FAWE recognises that it is imperative to invest in developing research and to use up-to-date relevant data to buttress its advocacy and demonstration work in education policy and practice.
We believe that without applied research into the gender perspectives of development that are specific the African context, planned development may be seriously compromised or even retarded.
The weakness of evidence-based interventions that target specific women’s issues has led to a vicious circle in which many communities across sub-Saharan Africa continue to reproduce uneducated women, who in turn bring forth generations of uneducated girls, who also reproduce the roles of their mothers (Abagi 2006).
It is therefore important to ensure that initiatives that target women are based on gender-sensitive research and that they equip women with relevant knowledge and skills that are responsive to the needs of girls and women at individual, social, political and economic levels.