Rachel Hatch

Greater participation in secondary education supports the advancement of human capital linked to economic growth, democracy-building, improved health, greater equity across society, and the development of a capable and competitive workforce. However, many youth never reach secondary school in Sub-Saharan Africa, which limits their life opportunities as well as national development trajectories more broadly. This brief quantifies what we can expect in terms of demand for secondary education in the coming decade, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and on lower secondary education.

After offering a rationale for studying education inequalities and violent conflict, and introducing the concept of horizontal inequalities, we offer a brief overview of the approach and methodology for selecting the literature to be used in the review. This is followed by a review of literature on group identity and its measurement in conflict literature, with a particular focus on horizontal inequality. Finally, we discuss the literature on educational inequality, as well as the studies and evidence to date. 

Investment in Equity and Peacebuilding: South Africa Case Study by Family Health International 360 (FHI 360)’s Education Policy and Data Center (EPDC) is a mixed-methods case study, carried out as part of UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy (PBEA) Programme, that examines the relationship of investments in educational equity and in social capital on social cohesion in South Africa. Much of South Africa’s modern history is marked by institutionalized inequality and the mass struggle against it.

For International Literacy Day, EPDC examined the usefulness and comparability of different types of literacy data across the globe. This policy brief discusses the analysis, with specific examples drawing from Uganda.