UNICEF/HQ98-1084/ GIACOMO PIROZZI
Cream Wright
Chief, Education Section
UNICEF New York
In recent years there have been exciting
developments in the form and sub-
stance of what we do in girls’ education,
as well as in the rationale for giving top
priority to this area. As such, UNICEF and
its partners can seriously talk, in a positive
sense, of “making waves” in development
thinking with girls’ education!
If we consider girls’ education as a
major innovation, we need to be aware
of at least three critical things that schol-
ars of innovation generally agree on.
First, innovations do not work unless
you can shake up the status quo…..
hence we hear a lot about thinking out-
side the box and not doing business as
usual (is there a danger these might
become status quo rhetoric?). Second,
an innovation can change in quite unex-
pected ways (good and bad) as new
supporters and enthusiasts get on board
and make it their own…..we need to
embrace the visionaries and be mindful
of the “crazies”! Third, those who inno-
vate should not be taken in by acclaim
and cannot afford to rest on their lau-
rels….as with riding a tiger, once you
get on top you need to stay on top and
keep going. Long ago, the American
educator and curriculum innovator
Jerome Brunner cautioned that acclaim
is difficult to cope with if you have seri-
ous business in mind….for once some-
thing has been acclaimed, it can then be
dismissed in a noble way. We cannot
change the world with girls’ education
simply by making it this year’s headline
and then watch it disappear into the foot
notes and off the pages of history.
With these three cautionary notes in
mind, let me share some thoughts on the
vision of girls’ education as an innovation
and on the strategy for accelerating pro-
gress towards the gender-related MDGs
and EFA goals. You recall that these call
for elimination of gender disparities in pri-
mary and secondary education by 2005.
It is critical to target girls as a
means of leveraging success for
all boys and girls
The first set of arguments