The paper aims to chart aspects of the political, economic and social contexts in which scaling up of girls' education will take place in Commonwealth countries in Africa and considers what the implications of these contexts are for projects and programmes.
The first section of the paper develops a scorecard to map Commonwealth countries in Africa with regard to the policy and social environment for girls ‘ education. It argues for the need for a publicly accountable criterion of what has been achieved and what needs to be done drawing on existing data sources and presents one way of developing a scorecard on this. The scorecard methodology is put forward as a way NGO coalitions, governments and Inter Government Organisations could develop a shared understanding of accountability and approach the task of assessing progress towards achieving the MDG.
The second section looks at four case studies of how salient features of the political, economic and social context that appeared as important from the scorecard approach play out in local level examples of initiatives in primary and secondary education to promote access and retention. It assesses the opportunities and limitations for scaling up access and retention in both school phases these point to.
The final section considers the implications of the case studies for the scorecard methodology and suggests some supplementary methodologies and measures that could contribute to a revised form of scorecard being developed as an accountable method of mapping progress.