ShiftEd Alliance is a coalition of 12 organizations working across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to generate the evidence, tools, and momentum to shift gender norms in the classroom and beyond.
ShiftEd's member organizations have strong, evidence-based, outcome-focused approaches and a willingness to share their models and devote time to a collaborative process to shape adolescent gender norms.
Founded in 1994, Ação Educativa is a non-profit civil association from São Paulo, Brazil, that acts in the fields of education, culture and youth, under a human rights perspective. For this purpose, it carries out training and supporting activities for groups of educators, young people and cultural agents. It integrates campaigns and other collective actions aimed at the realization of these rights. It develops participatory research and methodologies focused on the construction of public policies in tune with the needs and interests of the population. Its mission is the defense of educational, cultural and youth rights, with a view to promoting democracy, social justice and socio-environmental sustainability in Brazil.
For 25 years, Breakthrough has been working to make gender-based violence unacceptable, with the aim of transforming culture that permits the same. We have worked with nearly 2.3 million adolescents across six intervention states in India, aiming to transform gender-limiting norms that hold girls and women back. We directly work with young people (11 to 25 years) in communities and schools, and through government partnerships we aim to create more gender-equitable environments within school systems. We strive to inform the larger feminist agenda nationally and globally, promote a gender-progressive lens in mass content and narratives, and push for an overall shift towards a gender-equal world.
For over 35 years, Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3) has been designing and implementing interventions at-scale to mobilize, equip, educate and empower women and girls to meet their full potential, to grow up as educated, informed, confident citizens of India, to live dignified and healthy lives, and to emerge as leaders in their communities. C3 works in regions of India that are often remote, resource-poor and where patriarchal barriers are deeply pronounced. Currently, our interventions are operational across 12 states of India.
The Centre for Girls’ Education (CGE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving access and quality of education for marginalized girls in Northern Nigeria. Through community-based interventions, CGE provides life skills, mentorship, and educational support, aiming to empower girls to fulfill their potential.
Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice has worked internationally and in the US since 2011 to engage men and boys as allies in gender equality, promote healthy manhood, and prevent violence. Equimundo works to achieve gender equality and social justice by transforming intergenerational patterns of harm and promoting patterns of care, empathy, and accountability among boys and men throughout their lives.
FAWE works across Africa to advance girls’ education and gender equality through advocacy, and innovative models and programs. With a presence in 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, FAWE collaborates with governments, institutions, and communities to create inclusive and equitable education systems.
FUNDAEC’s efforts over the last half-century—rooted in Colombia and gradually expanding across the globe—have focused on advancing community well-being by promoting the teaching and application of science in both rural and urban settings. Through educational initiatives and community-based processes, the organization strives to strengthen individual capacities and foster both personal and environmental transformation.
Glasswing International is an El Salvador–based nonprofit organization that is on a mission to build a brighter future for communities across the Americas. Glasswing transforms existing public schools into safe community spaces that improve learning outcomes; equips frontline workers to radically expand access to mental health support; and increases economic opportunities through vocational and entrepreneurial training, service learning and active peer networks. Since 2007, Glasswing has mobilized and invested over $220 million in Latin America, the Caribbean and New York City and impacted over six million people’s lives, mobilizing over 150,000 volunteers in the process.
Gender inequity lies at the root of every major problem the world faces. The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) has set the global agenda for equity, inclusion, and shared prosperity with our action-oriented research and solutions. ICRW’s Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) program is aimed at empowering adolescents in schools and communities. We collaborate closely with local, regional, and international partners to undertake field research and program work. We communicate our findings and experience to policymakers through advocacy efforts grounded in sound evidence and data.
Projet Jeune Leader works to improve the health and well-being of adolescents in Madagascar. They train, equip, and support specialized educators to deliver a gender-transformative comprehensive sexuality education program in under-resourced rural public middle schools to ensure that adolescents have essential knowledge, skills, and support to thrive during adolescence and beyond.
For 25 years, Raising Voices has worked in Uganda and beyond, to prevent violence against women and children. Our innovation has been to address the power-systems that surround women and children’s lives (such as social or education system) and place the responsibility of acting on the entire system, not just women themselves. We have done this through two evidence-based methodologies - SASA! and The Good School Toolkit - that have been recognized globally as effective interventions. We have an unwavering commitment to rigor, practice-based learning, accountability to women and children and to communities we serve.
Room to Read envisions a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. Since 2000, Room to Read has benefited more than 50 million children and has worked in 28 countries around the world to help young learners unlock their full potential through education. Our programming supports children to develop foundational literacy skills, as well as life skills that promote gender equality.
Our Conveners
ShiftEd Alliance is convened by leaders who have dedicated their careers to advancing gender equality and bring deep insight, knowledge and passion to this effort.
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Erin Ganju
Erin turned a bold idea for advancing literacy and gender equality into an international NGO: Room to Read. She is the co-founder and former CEO of Room to Read, which has impacted over 45 million children in 15 countries. She also co-authored “Scaling Global Change: A Social Entrepreneur’s Guide to Surviving the Start-up Phase and Driving Impact,” utilizing Room to Read as an organizational case study. After Room to Read, Erin was Managing Director at Echidna Giving, one of the largest private funders in gender equality in education in lower-income countries from 2018-2024. She was selected as a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy (2022); a Global Impact Featured Member by the Young Presidents’ Organization (2017); and a World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur (2014). Before co-founding Room to Read, Erin worked at Goldman Sachs & Co, Unilever and several technology start-ups. Erin holds a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in international relations and economics from The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Sohini Bhattacharya
Sohini has worked in the development sector for 30+ years with a focus on women and empowerment. She is the former CEO of Breakthrough, a 25-year-old organization focused on transforming gender norms and building the leadership of young people to prevent gender-based violence. Before Breakthrough, Sohini worked with Ashoka Innovators for the Public for 10 years to bring in more women entrepreneurs to the fellowship and on institution- building for the organization in South Asia. She also worked as the India strategy advisor for the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network from 2010-2013. In addition, Sohini co-founded Sanhita Gender Resource Centre — the first of its kind in Eastern India — in 1996. Sohini is a founding member of the Coalition for Good Schools – Voices from the South, a collection of leading practitioners and influencers committed to delivering access to a safe learning environment for children across the Global South. Sohini is also an advisory board member at Ignite Philanthropy, a philanthropic fund that supports bold efforts to ensure every child lives a life free from violence; a board member of The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre For Women (ARROW), a regional women and young people’s organization that has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations; and a member of the Global Reference Group of the Spotlight Initiative, the United Nations’ high-impact initiative to end violence against women and girls. As leader of Breakthrough, Sohini deepened the adolescent empowerment program and lead the organisation through a deep dive into a design phase and subsequent launch of a systems change approach of shifting gender norms through education. The program in partnership with state governments is expected to reach 4 million adolescents over the next few years. The organization’s work to change gender norms at the community level while keeping adolescents and young people at the center earned it the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurs.
Our Funder
We are solely funded by Echidna Giving, a private funder supporting gender equality in and through education in historically lower-income countries. Echidna Giving works to deliver the promise of girls’ education — a promise that depends on schooling to advance gender equality. By supporting this collaboration, Echidna Giving seeks to accelerate progress against this promise.