Starting a conversation about equal access to quality education is what Cécile Giraud does through her UN Volunteer assignment with UNESCO in Senegal. She reviews and helps develop education policies that put gender equality in the spotlight.
Cécile Giraud is an international UN Volunteer from France. She serves as Gender-Sensitive Education Policy Analyst with UNESCO in Dakar. Her role is transversal, she says.
I contribute to several activities and help strengthen IIEP-UNESCO's gender expertise. This includes training activities, knowledge production, and support for educational planning, and also its functioning. Through sensitization of colleagues, for example on gender stereotyped communication, I contribute to the institutionalization of gender in my agency," says Cécile.
Cécile provides technical support to the Ministries of Education in Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Chad. This includes the analyses of education sectors and their policies.
I support the Participatory Gender Diagnosis in Burkina Faso. What this refers to is the audit of gender and equality issues within the Ministries, in its organizational structure, its means, and its practices, and also the sensitization of its personnel," she says.
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The Senegal Chapter of IIEP-UNESCO organizes gender-sensitive education planning to better equip education specialists in Africa. In the planning and management of gender-sensitive education, Cécile ensures that gender equality is promoted at every level. She knows that without reducing these inequalities, quality education for all is unattainable. Her training modules on equal access to education have inspired many education experts.
Through her UN Volunteer assignment, Cécile starts important conversations challenging existing notions of inequality in education while putting gender at the center of every exchange.