Global Education Coalition Gender Flagship: Highlights of Action in 2020

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, UNESCO launched the Global Education Coalition, an international multi-sector partnership aiming to meet the urgent and unprecedented need for continuity of learning.

Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions at some point in 2020 in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. At its peak, these nationwide closures impacted more than 1.5 billion, or over 90% of the world’s student population, from pre-primary to higher education. The Global Education Coalition selected three flagships, or focus areas, covering: teachers, connectivity and gender.

The Gender Flagship is rallying coalition members to work together to highlight and address the gender dimensions of the COVID-19 school crisis and safeguard progress made on gender equality in education in recent decades.

This report presents the work of the Gender Flagship in 2020, and its plans for 2021.