Newsletter No. 12 April 2012 East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI
Sport, Play, Recreation and
Gender Equality in Education
Using sport, play and recreation to empower girls and promote gender
equality in education.
Sport, play and recreation!
With the London 2012 Olympics fast approaching, the world is
reminded of the importance and benefits of sports – however, not
many people have realized that sport can also be a catalyst to empower
girls, boys, women and men and also promote gender equality in
education.
Participation in physical activity and sport not only enhances health,
but also helps develop skills such as teamwork, goal-setting, the pursuit
of excellence in performance and other holistic behaviors for women
and girls, including for those with disabilities. 1 Regular participation in
sports and recreational activities can help girls and boys develop the
necessary values, skills and knowledge that can translate into a
healthier and active lifestyle in their adult years.
The participation of women and girls in sport can serve to promote
gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls because it
challenges gender-based stereotypes and discrimination. In particular,
women in sport leadership roles can influence attitudes towards
women’s capabilities as leaders and decision-makers, especially in
traditional male domains.2
Inside these pages, you will find various examples and evidence of
sport, play and recreation as a tool to address gender inequalities and
its potential to make education a level playing field for all.
Highlights
The contribution of Sport
for Development and
Peace towards achieving
gender equality in
education for girls … and
boys - Evidence from the
field
Girls winning on the
football field on
International Women’s
Day
Learning HIV while
playing ball
Overview of Advocacy
Brief on Empowering
Girls and Women
through Physical
Education and Sport
Related resources and
Did you know facts…
Event and UNGEI 2012
Calendar
Disclaimer: The responsibility for all facts, opinions, and statements of this newsletter is that of the
authors. Submissions do not necessarily represent the views of EAP UNGEI partners/members. The EAP
UNGEI does not endorse the accuracy or reliability of any facts, opinions, statements or other information
provided by the authors.
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Phra Atit Road, Bangkok 10200 Thailand. Tel: +662-356-9499. Copyright © 2012 East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI. All rights reserved.
2
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 The contribution of Sport for Development and Peace towards
achieving gender equality in education for girls … and boys --Evidence from the field
By: Right To Play
Women represent 70 per cent of the world’s poor,
and education is arguably the single most powerful
means for a woman to raise herself and her family
out of poverty.1 Globally, however, boys are more
likely than girls to attend school. Girls are given
less access to education in favour of traditional
gender-expectations, such as domestic work,
marriage and motherhood. As a result, girls are
also given less access to sport and play.
The Benefits of Sport and Play for Gender
Equality
As stated in ‘Harnessing the Power of Sport for
Development and Peace: Recommendations to
Governments’ - a publication published by Right To
Play in their capacity as the Secretariat of the
International Working Group on Sport for
Development and Peace (SDP) - well-designed
SDP programs are a powerful way to reach and
empower girls and women by enhancing health
and well being, fostering self esteem, facilitating
social inclusion, challenging gender inequality and
providing opportunities for leadership and
achievement.
© Right To Play/2012
In particular, a growing body of research has linked
SDP programs to a number of benefits related to
gender equality in education including, but not
limited to enhanced academic achievement and
higher self-esteem, development of critical life skills
such as teamwork and leadership and improvements
in health. In Thailand, Right To Play has begun
working with the Royal Thai Ministry of Education
to help integrate these key Life Skills Development
objectives directly into the national curriculum.
Participation and Education
Right To Play has found that participation in
regular sport and play activities can increase one’s
sense of belonging and well-being, resulting in
higher school retention rates. By training teachers
and leaders to break down traditional gender
barriers and tackle stigma and discrimination,
thoughtfully-designed and well-guided play can
create a safe and inclusive environment where all
children are free to participate.
A 2009 evaluation of Right To Play programming
in Benin, Ghana and Mali, revealed that Right To
Play programs are reducing the gap between girls’
and boys’ participation. When comparing the
participation rates of girls and boys in Right To Play
programs with the participation rates of children in
other sport and play activities, on average, 13 per
cent more girls participate in Right To Play
programming than in other sport and play activities
taking place within the community.
Right To Play has also seen that girls who feel
accepted and empowered at school through
participation in sport and play programming will
want to stay in school. In Indonesia, evaluations
showed that Right To Play programs were very
effective in promoting gender equality through
engaging girls and women in sport and play
activities. Eighty-five per cent of the teachers trained
as Leaders were women and girls consistently made
up close to 50 per cent of project participants
3
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 throughout the project period. In fact, nearly 50 per
cent of participants in Right To Play activities
worldwide are girls, and half of Right To Play’s
1,300 coaches are female.
Empowerment
In addition to participation, evidence from Right To
Play projects show that girls and women who
participate in play activities report increased
confidence and self esteem, and are more engaged in
the decision-making process. Additionally, in
communities where Right To Play operates,
evidence shows that overall support for girls’ and
women’s participation in sport, play, school and the
community is growing. According to Nina Valentic,
a Director of International Programs at Right To
Play, the positive influence that play programs are
having on boys’ academic achievement is helping to
promote girls’ education too.
“In the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta, it
was not easy to get parents’ permission to let their
daughters participate in sports … The boys, who
were early adopters, showed better school
attendance and better academic results than those
who had not participated. All of a sudden, parents
were enthusiastic, since academic achievement is
highly valued in Pakistan. Today, around half of the
program’s participants are female, from school girls
to Junior Leaders, to Coaches and teachers.”
Sport and play programs allow females to change
their perceptions of their own skills, roles, and
abilities – but they can also help to alter the
community’s perception as a whole, particularly
when community members are engaged and
included. For example, when community members
see girls and young women engaged in Right To
Play activities, they begin to recognize their physical
capabilities and eagerness to learn. This can
positively influence perceptions about the roles and
abilities of girls and young women, and begin to revalue their role in society.
Such is the case in Mali, where long-standing
cultural norms have historically held girls and
women at arm’s length from education and
community involvement. Alou Coulibaly is a
teacher and has been a Right To Play-trained Coach
© Right To Play/2012
in Bamako, Mali, since 2007. According to
Coulibaly, Right To Play had a difficult time
recruiting female leaders in the past on account of the
fact that traditionally, women are seen as inferior to
men, and as such were being barred from schools and
the decision-making process. In the same vein, a girl’s
education was not seen as a wise investment.
According to Coulibaly, however, this is beginning to
change. Long-focused on promoting gender equality
in the community, today 50 per cent of Right To Play
Mali’s trained leaders are female and there has been a
notable increase in the number of girls enrolling in
school. In a country where 84 per cent of the
population lives on less than one dollar a day,
Coulibaly says society is beginning to realize the need
for educated females.
“Women’s rights are crucial to a country’s
development… to educate a woman is to educate a
family, a community, a city, the capital – an entire
country”, says Coulibaly.
Health
Research has also show that an educated and
empowered female population has also been linked to
improvements in healthcare. Half the reduction in
child mortality over the past 40 years can be
attributed to the better education of women. For
every one-year increase in the average education of
reproductive-age women, a country experienced a 9.5
percent decrease in the child deaths.2 In addition to a
host of other benefits, better-educated women are
2) Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in
175 countries between 1970 and 2009: a systematic analysis, Lancet,
September 18 2010
4
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 and play can lead to sustained positive behavior
change. For example, in the evaluation of Right To
Play programs in Liberia, Sri Lanka and the
Palestinian Territories, children and youth report
being better able to manage their anger and to
resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. They
also report increased kindness, peace and harmony
in school and at home. The peaceful conflictresolution skills that Right To Play Coaches are
teaching to resolve issues on the playing field are
being successfully adopted and applied to
participant’s day-to-day lives.
© Right To Play/2012
more likely to understand disease-prevention
measures and tend to have fewer children and space
births more widely, both of which reduce child
mortality.
Sport and play programs can provide an important
platform for health education, particularly in regard
to reproductive and sexual health. In addition to
knowledge, health education through sport and play
is a powerful means for girls and women to gain
critical life skills, such as teamwork and leadership,
which helps empower them to take control of their
bodies and lives. Being part of a team, for example,
helps girls to build self-esteem and gives them
confidence to make choices and to say no. In return,
playing alongside a girl teaches boys the self-esteem
and confidence they need to respect her.
The importance of engaging boys, men and
communities in gender equality
Right To Play encourages the integration of boys
and girls in sport and play-based activities in order
to break down stigmas and increase recognition of
the value of girls’ abilities. Programs are designed
to challenge the gender norms that force both boys
and girls into predetermined gender roles.
Right To Play evaluations highlight not only how
sport and play activities work to empower girls, but
also show how these activities can help promote
positive behavior change in males. In contrast to
behaviors such as violence, bullying and absence of
emotions, often associated with masculinity and
encouraged in young men, regular access to sport
As highlighted in Plan International’s ‘Because I am
a girl: so, what about boys - The state of the World’s Girls
2011’ report, a new gender gap is also emerging in
schools in some countries of the Global North and
in Latin America and the Caribbean where boys are
now dropping out of school at a faster rate than
girls. They are also doing less well academically.
Although experts do not yet agree on the exact
causes of these higher dropout rates, sports and play
activities have also proved to help boys and youth
stay in school and complete their education.
Moving forward
Four years after the Sport for Development and
Peace International Working Group endorsed
concrete recommendations on how best to
incorporate gender equality into their own
development agenda, there is now common
agreement in the international development
community that Sport for Development and Peace
programs can contribute not only to gender
© Right To Play/2012
5
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 equality, empowerment and increased
representation of girls and women in education,
but also in other spheres of life such as community
decision-making. As noted above, evidence
demonstrating that Sport for Development and
Peace programs can engage boys and men in
positive masculinities is also growing. This
recognition is crucial as these behaviors play a
fundamental role in gender equality.
Right To Play believes that achieving gender
equality in education requires systematic and
sustained attention to policy and programs at all
levels. Civil society organizations, governments
and other relevant stakeholders must work together
to promote an understanding of the benefits of
sport and play for gender equality amongst local
and international stakeholders. Right To Play will
continue to build this understanding through
providing access to targeted sport and play
programs for girls and women, building capacity of
female leaders, engaging boys and men and raising
awareness of the power of sport and play to
eliminate gender disparities in education at all
levels.
© Right To Play/2012
Related resources:
Kidd, Bruce(2008) 'A new social
movement: Sport for development and
peace', Sport in Society, 11: 4, 370 —
380
Beutler, Ingrid (2008) 'Sport serving
development and peace: Achieving the
goals of the United Nations through
sport', Sport in Society, 11: 4, 359 —
369
Tess Kay (2009): Developing through
sport: evidencing sport impacts on
young people, Sport in Society, 12:9,
1177-1191- Meier, Marianne (2006)
‘Gender Equity, Sport and
Development’, Swiss Academy for
Development
Coalter, Fred and Taylor, John (2010)
‘Sport-for-development impact studyA research initiative funded by Comic
Relief and UK Sport and managed by
International Development through
Sport’, University of Stirling, Chapter
6: Gender Attitudes – page 47-64
6
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 Girls winning on the football field on International
Women’s Day
When girls took the ball and scored a goal, the
crowd cheered even louder.
“Boys usually think they are better than girls,”
said Kim Bui, an Australia-Vietnamese Year 7
student of Bangkok Prep, Thailand. “So today is a
good day that girls can get attention and respect.”
By: UNESCO Bangkok and Right To Play
Students from Bangkok International Preparatory &
Secondary School (Bangkok Prep) and Duang
Prateep Foundation celebrated International
Women’s Day on 8 March 2012 with United Nations
Girls’ Education Initiative partners UNESCO
Bangkok and Right To Play. This interactive youth
event highlighted the role that sport and physical
education can play in connecting girls and inspiring
futures, which was the theme of this year’s
International Women’s Day.
At first glance, the friendly mixed football match
seemed unfairly weighted to the girls’ advantage –
even though each team had an equal number of boys
and girls, only female players could score a goal. But
adapting the rules is one of the ways to use sport and
play-based learning to engage, empower and educate
girls in Thailand and around the world.
The Only Girls Can Score football match not only
promoted gender equality by encouraging girls to be
active in sport, it also encouraged both girls and boys
to value and support female players. The match
consisted of Bangkok Prep student teams with equal
numbers of boy and girl players. As the rules were
that only girls could score, only girls could be the goal
keeper, and only girls’ goals are allowed in the net, a
team could only win by valuing and supporting their
female team members.
“On a normal day when we play football
together, boys always say ‘I’m the one who has to
shoot because I’m stronger’, ‘I’m the one who has
to be a goal keeper’ as they want to show off,”
said Lua Saar, French Israel Year 7 of Bangkok
Prep.
“But today we have the girls to have the same
power as boys.”
“There was a bit of problems when I pass on the
ball to the girl players but they are not able to take
it though it is a soft kick” said a Year 7 male
student of Bangkok Prep.
“But it’s fun. I’d need to try every way to make
the girls get the ball and score. And when they
can score, I’m happy too,” said Smith
Uthaichalanond, Thai-American student.
The interactive youth session highlighted the role
that sport can play in connecting girls and
inspiring futures and promoted gender equality on
7
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 the sports field and beyond by valuing female
participation in sports. It also emboldened girls to be
active in sports and reinforced behaviours of both boys
and girls which support female participation.
“We’re here in Thailand and we’re lucky as boys and
girls have both the possibilities to play sport,” said
UNESCO Bangkok’s Deputy Director Etienne
Clement. “But this is not a case in a number of
countries including in this region in Asia. Girls and
women in many countries can’t do sports”.
“Claiming the rights for girls and women is not to be
done only on Women’s Day, but every day. Girls and
women have the same rights as boys and men and it’s
applicable to school and sports. So when you get a
position in a society to be whatever you want to
become in the future, I’d like you to carry in mind that
equal rights is for everybody, men and women, boys
and girls”.
“No discrimination can be accepted including in play
or doing sports,” Mr. Clement said to the students
during his speech.
Right To Play’s Thailand Country Manager, Michael
Albert added that, “Sport not only improves female’s
physical and mental health and offers opportunities for
social interaction and friendship, it can also cause
positive shifts in gender norms that afford girls and
women greater safety and control over their lives.”
Activities of kindergarten school children from Duang
Prateep Foundation and Bangkok Prep Year 12
students ended the celebration. The elder brothers and
sisters of Bangkok Prep learned how to guide and
coach the younger ones in a 30-minute session of playbased activities. This final session encouraged
participation in healthy physical activity for the
younger children, and develop leadership skills for the
older ones.
The participation of girls in play activities translates
into an improvement in girls’ education and holistic
development. To celebrate this year’s International
Women’s Day, UNESCO Bangkok and Right To Play
used physical education and sport to encourage boys
and girls to play together, and most importantly, to
demonstrate that by playing together everybody wins
on the sport field.
Related links
Thai Channel 3 News
Duang Prateep Foundation
Right To Play Thailand
Bangkok International Preparatory &
Secondary School
UNESCO Bangkok Gender Equality in
Education Webpage
8
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 Learning HIV while playing ball
By Devi Asmarani
Manokwari, Indonesia - For the last few months,
13 year old Yohanna Waisimon, has had a
routine when school is over: playing volleyball
with the new Cendrawasih Junior Team. With 12
other girls her age, she practices three times a
week, and has even started to participate in
competitions.
Her mother, Frederika Nerotow, is pleased with
her new activity. "I like to keep her busy because
she's at that vulnerable age," she admits.
Since joining the new team, Yohanna has not
only learned how to serve, set and spike, but also
expanded her knowledge of HIV and AIDS.
Coach Bernard Wassangai sets time before
practice to talk about contagious diseases.
"Coach tells us not to have sex and to go to bed by
9 p.m.," said Yohanna.
"I feel responsible for them, because without a
good influence, the youth here tend to go for
alcohol, drugs and sex," Coach Bernard said.
A civil servant who also coaches adult volleyball
teams, Bernard recently received UNICEFsupported training on teaching HIV and AIDS, in
a partnership with the provincial office of the
Youth and Sports Department.
"This programme is implemented because of the
enthusiasm for sports among Papuan youth and
teenagers," said Yance Tamaela, HIV and AIDS
officer for UNICEF in Manokwari.
"It's more achievable to integrate information on
HIV and AIDS in activities they are interested in,
rather than taking them to formal meetings," he
added.
Sports are an important part of Papuans' lives,
said Musa Kamudi, head of the provincial office
of the Youth and Sports Ministry in West Papua.
"Through sports they can stay healthy and will
© UNICEF Indonesia/2011/Estey
Yohanna Waisimon, practices volleyball three times a week
with her team while learning about HIV/AIDS.
less likely be drawn to negative activities, especially
those that cause HIV and AIDS."
There are 45 sports clubs in Manokwari alone, and his
office provides what it can to support the
establishments of after-school sports such as the
Cendrawasih Volleyball team, he said.
The training programme is delivered by the Asian
Soccer Academy (ASA) Foundation, an organization
that provides specialized education through sports
development activities across Asia.
"ASA was involved because of its experience in
developing trainings and tool kits for sports teachers
and coaches," said Yance Tamaela.
The issue of HIV and AIDS, for example, can be
incorporated in exercise drills, such as sprinting to
evade balls, which is used as a symbol for HIV. Drills
like this not only help physically develop the children,
they also help get the message across about the risk of
HIV, and how to avoid contracting it, said Tamaela.
Retired professional soccer player Micha Abidondifu
has been coaching soccer to 15 to 19-year old boys in
Manokwari since 2007. Last year he received the same
9
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 training to integrate HIV and AIDS in his
coaching, leading him to open a soccer school for
boys and girls aged 6 to 15 in August this year.
For Rp 10,000 (little more than US$1) in
registration fees and the same amount in monthly
fees, children learn to play soccer properly three
times a week in the afternoon at his Rendani
Soccer School.
Micha believes educating children about HIV in
soccer fields is an effective way to get the message
across.
"Papuans and soccer are inseparable. In the field
they are free to express themselves: They can run
and scream; they can be themselves," he said.
He talks about HIV and AIDS before the practice
or while cooling down, often using humour to
defuse awkwardness. His soccer students have not
only learned about the transmission of HIV, they
are also taught not to discriminate against people
living with the disease.
"Coach told us we can still play soccer with
people infected with HIV," says Calvin Magrib,
18, who has been playing in Rendani Soccer club
for a year. "In fact we should support them so they
have a more positive outlook in life."
For these coaches, however, the challenge is to
deliver a message that is age-appropriate,
especially to younger children.
"I can't just talk about condoms to them," said
Micha. "These are sensitive issues, so I have to
really think about what I want to say."
For Bernard, who is a father of two boys, the
challenge is even greater as he has to speak to
teenage girls about issues that many find
uncomfortable.
"I find it hard to convey the message to these
teenage girls. It might help if I can give them some
brochures for things that I find hard to explain
verbally."
© UNICEF Indonesia/2011/Estey
A civil servant who also coaches adult volleyball teams, coach
Bernard recently received UNICEF-supported training on
teaching HIV and AIDS.
10
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 Overview of Advocacy Brief on Empowering Girls
and Women through Physical Education and Sport
By: UNESCO Bangkok
The topic of girls and physical education has been
widely researched and reported. The issues
influencing girls’ participation in physical education
and sport and the
potential benefits are
well known. The
issues are complex at
policy and strategy,
professional and
institutional, and at
personal and social
levels. The
UNESCO Bangkok
Advocacy Brief on
Empowering Girls
and Women through
Physical Education
and Sport explores
the problem of
facilitating girls’
participation in physical education and sport. The
Brief explores five key dimensions of the challenge,
considering examples of responses to the problem
from Asian and African countries, and highlighting
lessons. Recommendations targeted at advocates and
policy-makers encourage co-ordination and alignment
of actions within and across levels. Guidelines for
programme development are also outlined to support
an alternative to “traditional” sexist forms of physical
education.
The brief finds that girls and women as a group
experience inequality in relation to boys and men, but
not all females experience inequality to the same
degree, so strategies for change need to be targeted at
specific groups. Biological determinism continues to
be a strong though often unspoken influence working
against girls’ participation in physical education.
Children with immature motor competencies are
unable to benefit from regular physical education later
in life and research suggests that of children aged 3 to
5 years, girls are in general already behind boys in
crucial skills such as object control, consisting of
throwing, catching and kicking a ball.
Participation in physical education and sport
programmes provides children with a wide range of
educational benefits and skills. Physical education
makes a unique contribution to girls’ education in
ways that ad hoc physical activity, manual work
and informal leisure participation cannot, because
of its emphasis on professionally-led and organised,
developmentally-appropriate and carefully
sequenced physical activities. Access to such
programmes is recognised as a fundamental human
right. However, widespread, regular, beneficial and
sustainable participation does not come
automatically for many girls in the Asia Pacific.
Socially accepted ideas of what it means to be a
man or a woman continue to play an important role
in determining access and levels of participation,
both in the stadium and in the structures of the
sport movement itself. Sexist forms of physical
education themselves can act as a barrier to girls’
participation, particularly in its traditional multiactivity, sport-based form. This form of physical
education has been criticised by scholars for
reproducing traditional gender roles, and for failing
to achieve the wide range of educational benefits
often claimed for it. Too often, when calls are made
to use physical education as a vehicle for the
achievement of important individual and social
goals, the actual form of programmes and flexibility
in their provision are given little consideration
(Lawson, 2009).
Developing an alternative approach to traditional
physical education, three broad principles can be
outlined for programme development relating to
equality of opportunity, the celebration of
difference, and the possibilities of social
transformation (Flintoff, 2008).
Action that seeks to secure equality of opportunity
for girls to be free to participate in activities of their
11
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 own choice, including all activities currently
regarded as only for boys, is a necessary condition
for the empowerment of girls in physical education
and sport. Such a principle asserts, against the
biological determinist position, that there are no
uniquely female biological deficits that prevent girls
from participating. At the same time, as a plethora
of research has shown, equality of opportunity is
not sufficient in itself since it will not automatically
bring about equitable benefits for boys and girls.
Research by Flintoff and Scraton (2006) suggests
that it is also appropriate to take action aimed at
acknowledging and celebrating difference,
promoting separate forms of physical education
and sport for girls such as indigenous movement
forms, aerobics and dance, where this is deemed to
be appropriate to specific cultural and religious
values. One implication of such an approach is that
it will sometimes be more beneficial to offer singlesex programmes, and on other occasions and in
other circumstances to offer co-educational
programmes. The research on this issue, when
conducted on an either/or basis, has been unable to
show that one approach is better than the other
(Hatten, Hannon, Holt, and Ratliffe, 2006; Naim,
2006; Whitlock, 2006). At the same time it is
important, according to Kidd and Donnelly (2000),
that girl-only programmes have parity of esteem,
even if this means the unequal distribution of
resources to establish equitable circumstances (in
terms of facilities, equipment, teachers and
coaches, and other infrastructure).
A further type of action is required in order to
ensure widespread, regular, beneficial and
sustainable participation by girls. Action aimed at
social transformation seeks to reform current
versions of physical education and sport in ways
that provide the best quality experience for both
girls and boys. It is highly likely that local initiative
through grassroots and girl-led action will be part
of this approach. For social transformation to
occur, the gender order is itself openly addressed
through, for example, a critical pedagogy of
physical education (Oliver and Lalik, 2001; Oliver,
Hamzeh, and McCaughtry, 2009).
Recommendations
Advocates should understand and be able to
explain that physical education makes a
unique contribution to girls’ education in ways
that ad hoc physical activity, manual work and
informal leisure participation cannot because
of its emphasis on professionally-led and
organised, developmentally-appropriate and
carefully sequenced physical activities.
Advocates for girls’ participation need to be
constantly vigilant of biological determinism
and its adverse consequences, and to be ready
to use facts to challenge such attitudes.
The complexity and multifaceted nature of the
problem of girls’ participation in physical
education should be recognized and fully
understood.
Strategies for change need to be targeted at
specific groups of girls and women and
significant others such as fathers, husbands
and brothers, taking account of their particular
circumstances.
Local ownership of programmes is crucial to
their effectiveness and sustainability and thus
should be facilitated and encouraged by policy
makers.
The quality of early movement learning
experiences is an urgent priority in order to
minimize delays in the development of motor
competence.
Agents working at the policy and strategy level
should seek to ensure actions are aligned
across and co-ordinated within macro, meso
and micro levels.
Since research is needed to provide evidence
of the benefits of girls’ and women’s
participation in physical education and sport,
universities should play a more prominent role
as research and dissemination agencies.
A models-based approach to physical
education could be adopted since it provides a
sharper focus on specific sets of learning
outcomes. Models also act as design
specifications to guide the development of
programmes suited to local needs and values.
To download your copy of the advocacy brief, please
click here.
12
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 Related resources:
Empowering
Girls and Women
through Physical
Education and
Sport
By: UNESCO
Did you know that…
Access to and participation in sport and
physical education is not only a right in
itself, but can also be used to promote a
number of important development goals
through facilitating democratic
principles, promoting leadership
development, and encouraging
tolerance and respect.
Sport provides women and girls with an
alternative avenue for participation in
the social and cultural life of their
communities and promotes enjoyment
of freedom of expression, interpersonal
networks, new opportunities and
increased self-esteem.
From Kumanoto
to Sydney:
Women and Sport
Progress Report
By: The
International
Working Group
on Women and
Sport
Sports can serve double benefits for
women and girls with disabilities by
providing affirmations of selfempowerment at both personal and
collective levels.
Empowering
Girls and
Women through
Sport and
Physical Activity
By: WomenWin
The health benefits of women’s
participation in physical activity and
sport are now well established.
Participation in sport and physical
activity can prevent a myriad of
noncommunicable diseases, which
account for over 60 per cent of global
deaths, 66 per cent of which occur in
developing countries. For girls, it can
have a positive impact on childhood
health, as well as reduce the risk of
chronic diseases later in life.
Source: Women 2000 and beyond: Women, gender equality and sport
13
EAP UNGEI Newsletter No. 12 | April 2012 Event: UNGEI and Room to Read get together
As much as it has become part of our daily lives, the Internet cannot
replace human interaction. In an era where virtual contact and
webex’s are the norm, the EAP UNGEI group and Room to Read
colleagues from the region still found time to have a face to face
gathering!
Room to Read (RtR) is one of UNGEI’s active partners, but
unfortunately, they do not have an office in Bangkok where most of
UNGEI’s bi-monthly meetings are held. On February 13-16, RtR
colleagues came in from around the region to attend RtR’s Girls’
Education Program Manager Meet-up in Bangkok. To capitalize on
this occasion, a networking event was arranged on the same day as
the UNGEI bi-monthly meeting on February 15th where RtR
colleauges joined the group for friendly conversations and light
refreshments. The event was held at UNESCO Bangkok.
Following a round of introductions from all participants, Emily Leys,
Director of Room to Read, gave a brief overview on RtR’s work
around the world and their dedication to literacy and gender equality
in education. Abdul Hakeem, UNESCO's Regional Education
Advisor and Coordinator of Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for
All also gave a warm welcome to the group while Chemba Raghavan,
EAP UNGEI Interim Regional Focal Point, emphasized the
effectiveness of the UNGEI partnership and reiterated the need to
strengthen collaborations at the country level.
With close to fifty participants, it is without a doubt that many new
relationships were forged at this event and future collaborations are in
line for the near future.
UNGEI 2012 Calendar
The EAP/SA UNGEI 2012 Calendar is still available for download!
It features beautiful drawings from young children and youth from
across the region telling us how education can help us all. We invite
you to check it out!
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To download your copy of the calendar, please click here.
To download the postcards, please click here.
EAP UNGEI Editorial Board
The EAP UNGEI Secretariat would like to thank everyone who has made this Newsletter possible. All content of the
EAP UNGEI Newsletters are based solely on the contributions from UNGEI members and partners. Submissions
have been reviewed by the EAP UNGEI editorial board: Adrien Boucher, David Braun, Maki Hayashikawa, Fuchsia
Hepworth, Kenny Kolijin, Karishma Kripalani, Goy Phumtim, Malisa Santigul, Chemba Raghavan, Aliénor Salmon,
Daniel Shephard, Cyrene Siriwardhana and Lucy Tan-Atichat.