Advocating for Sustainable Integration of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in Pakistan's Conservative and Stagnant Education System

Summary:

With recent cases of child sexual abuse gaining national attention, the government now recognizes the need for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) awareness and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), however, with fragmented education and health systems, limited technical capacity, and polarized political will on the subject, the transformation from recognition and ideation to action is amiss. Organizations advocating for CSE face a challenging question: How can CSE be integrated into the education curriculum in a sustainable and contextually-relevant manner while overcoming sociocultural barriers to such content? In its efforts to answer this question, Aahung, a Karachi-based NGO working on SRHR education and awareness, has been using strategic advocacy approaches for collaborating with the Provincial Education Systems, for incorporating CSE within the Sindh provincial curriculum. As the education system in Pakistan is decentralized at provincial levels, therefore Aahung's advocacy interventions focus on collaborating with Provincial Education Departments. In the case of Sindh province, Aahung worked in collaboration with the Sindh School Education and Literacy department (SELD), in order to strategically integrate its CSE curriculum into the Sindh school curriculum. This collaboration resulted in the development of an integrated CSE framework, which identifies potential subjects and chapters where CSE content can be incorporated. This framework, ultimately resulted in the successful integration of Aahung's CSE content into the Sindh secondary school curriculum.

Background/Objectives:

This paper aims to present the advocacy approaches, used by Aahung, as a model of best practice, by undertaking an extensive discussion of the various strengths and challenges of these approaches.

Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:

To initiate the process, Aahung developed a review committee in 2010 comprised of members from SELD, teachers, parents, and progressive religious scholars to obtain local approval and endorsement of the content. In 2011, an advocacy power mapping exercise was conducted with all the provincial education departments of Pakistan. This entailed: i) understanding the operations of the education departments and decision-making mechanisms, ii) identifying key stakeholders within the system, and subsequently iii) building relationships with identified stakeholders. Based on this, Aahung scaled up its advocacy efforts in the province of Sindh by conducting sensitization sessions with key decisionmakers on the importance of CSE integration. These sessions led to the endorsement of Aahung's advocacy strategy and an MOU was signed between Aahung and SELD to lead the process of CSE integration. The signing of the MOU was accompanied by the establishment of a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to oversee progress.

Results/Lessons Learned:

A major consideration for any advocacy exercise is a nuanced understanding of the local political dynamics and its effects on the project at hand. During the power mapping exercise, it was realized that while the key decision makers relating to education in Sindh belong to the ruling government, however, the political landscape also suggests that decisions regarding sensitive issues, such as CSE integration within education curriculum, also require broad-based support from other major political parties. Aahung's strategy of forming a TAC, working closely with subject specialists and sensitizing all the personnel from various sub departments of SELD, broke down resistance and increased accountability and ownership. The TAC provided guidance in identifying the potential subjects (Social Studies, Urdu language, and Sindhi language) and relevant chapters from the secondary curriculum where Aahung's CSE content can be integrated.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:

The strategy of integrating CSE content across various subjects, will now serve as a base to evaluate the efficacy of the framework and ultimately advocate in teaching CSE as a stand-alone subject. Aahung's experience has shown teaching CSE as a separate subject is a more effective methodology. The advocacy power mapping exercise helps in both identifying key players within the system and establishing and strengthening of relationships with them. It is important to be flexible while developing public private-partnerships for such sensitive issues. This creates an environment where constructive negotiations become possible.

Abstract submitted by:

Sana Tajuddin - Aahung
Sheena Hadi - Aahung
Aisha Ijaz - Aahung
Junaid-ur-Rehman Siddiqui - Aahung