UNICEF recently selected the Girls World Communication Center (GWCC), an IREX partner, as its contractor to produce a national Newsletter on Girls Education in Yemen. The award came after UNICEF’s decision to extend the 2007 Newsletter program, highlighting GWCC’s high esteem as a women’s rights organization and effective program implementer.
This exceptional opportunity rides on GWCC’s past successes and corresponding gains in capacity. GWCC began promoting girls’ education in 1998. In 2006, IREX partnered with GWCC to administer an innovative Young Women’s Leadership Program (YWLP) [8], which trains young Yemeni women ages 22-26 in the fields of NGO management, media, technology and English language. Developing management skills was a particular focus of IREX’s work with GWCC, which had great success.
In 2007, GWCC partnered with the Yemeni Ministry of Education to publish a precursor to this newsletter, then distributing 5,000 copies of two installments throughout Yemen. The quarterly newsletter will continue to advocate for Girls Education in Yemen, share status updates between partners and donors, highlight achievements and obstacles encountered in the promotion of girls’ education, and provide updates of progress made by the Girls Education Sector.
UNICEF selected GWCC to administer the program because of their complementary missions, relevant experience, and GWCC’s positive professional and fiscal reputation. UNICEF’s financial evaluator stated that the quality of GWCC’s financial system was rare among local Yemeni NGOs.
This opportunity will not only allow GWCC to play a prominent role in the promotion and monitoring of girls education in Yemen, but also will provide YWLP media trainees with unique professional opportunities. In fact, YWLP media trainees wrote four of the articles selected for the next newsletter and YWLP media alumna Ahlam AL-Bili was selected as the newsletter’s chief editor.
The newsletter is expected to play an important role in advancing the discourse on girls education in Yemen, a critical need in a country where UNICEF estimates only 21 percent of females who are of official age are enrolled in secondary school verses the 46 percent enrollment rate of their male counterparts (UNICEF 2007).
