New Video and Panel Discussion on March 13 to Probe the Barriers Girls Face Trying to Return to School in Post-Conflict Nations
Washington, D.C. – Once violence ends in war-torn countries and schools re-open, girls frequently have a harder time resuming their education than boys. Those challenges will be explored during a panel discussion entitled “In the Wake of War: Recognizing and Remedying the Educational Plight of Girls,” which will be held on March 13, 2012 at the American Institutes for Research (AIR).
The panel will discuss the realities girls face in the aftermath of war. Damaged schools mean fewer places are available, and interrupted livelihoods mean fewer families can afford to educate all their children. Pitted against their families’ limited resources and needs of their labor at home, too many girls never get a first or second chance at education.
The event also features the release of a new 20-minute movie, SHE LOOKS BACK: How Educating Liberian Girls Could Move the Whole Country Forward, which captures the inspiring efforts to educate girls in Liberia under a program funded by USAID a few years after that nation’s civil war ended. AIR produced this video with Mediastorm.
Please join us on March 13, 2012 from noon until 1:30 p.m. ET at AIR’s corporate headquarters at 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Panelists include:
Jane Benbow, vice president and director of AIR’s International Development Program. Benbow is an expert in international education, with extensive experience in international development, program development, and management. Prior to joining AIR, she served for 10 years as the director of Basic and Girls’ Education with CARE, USA.
Yolande Miller-Grandvaux, senior education advisor, Office of Education USAID. Miller-Grandvaux has wide-ranging experience in Africa as an education planner, girls education specialist, education monitoring and evaluation advisor, and chief of party for several USAID-funded education projects, as well as other development agencies and NGOs. Since 2006, she has been the education expert on conflict-affected and fragile environments. She co-founded of the interagency working group on Education and Fragility, which is leading the global policy dialogue on education sector planning and research in conflict-affected environments.
Rebecca Winthrop, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and director of its Center for Universal Education. Winthrop’s research focuses on education in the developing world, with special attention to fragile states and armed conflict, forced migration, and violent extremism.
To register for the event, send an email with your name and contact information to: meetings@air.org. A light lunch will be served.
About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.
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