Keeping Girls in the Picture: Youth Advocacy Toolkit

"If there are girls in your immediate community who have not been able to learn remotely while schools have been closed [during the COVID-19 pandemic], or if schools have reopened but some girls have not been able to return, your advocacy can help to establish plans that address girls' needs and ensure their safe return to school."

Created with the conviction that young people have a powerful voice, this toolkit to support youth advocacy around education was developed as part of the #LearningNeverStops campaign, which was initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and members of the Global Education Coalition in the context of COVID-19. The campaign calls for efforts to safeguard progress made on girls' education, to ensure girls' learning continues during school closures, and to promote girls' safe return to school once these reopen. It also sheds light on the 130 million girls who were already out of school before the pandemic, and it calls on the international community to urgently work together to guarantee their right to education.

Contents include:

1. Campaign overview Topics include: keeping girls in the picture and education in the COVID-19 era.
2. Who are we advocating for? Advocacy centres around: girls whose schools are still closed, girls whose schools have reopened, and girls who were out of school before COVID-19.
3. Where to begin? Topics include: What is advocacy? Asking the right questions, setting your objectives, mapping your resources and needs, and developing content (using: high-impact facts, continued learning, did you know? (DYK) questions). Includes the main calls to action for this campaign and a list of engaging questions and other messages.
4. How can you get involved? - Topics include: reaching your representatives, raising public awareness, engaging in community leadership and teamwork, ensuring self-care, and taking safety precautions.
5. Advocacy tips - Focuses on using: persuasive storytelling, public speaking, and interviewing.
6. UNESCO's Global Education Coalition - Offers background information on the Global Education Coalition, which was launched by UNESCO to safeguard learning for all amid the COVID-19 crisis.