The Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability
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Girl-Child Education Initiative

The Bixby Center was one of the founders of the Centre for Girls Education (CGE) in Northern Nigeria. The Centre is now a joint program of the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley and the Population & Reproductive Health Initiative at Ahmadu Bello University. Since 2008, the Centre for Girls Education (CGE) has worked to delay early marriage and reduce related maternal health outcomes in rural communities in northern Nigeria by addressing barriers to girls’ education, particularly in increasing demand for, access to, and retention in secondary schooling. More information can be found at centreforgirlseducation.org.

CGE’s core strategies evolved over 8 years of careful ethnographic study and community-based research with girls, their parents, community members, religious leaders, and other key stakeholders. After much participatory work with the community, CGE chose to focus on two areas where it believed would have the strongest impact in improving maternal and child health outcomes: literacy and gender equality in education.

CGE is currently pioneering the use of intensive mentor-led “safe space” girls groups for adolescent girls to acquire the basic academic competencies (including iteracy and numeracy) and critical life skills they would need to succeed in school and beyond. The life-skills training in particular help the girls develop the knowledge (reproductive health, gender, rights) and behavioral (communication, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership) skills needed to enhance their agency and voice. Through peer group solidarity and effective mentoring, a safe environment is fostered in which girls can reflect on their lives and the kind of life to which they aspire, and then using the life skills they have acquired, to negotiate for their self-defined strategic life choices related to education, marriage, and livelihood. In short, the groups enhance participants’ potential for living the lives they want.

CGE is currently conducting rigorous operations research on the effectiveness of such formal and informal educational strategies in improving maternal and child health outcomes in the region.

Resources

Daniel Perlman, Director of the Centre for Girls Education, describes the Centre’s research on early marriage at the UC Symposium on Gender Equity and Global Reproductive Health in San Diego (March 19-21, 2014).

  • Decision-making Leading to Early Marriage in Northern Nigeria
  • Delaying Age of Marriage through Girl-Child Education in Northern Nigeria

The MacArthur Foundation, a sponsor of the Transitions project, features and highlights the Centre for Girls Education.

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  • Core Research
  • Special Programs & Initiatives
    • Women’s Health and Empowerment
    • The OASIS Initiative
    • Adolescent Reproductive Health
    • Girl-Child Education Initiative
    • Evidence for Development (E4D)
  • Opportunities
  • Teaching
  • Collaborations
  • Special

Recent News

  • Dr. Holcombe Has Published an Article on Advocacy by Ethiopia’s Obstetrician-Gynecologist Society in the Journal Health Policy and Planning

    March 22, 2018
  • Bixby Center is now accepting applications to fund summer internships or doctoral research

    December 11, 2017
  • Malcolms Potts has commentary in SF Chronicle: Cultural debate over harassment is a step in human evolution

    December 5, 2017
  • UC Berkeley Global Health is Offering Summer Reporting Internship 2018

    November 21, 2017

Upcoming Events

  1. Dr. Marc Mitchell Will be Presenting The Health Systems of the Future–Here Today

    April 23 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  2. Dr. Prata and Natalie Morris Will Be Presenting at the Psychological Workshop and PAA

    April 24 - April 28
  3. Dr. Nouhou Presenting: Women’s Empowerment and Fertility Decision Making in Niger

    May 2 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

View All Events

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The Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability is dedicated to helping achieve slower population growth within a human right framework by addressing the unmet need for family planning. Learn more

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