The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision.pdf - Tanzania ...

IntroductionGirls continue to suffer from a second-class experience ineducation, health and other government services – eventhough old problems of direct discrimination often havebeen overcome. The reality for girls is that the contextualand cultural issues that gave rise to past discriminationslargely remain. Until governments and donors are willingto take seriously these deeply rooted problems, thegreater enrolment of girls in schools will not translate intoradically improved futures.This report uses three case studies to highlight the continuingproblems facing girls in relation to key social services– problems that continue despite significant progressin terms of both provision and access. The case studies arebased on a common approach of interviewing children,families and service providers to assess the real experienceof communities in Tanzania, Costa Rica and Cambodia.The case studies in this report show, for example, thatdespite improved enrolment there continues to be a considerablylarger drop-out rate for girls than boys. The reasonsgirls drop out of school are closely linked to theirtraditional social roles and the expectations not only ofthe families involved but often of the girls themselves.Girls drop out of school to marry and to care for siblings.The socialisation of girls re-inforces a limited sense of academicambition, as parents focus on marriage as their ultimategoal. This combines with the hours needed to fetchwater (at least two hours, according to one case study),to care for siblings and to complete housework to contributeto a poorer educational experience often leadingto poor academic results.As the Tanzania case study says: ‘The key gender challengeis not on enrolment but quality of the learning experienceand the supportive environment for it.’ Girls, therefore,transfer to secondary school less often than boys. Even inCosta Rica, in many ways the most encouraging of thecase-study countries, the workload disparity betweenboys and girls was found to be stark.The lower-quality experience of girls in education is, however,not confined to their academic work. Case studiesreveal that girls have few opportunities for play and sportsduring their school day. Socialisation again plays a role inminimising the importance of sports and play in the developmentof girls.A pervasive problem for girls is the low level of expectationthat they are encouraged to adopt in all areas relatedto services. Girls are not only often disempowered in relationto their normal daily encounters with service-provisionproviders, but they are also psychology disempoweredin terms of their aspirations.Interestingly, the World Bank in its 2004 World DevelopmentReport discusses at length the importance of changingpower relations between service providers and their customers.Yet the report fails to outline mechanisms thatmight empower the poor in relation to providers, let alonethose that might transform the situation of those who aremost comprehensively disempowered – including girls.Haidy Ear-Dupuy’s chapter on the 2004 World DevelopmentReport notes that if institutions such as the Bank are tomove forward seriously on the empowerment of girls inrelation to service provision, they must adopt new approachesto child rights and children’s participation.The papers in this report also suggest that recognitionmust be given to the wider social and economic problemsthat tend to have a disproportionate impact on girls. Forexample, the introduction of user fees has greatly affectedthe attitude of families to health provision and their abilityto utilise those services. The limited supply of drugs tohealth facilities has also compacted attendance at thosefacilities into a few days each month, greatly increasingwaiting times and leading to girls being taken out of schoolto care for siblings.Sadly, therefore, although the mechanics of access to servicesfor girls has improved, the reality of their ability tomake the most of these opportunities has not. The problemsAlan Whaites, author of the Introduction, is Director for International Policy and Advocacy with World Vision International.Introduction 7