This presentation summarizes research comparing human rights education (HRE) approaches in Jordan and Bangladesh. In Jordan, the Makani program embedded substantial HRE content, including child rights and protection. In Bangladesh, temporary learning centers had some life skills training but lacked education for human rights, leaving many adolescents without opportunities. The presentation concludes with recommendations such as ensuring proper training and resources, adapting programs to contexts, and promoting social cohesion.

1. Megan Devonald
GAGE Qualitative
Researcher
Human rights education in humanitarian
settings: opportunities and challenges
Silvia Guglielmi
GAGE Qualitative
Researcher

2. Outline of Presentation
1
• Overview: GAGE research
2
•Jordan and Bangladesh: methodology, context and results
3
•Jordan and Bangladesh: findings
4
• Conclusions and policy recommendations

3. Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE):
A longitudinal research programme in the low and middle income countries (2015-2024)
By finding out ‘what works,’ for whom,
where and why, we can better support
adolescent girls and boys to maximise
their capabilities now and in the future

4. Human rights education in humanitarian settings: opportunities
and challenges
• Overview: This article compares the extent to
which HRE is embedded in The Makani
programme in Jordan and temporary learning
centres in Bangladesh.
• Populations: Syrian refugees in Jordan and
Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
Authors:
• Qualitative: Megan Devonald, Nicola Jones, Silvia Guglielmi
– Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence, ODI
• Quantitative: Jennifer Seager, Sarah Baird - George Washington University

5. The UN highlights three key dimensions of HRE:
Education about
human rights:
providing an
understanding of
human rights
principles and values
Education for human
rights: empowering
participants so that
they can exercise
their own human
rights and respect the
rights of others.
Education through
human rights:
ensuring the way
human rights
are taught align with
the principles of
human rights.

6. Jordan and Bangladesh:
methodology and sample
Adolescent school girls in Bangladesh © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019

7. GAGE Jordan research sites and sample breakdown
Nationality:
• Syrian: 1593
Vulnerable Groups:
• Adolescents w/ disabilities (10%)
• Married adolescents (5%)
Gender break down:
• Quantitative: 10-14 Girls: 788, Boys:
805
• Qualitative: 10-14 Girls: 39, Boys: 27
15-18 Girls: 34, Boys: 17
Location type:
• Camps
• ITS
• Host communities

8. GAGE Bangladesh research sites and sample breakdown
Nationality:
• Rohingya: 608
Vulnerable Groups:
• Adolescents w/ disabilities: 8%
• Married girls: 16%
Gender:
• Quantitative 10-14 Girls: 293, Boys:
350
• Qualitative 10-14 Girls: 16, Boys: 18
15-18 Girls: 26, Boys: 13
Location type:
• Camps: 32

9. Jordan and Bangladesh:
context and findings
Adolescent out-of-school girl in ITS in Jordan © Nathalie Bertrams/GAGE 2019

10. Jordan context
Jordan has the second highest proportion of refugees compared to their population.
Jordan faces significant economic and social challenges.
Syrian refugees have been in Jordan for a decade (hundreds of thousands have
fled Syria to Jordan since the 2011 conflict).
In recent years educational opportunities have improved for refugees and they can
attend formal school through nationwide double-shift system.
They also have access to the non-formal education programme Makani

11. Overview of the Makani programme
• Provides non-formal tuition, life skills and child
protection services.
• Reaches approximately 200,000 vulnerable
refugees and Jordanian children and
adolescents.
• Teaches children concepts of child rights and
ensures staff ‘not only promote but also respect
human rights’
• Also provides community outreach sessions for
parents.
• Facilitators are from the local community and
are provided with child protection training.

12. Jordan findings
• Centred on a child rights-centred approach, includes
substantial content on different aspects of human
rights:
• child protection,
• freedom from violence/child marriage,
• conflict resolution.
• 48% of Makani attendees know where to seek support
if they experience violence, compared to 39% of those
not attending.
‘We worked a lot on the topic of early marriage to raise
awareness… The adolescents now demand their rights and
they said to their parents that they don’t want early marriage.’
(Makani facilitator)
Adolescent girl in Jordan © Nathalie Bertrams
GAGE 2019

13. Jordan findings
• Participatory pedagogical approach, with
teachers using explanations and open
dialogue in contrast to authoritarian style
of schoolteachers.
• The programme encourages social
cohesion between host and refugee
students.
• Other participants described learning
about inclusion from interacting with
people with disabilities.
‘The activities in the beginning encouraged
us to get to know new people from different
countries– we learned to appreciate each
other and recognise that there are few
differences between us.’ (17-year-
old Syrian refugee girl from the host
community

14. Jordan findings
‘I was hoping to be a leader in my community, but I didn’t know what a good
leader was. When I received the training, they taught us what the characteristics
of a leader are and how he or she behaves in different’
(15 year old girl from host community).
Social innovation labs allow participants to apply their learning to
problems they want to tackle in the community and learn the
importance of young people contributing and volunteering.
‘We participated in raising awareness campaigns, wrote people’s problems, and
suggested solutions. We could solve the verbal harassment in the street by
strengthening our personalities’
(12-year-old girl from a refugee camp)
76% of Makani participants feel comfortable expressing opinions to
people older than them, compared to 65% of non-participants.

15. Bangladesh context
860,000 Rohingya
refugees in Cox's
Bazar Bangladesh
approximately 23%
of which are
adolescent girls
and boys aged
10 – 19
Due to a history of
exclusion, little is
known about
adolescent
Rohingya refugees
predating their
displacement.
The Rohingya's
lack legal refugee
status, placing
them in “legal and
humanitarian
limbo”
(Bhatia et al.,
2019)
Limited capacity
and political will
to absorb
Rohingya into the
education system
excludes them
from host
community
schools.
Refugee children
and adolescents
only have access
to non-formal
education,
predominately
NGO and UN-run,
in Temporary
Learning Centres
(UNICEF, 2020)

16. Overview of Bangladesh programme
 TLCs offer limited opportunity for quality education – particularly as adolescents age.
 TLCs are seen to cater to children and our younger cohort.
2017: initial influx – crisis
response focused on
securing safe, child-friendly
spaces
2018-2019: second response
phase focused on procuring
quality education in the camps –
TLCs established
• Learning Competency
Framework and Approach
• Myanmar Curriculum
planned pilot
2020: COVID phase: new
priorities

17. Bangladesh key findings
Mixture of Rohingya and Bangladeshi TLC facilitators – not necessarily with
teaching background.
When I first came here, I found [Rohingya pupils] didn’t wear shoes in toilets, they
didn’t wash their hands with soap…For one boy, 1 month passed without bathing. I
planned to resign from the job…Then gradually everything has changed. Now,
everyone is neat and clean.’ (Teacher, camp B)
Teaching life skills components in the syllabus – including rights and duties –
essentially translate into teaching self-care through healthy, safe choices and
respect for the community and environment
‘Moreover, the pending approval of learning competency advanced levels, has resulted
in ‘an alarming 83% of the [Rohingya] adolescents and youth aged 15-24 years old
[being without] access to any educational or skills development activities’
(ISCG et al., 2020 p.70).
Although better self-care is a welcome change, it is limited HRE.

18. Bangladesh key findings
‘We didn’t have any chance to go to school [in host
communities]. We don’t go out. What will I do?’
(16-year-old girl, camp C)
• Although not following a set curriculum,
NGOs have set up classes and home-based
learning to teach skills such as sewing and
tailoring to older adolescents.
• Though this could help adolescents earn
money in the camps, uptake remains low
• The programmes teach life skills, health
messages and may lead to work opportunities
with NGOs operating in the camps.
• However, they are not intended to provide
transferrable skills for outside the camps,
reinforcing the fact that the Rohingya are
confined within their immediate communities
and cannot leave their settlements.

19. Bangladesh key findings
‘No, [I have never taught before]. I had training in
Chittagong – an 8-day basic training and monthly
refreshers. After one year of teaching, I had another 5-
day basic training.’
(Teacher, camp B)
‘Yes, both boys and girls are treated well. [But
teachers] are always busy with [social media apps].
They don’t [teach well]…especially when there are no
field officers to check on the staff.’
(Boys FGD, camp C)
•TLCs' teaching pedagogy most closely aligned to HRE processes: mixing direct instruction with
independent learning, empowerment, reflection and teamwork. Teaching is learner-centred and
aims to develop analytical skills, instilling ‘do no harm’ principles.
Adolescents attending TLCs are 14.1% and 12.3% more likely to talk to their fathers and mothers
(respectively) about bullying they experience compared to those non-attending.
Although how to report bullying is being learned, there are limits to how much depth the teachers
can bring to discussions as a result of their own limited training.

20. Bangladesh key findings ‘If any country takes any step for
educating us, I [would] go abroad.’
(17-year-old boy, camp B)
Education for human rights
appears lacking in the
educational offer for Rohingya
refugees.
While the Education Strategy
seeks to foster social
cohesion by enhancing
education systems in the host
community and including host
community members in
implementing activities in the
camps, the reality is quite
different
Rohingya adolescents remain
segregated from
neighbouring communities
and risk becoming a lost
generation with no
progression towards active
global citizenship

21. Conclusions and policy
recommendations
Girls at school in Jordan© Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019

22. Conclusions
Stark differences in the integration of HRE in two non-formal education programmes in
refugee settings.
The Makani programme provides an example of a promising practice of HRE.
Temporary learning centre strategies set out to engage a human rights approach but
the reality on the ground does not equate.
The findings draw attention to the inherent value of HRE to humanitarian responses-
particularly in fostering social cohesion.
The Makani programme in Jordan directly challenges culturally sensitive topics such as child
marriage and gender-based violence.

23. Recommendations
1
• Ensure programmes are properly resourced, particularly with regard to
facilitator training.
2
• Adapt programmes to each context.
3
• Promote social cohesion and encourage participants of different
nationalities to actively work together.
4
• Ensure a safe environment where participants feel safe to talk about
potential rights violations and know where to report them.

24. Contact Us
WEBSITE: www.gage.odi.org
TWITTER: @GAGE_programme
FACEBOOK: GenderandAdolescence
Access to article:
https://humanrer.org/index.php/human
/article/view/3986
Megan Devonald
Email: m.devonald.gage@odi.org.uk
TWITTER: @MeganDevonald
Silvia Guglielmi
Email: s.guglielmi.gage@odi.org
TWITTER: @SilviGuglielmi