Training of trainers: gender mainstreaming in education and entrepreneurship for sustainable development

Requesting party

Consortium partners Q-Point

Africa Development Consultant Ltd. (ADC, Rwanda)

The involved institution

The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)

The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a membership-based Pan-African Non-Governmental Organization that operates in 34 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to promote girls’ and women’s education. It was founded in 1992 and has its head office in Nairobi (Kenya) and the vision, mission and goal focuses on quality education for girls and women. FAWE Rwanda was established in 1997 by a group of Rwandan women whose common goal was to build the country and promote national development through girls’ and women’s education. Since it’s inception, FAWE Rwanda has grown to become a reputable partner and focal point on female education in Rwanda. FAWE has been partnering with different international, regional and national organization focused and aiming at altering the gender landscape and attitudes towards girl’s education in Rwanda, among which the Rwanda Education Board, UNICEF and UNESCO.

FAWE’s main topics of interest:

Scholarship provision;
Advocacy: championed and pioneered with initiatives contributing to the shift in the public mindset regarding girl’s education and improved positive environment for girls in school;
Girl’s empowerment: by extracurricular programs, career guidance, mentoring and an alumni program.

While great progress has been made in order to achieve gender parity in Rwanda, more has to be done to equip new generations, especially girls and women, with the skills to succeed in tomorrow’s reality. Poverty, disability, gender, migration status and language barriers are some of the major issues that drive their exclusion from education on all levels. The current Covid-19 pandemic has only served to further entrench existing inequalities and widening divides between others.

Context

Project goal and outputs

This TMT training course capacitates FAWE to enhance female participation and performance in education and entrepreneurship, ensuring a conducive learning and talent development environment. This is according to FAWE’s aim to focus more on programs for students/graduates in entrepreneurship, female leadership, showing initiative and support during the transition to the labour market.

Another area of intervention is the aim to be able to support girls and women in safety and protection, especially since the COVID pandemic made the vulnerable ones are more vulnerable.

Upon completion of the project, FAWE has obtained skills and networks to work together with the industry and the girls and mentors on impactful entrepreneurial projects where female students/graduates can work on societal relevant projects and at the same time develop their talents.

Services rendered

Management and staff of The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) were trained in a practical way by the Q-Point consortium with the partners Africa Development Consultant Ltd (ADC) and Gender2Connect in gender-related issues: gender mainstreaming in educational institutes, proposal writing, incubation and entrepreneurial skills for sustainable development targeting FAWE girls and graduates.

The FAWE staff, alumni and mentors are trained on above-mentioned topics together with project acquisition skills, in order to be able to obtain more clients and funds to initiate the facilitation of more programs at educational learning institutions.

As Q-Point, we offered skill training in forms of three work packages according to the Training of Trainers (ToT) approach with focus on learning by doing:

Work package 1: Gender mainstreaming in Educational Institutes
Work package 2: Incubation and entrepreneurial skills for sustainable development targeting FAWE girls and graduates
Work package 3: Proposal writing skills