Ei-iE

School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) remains a major barrier to the right to quality education and safe working conditions across Africa. During Education International (EI) latest Development Cooperation (DC) Café, education unions and their development cooperation partners shared how sustained union action is helping to make schools safer, challenge harmful gender norms, and put the fight against SRGBV firmly at the heart of trade union work. Participants also explained how using cooperation projects focusing on SRGBV strengthens education unions.

SRGVB takes many forms, from physical and sexual violence to psychological abuse, bullying and online violence. While girls are disproportionately affected, boys also experience violence rooted in harmful gender norms, including corporal punishment. The consequences can be devastating: absenteeism, school dropout, poorer educational outcomes and trauma. Education unions in Africa are partnering with EI members in the global north to address this issue and make sure that a strong education movement makes real changes in its communities.

Opening the discussion, EI Africa Regional Coordinator Ratanang Baleseng stressed that addressing SRGBV is not an optional or peripheral concern for education unions:

“SRGBV is not only a learner issue; it is also a trade union issue. Violence affects teaching and learning conditions, teacher well-being and educational outcomes. Education unions have a responsibility to ensure that schools are safe places for both learners and educators.”

For her, unions are uniquely placed to drive change because educators are present every day in schools and communities. They can identify violence, challenge the norms that reproduce it and demand that governments implement policies guaranteeing safe learning and working environments.

She was adamant that “our member organisations are able to mobilise communities. They are present every day and they see what happens in classrooms and staff rooms. If they are empowered, they can prevent and respond to SRGBV.”

From awareness to lasting institutional change

Since 2016, EI Africa and its member organisations have strengthened their work against SRGBV through training, advocacy, research, community engagement and policy work. Current initiatives seek to go beyond awareness-raising and embed the prevention of and response to SRGBV within union structures and education systems.

This includes training educators on gender-responsive pedagogy and safeguarding, establishing student clubs and peer-educator initiatives, working with men and boys as champions for gender equality, strengthening reporting mechanisms, and advocating for laws and policies that specifically address violence in and around schools.

The results show the potential of union-led action. In Angola, around 321 teachers have been trained across 10 provinces, while in Cameroon 800 learners have received training. In several countries, unions have also contributed to the revision or adoption of school safety policies containing specific provisions on SRGBV.

“Education unions have demonstrated that they can be powerful agents of change,” Baleseng stressed. “Preventing violence is more effective than responding after harm has occurred.”

Development cooperation rooted in solidarity and mutual learning

The DC Café also provided an opportunity for development cooperation partners to explain why they support this work and what they learn from education unions implementing it.

For Neha Bhatia, Senior Policy Specialist at the International Relations Education Policy and Implementation Center of the National Education Association (NEA) in the United States, development cooperation is fundamentally about international trade union solidarity rather than a relationship between donor and recipient.

“The way that we approach our DC work is thinking about a mutual exchange of knowledge and strategies and resources. We do not think of ourselves as a donor in the work. It is very much a partnership.”

NEA has supported EI Africa’s work against SRGBV for almost a decade. Its current support includes initiatives in Angola, Cameroon, Chad, and Uganda that are moving from training, awareness and evidence-building towards sustained action and advocacy.

Bhatia also explained that the learning goes both ways. “We are very proud to be partners in the work, but an enormous part of that pride is how much we learn from our partners who are implementing.”

Experiences developed by African education unions are now informing NEA’s own response to gender-based violence in the United States. Examples from the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU), including male allyship, peer learning, and SRGBV ambassadors, are feeding into a new gender-based violence learning series for NEA members.

The same principle underpins cooperation between the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and the Gambia Teachers’ Union (GTU).

Paul Maguire, acting Global Solidarity Officer with INTO, highlighted why fighting gender-based violence is a shared concern for unions everywhere.

“Trade union solidarity does not stop at national borders, nor do issues of school-related gender-based violence.” Cooperation, he stressed, strengthens unions on both sides by enabling them to exchange experience and build collective responses to challenges that cross borders.

Uganda: From training to union action and strengthening

In Uganda, the partnership is helping UNATU move from training towards institutionalising action against SRGBV.

UNATU General Secretary Baguma Filbert Bates explained that the union approaches SRGBV through three interconnected responsibilities: protecting learners, strengthening educators, and building accountability.

“Sometimes we make assumptions that educators know it all, but teachers need knowledge, confidence, and practical pathways to identify, prevent, and respond to SRGBV.”

In August 2025, UNATU trained 120 teachers and union staff, followed by the training of 40 SRGBV ambassadors in September. The union also developed an SRGBV frequently asked questions booklet and introduced reporting, tracking, referral and response tools. In 2026, SRGBV was embedded into union structures, branch work plans, budgets, and monitoring and evaluation.

Participants reported genuine benefits: 99% of respondents to the first training evaluation reported increased knowledge about SRGBV, while 91% said they felt confident to take preventive action. Among the ambassadors evaluated, all reported increased knowledge and 90% said they felt confident to prevent and respond to SRGBV.

But training, Bates stressed, “is only the starting point. Lasting change needs systems, follow-up, and accountability.”

For UNATU, this means institutionalising SRGBV work throughout the union, maintaining the ambassador network through mentorship and peer learning, strengthening school and community ownership and using data to hold institutions accountable.

Bates added that this kind of activity contributes to strengthening the union. The broader objective is for SRGBV to become “part of how a teachers’ union understands its mandate, not a standalone activity,” he concluded.

The Gambia: Breaking the silence

In The Gambia, the partnership between GTU and INTO is helping the union confront both violence and the social norms that allow it to remain hidden.

GTU General Secretary Marie Antoinette Corr insisted:

“Why are safe schools union business? Because the school is the basic unit. And for us as unions, anything that happens in the school is of paramount importance to us.”

With INTO’s support, GTU trained 100 teachers in May 2025 and another 100 in May 2026. One of the most significant achievements, Marie Antoinette Corr explained, has been simply making it possible to speak about violence previously surrounded by silence.

“The silence is broken. SRGBV is now named and discussed openly in union meetings, in schools and in communities.”

GTU combines educator training with radio programmes, awareness-raising in local languages and engagement with parents, communities, government ministries, traditional communicators and religious leaders. The union also deliberately involves men as allies and champions in challenging harmful gender norms.

“It cannot just be one training, one capacity-building programme, and we let it go. It has to be persistent. We have to talk to them all the time. We have to encourage them. We have to bring them on board. So persistence matters.”

The partnership has also strengthened GTU itself through peer learning, resources, greater credibility and stronger engagement with public authorities. For the GTU leader, international solidarity remains indispensable to transforming project achievements into permanent change.

Union solidarity for lasting change

Across the experiences shared during the DC Café, one message stood out: cooperation reinforces unions and helps them fight SRGBV through collective action and long-term commitment.

Development cooperation partners were also called on to add and update their initiatives in the EI Cooperation Projects database. Documenting these initiatives makes the collective work of education unions more visible and allows organisations across the EI family to see where work is taking place, who is involved, what approaches are being used and what results are being achieved.