The World Welcomes South Sudan
Women celebrating from Sudanese NGO, My Sister's KeeperIn July 2011, South Sudan will become an independent nation, Africa’s 55th country, and the world’s youngest state. After two decades of civil war and high poverty levels, the new country will face many challenges. Literacy and education will play a vital role in charting a new course for South Sudan.
A recent policy paper published by UNESCO discusses how education will be a first step toward the construction of peace and a better future for the people of South Sudan.The policy paper reveals that women face some of the most imminent challenges in terms of access to education. Today, only around 8 percent of women in South Sudan are literate, possibly the lowest female literacy rate in the world. Young girls in South Sudan face extreme disadvantages in education. Girls are less likely to enter school and more likely to drop out early. Today, a young girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than she is to receive eight years of basic education.
According to the UNESCO, integration of education into the wider national strategy is essential in order to reduce poverty levels. Even the most effective school-based education policy interventions in South Sudan will fail unless the country maintains progress in other areas, including economic growth, employment creation, and improvements in public health.
This approach to development is similar to ProLiteracy’s Literacy for Social Change methodology.
ProLiteracy uses a dialogue-based approach to help participants identify the problems in their communities and what is most important to them. Using this information, learners then design and implement action plans that address development needs of their community. These plans include promoting human rights, starting health clinics, digging clean-water wells, forming micro-credit and cooperative business ventures, overseeing reforestation projects, and a host of other participant-originated efforts. More significant than these observable action projects, however, is a base of new skills, information, values, and confidence that enables learners to continue development plans and efforts long after the outside agents are gone. Literacy becomes a tool learners use to solve problems together and create change in their lives and communities.
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Welcome! I have had students from the Sudan in the past and I know that they are more than ready for this change.
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome that educating women in Sudan is now being examined. The sad part is that it is taking so long in many areas in the world of literacy/education purpose and its link to poverty. Like the blog said more women will die during childbirth than those being educated. Hopefully this change can bring an uplifting of mind, spirit and growth for not only the women but the culture as well.
ReplyDeleteIs the low literacy rate and lack of education for women in South Sudan caused by Islamic beliefs and practices (Shiite and Sunni)?
ReplyDeleteThis is an era of empowerment for the people of South Sudan. Are funding sources sustainable for the planned development processes?
ReplyDeletePowledge, F. (2010, April). Food hunger and insecurity. Bioscience, 60(4), 260-265, says at p. 260, “Of the world's current population of 6.8 billion, 5 billion are living at levels of poverty that deprive them of their basic needs, and more than 1 billion are going hungry”. The global community is not doing enough, and has not done enough post WWII to alleviate this problem. While I applaud the pro-literacy campaign, I believe readers should know about the staggering scope of the problem of worldwide poverty and that the "haves" = 27% and the "have-nots" = 73%. Perhaps think about those 73% next time you complain about the high price of gasoline or food. Judging from the apparent failure to solve this problem, I believe that our population is out of control and beyond humanity's means to sustain.
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ReplyDelete@lori.michels -- It seems likely that the low literacy rate for women in South Sudan is in part related to decades of conflict which has also lead to displaced families, extreme poverty, and food insecurity. UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Report ranked the country [Sudan] 141st among 177 countries. According to a recent joint World Bank-UNDP mission, about 60-75 percent of the population in the North and 90 percent in the South are estimated to be living below the poverty line on less than US $ 1 a day.
ReplyDeleteThe Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2011 states that “the legacy of conflict hangs over all aspects of social, economic and political life of South Sudan.” The report also says, in order to redress inequalities in education, the new government must implement policy for classroom construction and teacher training. A strong education system is the cornerstone for making sure that peace and human development in South Sudan are strong and stable.
@kristucker – To answer your question about funding sources, in 2009, Sudan as a country received $2.4 billion in development assistant. For the 5th consecutive year it was the world’s largest recipient of humanitarian aid. However, the funding is dominated by food aid and immediate emergencies. Only 4 percent goes to education, and most of the funding that goes to education is for school feeding. This may be an indication that South Sudan needs to fulfill basic human needs such as housing, food, and conflict resolution before they can tackle education.
-Alesha Anderson, International Program Coordinator, ProLiteracy
In thinking about the women being three times more likely to die in childbirth than receive an adequate education, does anyone know what is culturally acceptable when teaching birth control? So many times a culture believes a woman's role is to be a mother and education is not emphasised. Hopefully a change in education will also promote a change in what is perceived to be a woman's role.
ReplyDelete@m. thomas - thanks for your thought-provoking comment. You might wish to look at UNFPA, the World Health Organization, and other international health organizations for information on how/if programs combine contraception education with women's rights/issues.
ReplyDelete-Amy Schmitz, director of communications, ProLiteracy
Interesting thread here folks. You are right, in some of these countries where do we start and how do we decide where we should start. And most importantly, who is making these decisions. As a nurse, I would always say that basic needs of food, housing, clothing, etc. should always come first. There are many times I log onto this blog and realize how fortunate I am that I live in the United States. Not that a lot of this does not occur here close to home, but not at the rate that some of these other countries have trouble.
ReplyDeleteKathy
I think this statement on page one of the UNESCO policy paper sums up perfectly the importance of education, not only for South Sudan, but for all countries and communities: "Education has a vital role to play in building a better future for South Sudan. As one of the new country’s founding fathers, Dr John Garang, constantly emphasized, it is through education that people and countries build the skills needed to strengthen self-reliance, expand choices, and create shared prosperity." I believe that building an effective education system is absolutely essential to South Sudan's future prosperity. I wonder about the extent to which the global community will provide economic, human, and other resources to help the people of South Sudan build a bright future.
ReplyDeleteehodge,
ReplyDeleteI think you are absolutely correct. Even in the states there is a lot of research that talks about the job market, recession, and jobs. In some of the southern states some of the problems is that there are many available jobs but they are all for individuals with more education than the people in that area have. I feel that many years ago education was important, then when the economy collapsed it became not so important, and yet, for many reasons I feel it is important that we all realize the importance of a simple education, even if that means just teaching people how to read and write.
One of my best friends is the health and hygiene director for Aid Sudan and she is currently writing a health guide for women in Sudan on safe practices for pregnancy, childbirth and infant care to help educate women to help each other to lower the high infant mortality rate in Sudan. It will take the united efforts of many countries, many organizations and many people to support, encourage and educate our friends in Sudan.
ReplyDeleteWe have an "adopted" young man in our family who is a Lost Boy from Sudan. He is one of the most precious people I know; very kind and compassionate, responsible and trustworthy despite the incredible challenges he has been through. Now he is working and saving his money to buy cows for a dowry and to get paperwork through the tough US immigration so he can bring his girlfriend here and marry her. He wants to go back and bring education and hope to his country after he finishes his education himself here.
I applaud the effort. A written health guide needs to be read. Considering the prevalence of illiteracy, what provisions will be made to "get the word out" so to speak?
ReplyDeleteHow might the capitalist economies of industrial nations be restructured to better support a global community?
ReplyDelete@froggyjwf Thank you for sharing your story with us here. We appreciate all of the wonderful comments our readers have been posting. Everyone at ProLiteracy agrees with you that rebuilding the education system in South Sudan is going to take a united effort of many countries, NGOs and individuals. This is a very important process many developing countries are still undergoing.
ReplyDeleteAlesha Anderson, Program Manager, ProLiteracy
@lori.michels This is a good question. We believe that one of the best ways to ‘get the word out’ is by working with local grassroots organizations and NGOs.
ReplyDeleteAlesha Anderson, Program Manager, ProLiteracy
This is an excellent thread. I appreciate what Proliteracy is doing to bring issues such as this to society. I believe it is important that universities and medical organizations become involved in issues such as this. Forming partnerships with organizations are very important in bringing about change.
ReplyDelete@SKW Thank you for your comment! We agree with you, partnerships are essential for bringing about change at the local level.
ReplyDeleteAlesha Anderson, Program Manager, ProLiteracy