Across East Africa’s pastoralist areas, people’s livelihoods are increasingly diversified. Although education is a pathway to positive livelihood options, levels of formal education and literacy in these areas fall far below national averages. And within these areas, girls’ education lags behind boys, with lower enrollment, more withdrawal from school, and lower overall attainment. Our Karamoja Resilience Support Unit (KRSU) has just released two reports to help practitioners and decision makers better understand education among pastoralist girls.

Authored by Caroline Dyer, the KRSU Briefing Paper Education in East Africa’s Pastoralist Areas: Why are girls still not going to school? provides an overview of the issues facing pastoralist education in general, and specifically the barriers and opportunities for improving girl’s education.

Authored by Elizabeth Stites, Barbara Athieno, and Caroline Dyer, Educating Girls in Karamoja, Uganda: Barriers, Benefits, and Terms of Inclusion in the Perspectives of Girls, Their Communities, and Their Teachers examines education in Karamoja from the perspective of girls themselves and their wider communities. It shows the impacts of recent events on a decline in girls education, such as COVID-19 restrictions and the resurgence of conflict, as well as economic and social barriers to better education.

The KRSU is funded by USAID and the Embassy of Ireland.