[{"bbox": [96, 178, 1133, 230], "category": "Page-header", "text": "This action is labelled as G2 and will contribute to the priority areas⁶ of the Country Level Implementation Plan of the Gender Action Plan III⁷."}, {"bbox": [85, 262, 322, 291], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 327, 233, 352], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [96, 374, 1136, 479], "category": "Text", "text": "Uganda faces multiple challenging demographic features. These include one of the highest fertility rates in the world (4.7 births per woman), high rates of teenage pregnancies and low transition rate to secondary school. The SRHR landscape in Uganda remains weak with limited health care and social services, and limited knowledge and capacity of service providers."}, {"bbox": [96, 505, 1137, 849], "category": "Text", "text": "Uganda declared Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997 and abolished school fees and Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) charges in government primary schools. As a result, primary school enrolment increased by 145% in 7 years - from 3.1 million in 1996 to 7.6 million in 2003. While the remarkable increase in primary enrolment should be acknowledged as a significant progress, adequate government funding allocation to effectively implement this policy did not last long. Over the first decade of implementation, the government allocated about 20% of its public expenditure (about 4% of the GDP) to the education sector, which aligns with the recommendation made at the 2015 Incheon Declaration for the national governments to allocate 4 to 6% of their GDP and/or at least 15 to 20% of their total public expenditure to education, with a focus on basic education. However, while the UPE policy is still in place and with the primary gross enrolment reaching around 10.7 million by 2018, government investment into the education sector has gradually declined over the years and currently stands at about 10.5% of government expenditure and 2.3% of GDP. Consequently, access, retention, and learning achievements have stagnated for the past decade. At the current rate of progress, Uganda is not on track to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4."}, {"bbox": [96, 876, 1137, 1247], "category": "Text", "text": "Uganda followed the UPE policy with the Universal Secondary Education policy in 2007, the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this financial barriers remain the main reasons cited for both non-attendance and dropping out of school and have in fact risen from 40% in 2006 to 63% in 2019. Average household expenditure on education, even in poorer sub-regions is high. 77% of secondary schools in Uganda are private schools, but families face cost even in public secondary schools; nationally household expenditure accounts for 62% of total education funding at secondary level. Large increases in access to Primary education, following the implementation of the UPE policy have not translated to Lower Secondary; between 2010 and 2019 primary Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) averaged 111% while Lower Secondary GER fluctuated between 31% and 35%. The survival rates to the last grade of primary in 2019 was 43% for girls, and the intake ratio for the first grade of secondary was just 49%. This is in the context of most girls being overaged for their grade and often the level of education; just 37% of lower secondary aged girls who are in-school are in Lower Secondary, with the majority still in Upper Primary. Primary schools are also providing poor quality education. The latest national assessment of progress in education (FAWE) showed that only 36% and 28% of girls in P6 had reached the minimum proficiency for maths and English, respectively."}, {"bbox": [96, 1274, 1137, 1511], "category": "Text", "text": "A 2020/21-2024/25 Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) has been drafted by the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), based on a sectoral analysis. The ESSP is not yet approved by Cabinet, nor has it been appraised by partners. However, this could form the basis in coming years for dialogue and joint planning. There are a number of relevant policies and guidelines in place (e.g. Gender in Education Policy, National Strategic Plan for violence against children, guidelines for Senior Female and Male Teachers, etc); however, policy implementation has been a challenge. The sector dialogue has some established structures in place, including a Local Education Group and an annual review process. There is an active Education Development Partners Group, through which partners coordinate their work and agree on policy dialogue priorities. There is also on-going work to put in place a new Global Partnership for Education (GPE) country compact, which will be the basis for"}, {"bbox": [85, 1573, 1142, 1622], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ Ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence; Promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights; Promoting economic and social rights and empowering women and girls; Advancing equal participation and leadership; Integrating women, peace and security"}, {"bbox": [85, 1622, 596, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_2184"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1142, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 31"}]