On June 17, Together for Girls and partners hosted a Solutions Summit side event, Safe: Preventing Gender-Based Violence in and Through Schools. The event was convened with UNGEI and Safe to Learn, in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada, USAID, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Global Partnership for Education, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), the Malala Fund, and the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Global leaders, experts, and youth activists shared the latest data on violence in school settings and highlighted school-based interventions for catalyzing broader social change to end violence.
During the event, participants were invited to sign a global call to action calling for gender-equitable, quality, and safe learning environments. The letter, drafted by Together for Girls, Safe to Learn, UNGEI, and other partners, flags the importance of working to build back better and create stronger, safer learning environments for all children.
CDC:
Safe to Learn: “
Raising Voices: 
Chalk Back:
USAID: “We’re working to get girls into what essentially is male-dominated systems … policymakers, principals, school directors, the inspectors all tend to be male… We must encourage more women and folks of gender and sexual minorities into positions of leadership within the education system. That will cause policies to change more rapidly and we’ll see schools addressing gender-based violence in the classroom.”
UNGEI: “
FAWE: 
Las Ninas: “SRGBV must be treated as a human rights abuse and it must end. We invite all key stakeholders to partner with feminist youth networks to be co-creators and co-leaders in ending SRGBV. Continue working in this intergenerational way because this motivates youth leaders and I hope that we can motivate you.”
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator LeAnna Marr oversees DDI’s Center for Education. Previously, Ms. Marr served as the Director of the Center for Education in the Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID. As a USAID Foreign Service Officer since 2004, she has served as Education Office Director and Program Officer in Guinea, South Sudan, Sudan (Khartoum) and Macedonia, and was the Program Officer and Acting Mission Director of USAID/Morocco. From 2007 to 2010, LeAnna served as USAID’s Senior Education Advisor in the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs.
Antara Ganguli is the Director of UNGEI, the UN initiative for girls’ education. Previously she led gender equality for UNICEF India where she advised and supported 13 field offices on gender-based violence, gender-transformative pedagogy and positive masculinity. Previously she was the Deputy Representative for UN Women in Bangladesh. Antara started her career as a primary school teacher for children of sex workers. She has a M.A. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Ms. Martha Muhwezi is the current FAWE Africa Executive Director providing leadership to 34 National Chapters in 33 countries in Africa. She is a Gender and Development specialist with more than 20 years of experience in the civil society sector nationally, regionally and internationally. She holds a Master’s degree in Women Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Gender Studies at the University of Nairobi.
Eyleen is an 18 year old feminist activist from Guatemala. She is a member of the girl-led Network Las Niñas Lideran Quetzaltenango- Rise Up. Her work focuses on addressing gender based violence in and around schools. She is the lead of the SRGBV working collective for Transform Education, hosted by UNGEI.
Dr. Daniela Ligiero is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Together for Girls, a global, public-private partnership dedicated to ending violence against children, especially sexual violence against girls. The partnership includes five UN agencies, the governments of the United States and Canada, several private sector organizations and more than 20 country governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, working together to generate comprehensive data and solutions to this public health and human rights epidemic. Dr. Ligiero also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.
On Friday, December 6, 2019, the Prime Minister appointed Leslie MacLean as Deputy Minister of International Development, effective Monday, December 9. Prior to this appointment, Ms. MacLean was chief operating officer for Service Canada from July 2016 until December 2019. From 1995 to 2016, she served Canadians in a range of other leadership roles in the public service, including associate deputy minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada from 2014 to 2016 and assistant secretary, Social and Cultural Sector, with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) from 2011 to 2014.
Ms. Alice P. Albright was appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education’s Secretariat in February 2013. Since joining GPE, Ms. Albright has strengthened the position of GPE to be a major delivery agency of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
