Gender mainstreaming in education at the level of field operations: the case of CARE USA’s indicator framework

Following the adoption of gender mainstreaming at the Beijing Conference for Women in 1995 as a major strategy to promote gender equality and the recognition of gender analysis as central to this process, Gender and Development (GAD) frameworks have provided tools for gender analysis in various sectors. Gender mainstreaming in basic education has received limited attention to date, however, especially in development agencies at the level of operations (i.e., field offices in partnership with the community, school, and classroom). We contend that gender analysis in education – especially at the level of operations for development agencies – could be enhanced through the use of robust education and gender (EDGE) analysis frameworks that integrate dimensions of educational quality and attainment with equality and empowerment. We explore this idea by examining CARE USA’s comprehensive Common Indicator Framework (CIF) that integrates these four areas and was designed for use in the basic education sector. We review and compare the findings from the initial use of the CIF to guide data collection for a situation analysis in two countries, Mali and Cambodia, and we critique both how it is contributing to gender mainstreaming at the level of operations and ways in which it needs to be refined.