UNESCO report highlights Brazilian initiatives on the efforts to achieve gender equality in and through education

The recently launched report UNESCO's efforts to achieve gender equality in and through education, 2021 highlights presents the works the Organization carried out in 2021 to advance gender equality through education, including actions in Brazil. 

These advances were possible due to the support of partners, including governments, civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector institutions. Accordingly, the report acknowledges their contributions by describing their actions.

The highlighted actions in Brazil are:

• The Global Education Coalition's Gender Flagship, which addressed the impacts on gender issues during schools closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The continuation of the 2020 Keep Girls in the Picture campaign, which supported girls returning to school. This campaign reached around 400 million people worldwide. Its materials were translated into Portuguese in 2021.
• The Brazilian actions aimed at ensuring digital skills and education in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), focusing on increasing the participation of women and improving the gender balance in these areas. Brazilian stakeholders developed such actions to build an evidence base to support public policies with those objectives. UNESCO in Brazil conducted a study on mapping the networks working to support the participation of girls and women in STEM areas and identified 200 initiatives.

The report also includes the UNESCO Prize for the Education of Girls and Women, funded by the Chinese government, which aims to recognize innovations and contributions made by individuals, institutions and organizations to promote and advance the education of girls and women. In 2021, this prize worth US$50,000 was awarded to the  {reprograma} Brazilian initiative for its digital skills development work focusing on underrepresented and low-income girls and women to reduce the digital divide of gender.