There are moments when a gathering becomes more than just another meeting. It becomes a marker of collective purpose ; a reminder that despite setbacks, resistance, and fatigue, the work must continue.
That was the spirit surrounding the launch of the Girls’ Education Special Interest Group (SIG) platform, led by representatives from Amplify Tanzania, Kakenya’s Dream in Kenya, and Komo Learning Centre in Uganda. The platform brings together educators, activists, researchers, and advocates committed to advancing gender equality through education across East Africa.
The launch was not simply a celebration of a new initiative. It was also a moment of reflection — on how far the movement for girls’ education has come, the obstacles that remain, and the urgent need to rethink how we tell stories about gender, power, and culture in Africa.
The platform itself emerged from an earlier collaboration between Jaslika and RELI in April 2024, during the dissemination of a regional research report on girls’ education. One of the report’s strongest recommendations called for a renewed movement that amplifies African girls’ voices at local, national, and regional levels. The SIG platform is a direct response to that call.
But the context in which this work now unfolds has changed dramatically.
A Changing Global Climate for Gender Equality
Over the past years, global developments have reshaped the landscape for organisations working on gender equality and education. Policy shifts in parts of the world — particularly the rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States — have created ripple effects far beyond American borders.
Funding spaces are shrinking. Research institutions are under pressure. Programmes focused on gender justice, sexual and reproductive health, HIV prevention, and gender-based violence prevention are increasingly being deprioritized. Even institutions once seen as untouchable centres of excellence are facing uncertainty.
For organizations working in East Africa, these shifts matter deeply. Many initiatives supporting girls’ education rely on international partnerships and donor support. When global priorities change, local programmes often feel the impact immediately.
Yet beneath the language of “budget cuts” and “limited resources” lies a more uncomfortable truth.
The challenge has never only been about money.
It is also about political will.
East African countries have signed numerous international and regional agreements committing themselves to equality, non-discrimination, and the protection of human rights. On paper, these commitments are strong. In practice, however, they are often treated as ideals to pursue only when convenient or affordable.
This tension was captured powerfully decades ago by renowned Kenyan journalist and historian Hillary Ngweno, who argued that societies often fail to uphold their ideals not because they lack resources, but because they lack the will to act. According to Ngweno, resistance to gender equality is rooted less in ignorance and more in deeply held beliefs about male superiority — beliefs reinforced through patriarchy, culture, and religion.
His words, spoken in the 1990s, still resonate today.
Rethinking Culture and Patriarchy
One of the most powerful themes emerging from the conversation on girls’ education is the need to challenge simplistic narratives about African culture.
Too often, gender inequality is defended using the phrase: “This is how things have always been done.”
But history tells a more complicated story.
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele once compared culture to an umbrella — something people use for protection and shelter, but which sometimes needs to be folded away. Her metaphor reminds us that culture is not static. It evolves. It adapts. It can be questioned.
In many African societies, pre-colonial understandings of gender were far more fluid than modern narratives suggest. Oral traditions and indigenous stories from communities across Kenya reveal histories where women exercised agency, negotiated power, and held economic influence.
Among the Digo, stories speak of men assuming provider roles after losing a borrowed dog belonging to women. Among the Maasai and Samburu, traditions point to cattle once being associated with women’s ownership. Kikuyu oral histories include narratives about men taking over power from women — implying that women once held authority worth contesting.
These stories matter because they disrupt the colonial narrative that patriarchy has always been fixed and unquestionable in African societies.
Colonial systems often imposed rigid gender structures while simultaneously portraying them as “traditional.” Over time, these ideas became embedded in textbooks, classrooms, and public discourse, shaping generations into believing inequality was natural and unchangeable.
Recovering erased histories is therefore not just an academic exercise. It is a political act.
It requires researchers, educators, and advocates to adopt decolonial and intersectional approaches that examine whose stories have been preserved, whose have been erased, and why.
Most importantly, it challenges all of us to critically examine the beliefs we have inherited about gender.
The Emerging Conversation Around the “Boy Child”
Another issue increasingly shaping discussions around gender equality is the growing emphasis on programmes focused on boys and men.
As funding for gender equality work becomes tighter, there has been a noticeable rise in investment toward initiatives framed around the “empowerment of the boy child” and male-only spaces.
This shift raises important questions.
How do societies support boys without undermining decades of progress toward girls’ rights and empowerment? How do we avoid creating a false narrative that girls’ advancement has somehow come at the expense of boys?
The conversation should not become a competition between genders. Rather, it should focus on transforming harmful systems that affect everyone differently.
Girls across East Africa still face disproportionate barriers in accessing safe, equitable, and quality education — from child marriage and gender-based violence to unequal access to sanitation, healthcare, and economic opportunities.
Addressing these realities remains urgent.
At the same time, conversations about masculinity, social expectations, and the wellbeing of boys should also be approached thoughtfully and inclusively. Sustainable gender equality cannot be built through exclusion or backlash.
Why This Moment Matters
The launch of the Girls’ Education Special Interest Group platform comes at a critical time.
The challenges are immense: shrinking funding, political resistance, entrenched patriarchy, and global uncertainty. Yet the creation of this platform signals something equally powerful — refusal.
A refusal to allow girls’ voices to be erased.
A refusal to accept inequality as culture.
A refusal to forget histories that reveal more just and inclusive possibilities.
The future of girls’ education in East Africa will depend not only on policies and funding, but also on courage — the courage to challenge inherited narratives, rethink systems of power, and imagine societies where equality is not treated as an optional ideal, but as a lived reality.
And perhaps that is the most important reminder of all: transformative change begins when people are willing to question the stories they have been told for generations.
Edited & Transcribed by: Zainab Mboga