The following strategies at government and policy level will support girls’ access to TVET programmes:

• Promote and support the development of gender-sensitive policies for education (TVET in particular). These policies can be developed at the national level, but local (district) level policies can be important as well. To develop an appropriate policy, it is important to know the local context, the current problems and anticipate future trends. A good practice for developing gender-sensitive TVET policies is therefore to start from an in-depth gender analysis or to initiate gender action research before the actual policy is developed.

• Support strategies that rely on an inter-ministerial approach and promote collaboration between ministries of education, employment, gender and women’s affairs, etc. as they can all play a role in the (economic) empowerment of girls through TVET programmes.

• Support the authorities in stimulating the development of a gender approach in local organisations and TVET institutions.

• Provide gender awareness-raising activities for civil servants or for school and programme staff, as part of the professionalization of school and programme directors, teachers and instructors. 

• Partner with civil society organisations working for girls’ empowerment and support their advocacy initiatives to counter potential resistance at the political level.

Illustrations/Good practices

• Gender in the Enhancing Capacities for Institution Building Program (ECIB)
  BTC, Palestine

• Programme d’Amélioration de la Qualité, de l’Equité et de la Transparence du secteur de l’Education et de la Formation (PAQUET-EF)
  APEFE, Sénégal