让女孩留在学校：从学校和社区案例管理系统中吸取的教训（英）2025

Photo Credit: Thompson, Link Media Zambia KEEPING GIRLS IN SCHOOL: LESSONS LEARNED FROM A SCHOOLAND COMMUNITY-BASED CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMPublic Disclosure Authorized Sophia Friedson-Ridenour, Nalukui Milapo, Kahilu Samuyachi,Rodgers Chishimba, Willie C. Kaputo, and Nadia Selim1 ABOUT THE AFRICAGENDER INNOVATIONLAB SUMMARY Vulnerable adolescent girls and young women need a broad set of support toreduce barriers to access, participation, retention, progression, and completionof secondary education. The Keeping Girls in School (KGS) program underthe World Bank-funded Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment andLivelihoods (GEWEL) Project of the Government of the Republic of Zambiawas launched in 2016 to address inequalities in educational attainment relatedto gender and poverty and reduce secondary school drop-out rates amongvulnerable adolescent girls.Public Disclosure Authorized TheAfricaGenderInnovationLab(GIL)conducts impact evaluations ofdevelopment interventions in Sub-SaharanAfrica,seeking to generate evidence onhowto close gender gaps in earnings,productivity, assets, and agency. The GILteam is currently working on over 80 impactevaluations in more than 30 countries inAfrica with the aim of building an evidencebase with lessons for the region. KGS targets girls from households participating in the government’s Social CashTransfer (SCT) program who have qualified for secondary school. It providesthem with an annual education grant, and pays boarding and examination fees,and other costs, as necessary. In addition to this basic support package, KGShas introduced an innovative and ambitious Case Management System (CMS).The goal of the CMS is to establish a standardized school and community-based prevention and response framework that systematically identifies KGSgirls at risk of dropping out, as well as those that have already dropped out,and links them with essential support services to increase their retention in,progression through, and completion of formal or non-formal education. Butdoing this is not without challenges.Public Disclosure Authorized The impact objective of GIL is increasingtake-up of effective policies by governments,development organizations, and the privatesector to address the underlying causesof gender inequality in Africa, particularlyin terms of women’s economic and socialempowerment. The Lab aims to do thisby producing and delivering a new bodyof evidence and developing a compellingnarrative,geared towards policymakers,on what works and what does not work inpromoting gender equality. This case study highlights key lessons learned from the pilot and initial scale-up of the KGS-CMS in Zambia and provides helpful operational insights forthose interested in implementing a school and community-based CMS. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab FINDING A SOLUTION MOTIVATION: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Inthe initial implementation phase of KGS,thegovernmentrecognized that a significant number ofeligible girls were still struggling to access and completesecondary education, and that a more comprehensiveapproach was needed.In response, starting in 2021,the CMS was piloted in three KGS districts and scaledup to 83 districts (including non-KGS districts) by the endof 2024. The planned scale-up includes an additional17 districts in 2025 and 16 districts in 2026, achievingnational coverage. Adolescent girls are a particularly vulnerable group inZambia. In 2022, Zambia was ranked 138 out of 190countries and territories on the Gender Inequality Index.1Zambia has a high rate of child marriage—29 percent ofwomen aged 20-24 are married before the age of 18.Zambia also has high rates of violence against children,whichhas devastating effects on their health andeducational achievement. Nearly half of women (49.3percent) aged 18-24 experienced either one type or acombination of physical, emotional, or sexual violenceprior to the age of 18.2Educational attainment amonggirls and young women in Zambia is very low, with only27 percent of girls completing upper secondary school(compared to 33 percent for boys). Amongst the poorestincome quintile, only 3 percent of adolescents completesecondary education.3Lack of financial support to meeteducationalcosts is consistently the most commonreason reported for girls dropping out of school (40percent). Pregnancy (9.5 percent), not passing a grade(6.9 percent), and marriage (5.1 percent) are also commonreasons cited for girls leaving school.4When girls lackaccess to sexual and reproductive health services, marryyoung, and drop out of school, they are more likely tostruggle to participate in productive activities, providecare for their children, and break the intergenerationalcycle of poverty.5At the same time, educating adolescentgirls has immense health and economic benefits for thegirls, their children and family, and their community.6 The CMS assesses the needs of adolescent girls andyoung women who qualify for secondary educ