and
cultural essentialism in Kenya
• The parents keep shifting and at times they don’t have money. They
don’t want to pay. (Headteacher, interviewed February 2008)
• [T]he other thing is that [parents’] lack of seriousness and ignorance.
Because I don’t understand why a parent should not take a child to
school. (Headteacher, interviewed 28 May 2008)
• In our school, most of the students come from the nearby village and
they have not been raised up in Christian families. They are brought
up in a house that has only one room and the whole family [...] share
the same room. This in turn affects their interaction with other
children in school [...] parents should bring them up in the expected
manner. (SGB 1, 29/05/2008)

8. Blaming the poor: Morality and pregnancy in
South Africa
• …girl children [are] opting to have children so that they [can] collect [the child support]
grant. In our dialogues it came out a number of times that girl learners- some of them
would come out in the open and say it’s their parents pressing on them to have babies so
that the entire family could receive something to eat, you know. So they are pushed into
prostituting and uh you know: “it’s ok”. The school principal - we’ve got cases of school
principal, school teachers impregnating girl learners and all the parents can say is that he
buys us food... Some girl learners feel that it’s kind of like you have a child [so the grant]
is your reward and then you can live a luxurious life and buy yourself cell phones…
(Province Official 2, 06/02/2009)
• W1: They wanted to have babies so they should stay at home and not go back to school
[…] because all girls fall pregnant these days.
W2: They should give birth to babies. That’s what they do best.
W3: We need to be careful of doing things that perpetuate wrong habits. If the child falls
pregnant while doing [Grade 8] and you send that child back to school, she will do it
again because she knows you will look after the baby.
W1: That is why you have to punish her by not taking her back to school.
(Group interview on 5/6/09)

9. Blaming the poor: implications for practice
• At the school level: maintenance of a horizontal disjuncture between the school and the
community of parents and pupils and few initiatives to challenge this can be sustained.
The absence of opportunities for critical interaction and discussion regarding gender and
poverty, mean that the voices of poor parents are not invited into discussions of policy
• At the national and provincial levels: a narrow focus on parity in enrolments is closely
associated with assumptions that the poor – and those from particular ethnic groups - do
not value education or want to send their daughters to school. Efforts are made to
“rescue girls” from their communities, but there is little attempt to develop more
meaningful forms of community engagement.
• Responsibility for addressing concerns with gender equality more broadly is often
deflected to marginalised communities themselves, rather than entailing a process of
critical reflection on the content of education and the nature of the policy and decision
making process itself. Opportunities for involving wider groups of stakeholders – from
diverse communities – in national and local policy processes and discussions are not
developed.
• In both countries evidence that NGOs were attempting to open up spaces for discussion

10. From SDG 4
• …By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills
needed to promote sustainable development, including, among
others, through education for sustainable development and
sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a
culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation
of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable
development. -

11. SDG 5
End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including
trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure
and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family
as nationally appropriate.
Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision
making in political, economic and public life.
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with
the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing
Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and
control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in
accordance with national laws.
Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote
the empowerment of women.
Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the
empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.