The purpose of this guide is to present a set of minimum standards for a whole school approach to prevent and respond to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) and a monitoring framework to measure the effectiveness of the approach. A whole school approach is a strategy that takes into account the interconnectedness of schools, communities, and families in order to improve the school environment for students, staff, and community members. This guide is divided into three sections. Section 1 introduces the conceptual framework and theory of change, and provides the context for the whole school approach and established indicators. Section 2 presents the whole school approach, which include eight minimum standard elements. The core element is effective school leadership and community engagement to design safe and genderequal learning environments. The remaining standard elements are: establishing a code of conduct; capacity building of teachers and educational staff; empowering children to advance child rights, child protection, and gender equality; improving reporting, monitoring, and accountability; addressing incidents; strengthening physical learning environments; and engaging parents. Suggested indicators accompany each of the elements. Section 3 provides guidance on monitoring, how to measure the whole school approach, indicators for monitoring, and the ethical and safety considerations for conducting research with children and adults. A full list of the suggested indicators for monitoring the whole school approach are provided in the annexes. These indicators are subdivided into process, driver, and prevalence indicators. This guide can be used by education ministries, education authorities, schools, and non-governmental organizations to guide SRGBV prevention and response actions with a monitoring approach that allows the tracking of results and outcomes. The intended audience for this guide is policy makers, planners, and practitioners working in education, child welfare, women’s health and rights, and combatting violence against women and girls. School
personnel including teachers, school administrators, provincial education authorities, parents, and members of school management committees will also find this guide useful in designing an action plan to address SRGBV within their schools.