South Africa leads the successful launch of the Education Plus Initiative

The Department of Basic Education and its partners joined five United Nations agencies in South Africa – UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women – in successfully leading the launch of the Education Plus Initiative in Pretoria early this year.

The Education Plus Initiative is a high-level drive to expand access to secondary education for young people and to advance adolescent girls’ and young women's health, education and rights in sub-Saharan Africa.

The initiative uses advocacy to secure commitments and investments so that young people can enroll and complete secondary school to improve knowledge, social skills, health and earnings potential.

The initiative is also a rights-based, gender-responsive action agenda to ensure that adolescent girls and young women have equal opportunities to access quality secondary education, alongside key education and health services and support for their economic autonomy and empowerment.

This Africa-wide joint advocacy initiative identifies five interventions to which every adolescent girl and young woman should be entitled.

These include completion of quality secondary education; universal access to comprehensive sexuality education; fulfillment of sexual and reproductive health and rights including HIV prevention; freedom from gender-based and sexual violence; and successful school-to-work transitions and young women’s economic security and empowerment.

The initiative will build on six pillars of high-level advocacy, strategic partnerships, ensuring young women's leadership, think tanks with researchers and experts, multi-media outreach, and a data hub for advocacy and communication to support decision-makers.

In her remarks at the launch, Regina Mhaule, the South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Education, called upon all stakeholders to join the ambitious initiative and make it a reality.

“On behalf of the Department of Basic Education, I wish to accept the support we are receiving from the UN agencies and further declare our commitment to collaborate and cooperate with you for the greater benefit of the child,” she said.

The drive to keep girls in secondary education comes in response to many challenges that disproportionately affect young girls in sub-Saharan Africa. These include alarming numbers of adolescent and young girls affected by HIV-AIDS, unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence and femicide, all of which impact negatively on their further education, well-being, human rights and survival.

Young women between the ages of 15 and 24 are the group most affected by new HIV infections. According to UNAIDS Country Director South Africa Eva Kiwango,

“In South Africa, around 200,000 people are infected with HIV every year, including more than 150 new infections daily among adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 years."

She told the gathering that the Education Plus Initiative recognizes education systems as an entry point for providing knowledge and other resources that

adolescents need to become well-rounded adults. The South African Department of Basic Education reckons that 132,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 fell pregnant between 2020 and 2021.

According to the department, one in three girls that fall pregnant in the country will not return to school.

“The girl child of South Africa is an extremely challenged human being at home, in the community and religiously through social norms that put them at the bottom of the value chain,” said Thembisile Xulu, the Chief Executive of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). Ms Xulu welcomed the initiative and pledged the organization’s full support and commitment.

“At school, especially in the early grades, is where we have the opportunity to truly shape the mind of a young girl.”

In the spirit of never leaving behind young people in conversations about them, the launch of the Education Plus Initiative was attended by learners from local secondary schools, young people’s organizations, including UNFPA’s Youth Advisory Panel members, and other youth networks.

The young people also actively participated as respondents following the Deputy Minister’s keynote address.

Speaking on behalf of the head of the UN in South Africa, UNICEF Representative Christine Muhigana noted that “the UN system wants all children and young people in South Africa to have equitable access to quality education relevant to a changing society,” adding,

“Today we rally political leadership, development partners and communities to fulfill every adolescent girl’s rights to education and health by enabling all girls to complete a quality, secondary education in violence-free environments.”

Ms. Muhigana called for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health services that are non-judgmental, stigma-free for adolescent girls and young women in all their diversity, including those living with HIV.”

To achieve the initiative’s objectives, partners from the government, civil society and other development partners are expected to work closely with the UN family and other potential donors, including mobilizing investments in education.

Partners will also advocate for policy and legislative reforms to protect the fundamental rights of adolescents and youth, and speed-up the removal of restrictive and gender-discriminatory provisions that undermine the impact of existing investments.

The initiative aims to mobilize coalitions and networks by women, youth and civil society organizations, women and girls living with HIV, teacher and parent associations, and cultural and faith leaders and establish a vibrant platform for adolescent girls and young women to strengthen accountability and ensure the participation of community leaders.