Foundations for Education and Empowerment

Intermediate outcome 1100: Strengthened delivery of quality, gender-responsive, and inclusive education, early childhood development, and other sustainable development services, in select areas of Africa. Through this outcome, the Project will improve technical capacities at the practitioner,local, provincial, and national government levels, while also improving resources for effective service delivery. This includes equipping classroom teachers with new, gender-responsive, pluralist grade-level and school-level teaching and learning resources that are co-designed with local teachers and school leaders; supporting the use of an innovative school-based app to allow school managers to more quickly identify and address enrollment, attendance, transition, and completion patterns and challenges (such as girls’ drop out); deploying Canadians to support human resource capacity development in targeted areas; and collaborating with governments to equip education and early childhood development institutions with appropriate curricula, protocols, resources, and tools, such as training packages for early childhood development professionals and gender-responsive guidelines for teachers.

Intermediate outcome 1200: Reduced gender and social barriers to utilization and uptake of education, early childhood development, and other sustainable development services for womenand girls, adolescents, men, and boys in select areas of Africa. To support the achievement of this outcome, a Social and Behavior Change and Communication Strategy will be developed. This strategywill inform the program’s design and iteration over the next five years. The Project will provide community and school-based gender-responsive services and will introduce innovations such as community competitions to make schools safe and welcoming spaces, and an e-philanthropy platform to raise local funds for local action. It will train, mentor, and provide technical assistance to a wide range of civil society organizations and their leaders, such as women-led and gender equality organizations, Parent Teacher Associations, student councils, and higher education institutions. These activities will deploy innovative processes such as human-centred design that foster relevant and innovative solutions to locally-identified issues. The Project will offer specific training opportunities for young women through a Women’s Leadership Academy. It will maximize the reach of social and behaviour change messaging by working with established civil society organizations, as well as media platforms, such as radio and television stations, and interactive community dialogue sessions.

Intermediate outcome 1300: Enhanced engagement of international development and Canadian stakeholders in gender-sensitive and evidence-based development issues and programming focused on the establishment of robust gender-sensitive monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems. The Project will undertake evaluations and studies on key performance indicators, and will conduct gender-sensitive research to inform program strategies and contribute to sectoral bodies of knowledge. The Project will be a vehicle for policy dialogue by creating opportunities for learning and dialogue through the sharing of gender-sensitive evidence, best practices, and lessons learned. It will convene regional and national learning initiatives and disseminate evidence to local, national, and regional stakeholders. AKFC will reach the Canadian public by working through educators, media, volunteers and youth. Key activities include a bilingual travelling exhibit on gender equality, digital engagement, AKFC’s flagship International Youth Fellowship program, and learning and dialogue initiatives.

YEAR 2 UPDATES

A significant portion of the Y2 reporting period was dedicated to accelerating on the implementation of activities across all three components of the project, following the easement of COVID-19 restrictions. Under the Foundations for Learning (F4L) component, the baseline study was completed, and project targets were set in consultation with the country teams. Following realignment with national education priorities and directives, the AKDN agencies clearly demonstrated that they are an important partner for the national governments across East Africa, as they were called on multiple times to provide technical support on the delivery of these new policies and directives. While substantial gains were made in Y2, access to teachers remained the primary challenge owing to accelerated school calendars and limited opportunities to engage with teachers beyond their vacation days. Activities targeting local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Local Government Authorities (LGAs) moved at a slower pace and ultimately were paused, as it was concluded that building the capacity of local CSOs and LGAs before taking them through the Human Centered Design (HCD) journey, alongside schools and communities, would be critical to the success of these activities. The Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the national elections in Kenya both caused some disruptions to activities, however every effort was made to make up for lost time and invest resources on activities that could be completed in the interim.

Under the Advancing Gender Equality and Civil Society (AGECS) component of the project, 10 sub-projects that aim to promote gender equality were sub-awarded to local CSOs following a final technical and financial review of their proposals, with one remaining sub-project in Madagascar to be awarded in Q1 of Y3. This was quickly followed by inception meetings and rolling out of the AGECS MERL templates and systems. As well, the Women’s Leadership Academy launched its program with the first cohort of participants from Kenya and Uganda, and two further sub-projects were awarded to university partners. Under the Advancing Canadian Champions for Development (ACCD) component of the project, in-person and virtual learning and dialogue events were delivered and in-person public engagement events restarted. The International Youth Fellows (IYF) also returned to in-country placements with seven Fellows placed in Africa.

During the Y2 reporting period, efforts were largely focused on accelerating the implementation of activities. Under F4L, this included rolling out teacher professional development courses and workshops to teachers, school leaders, government officials and tutors, completion of the broader F4L baseline as well as launching of the baseline study for MECP Kenya and Uganda following the selection of pre-primary teachers, and designing tools and resources that can be used to build the capacity of institutions, local CSOs and LGAs. Considerable effort was placed on supporting national governments with implementation of the new education policies and directives they released during the prior reporting period. Access to teachers remained the primary challenge in Y2 owing to accelerated school calendars and limited opportunities to engage with teachers beyond their vacation days. Under AGECS, 10 sub-projects that aim to promote gender equality were sub-awarded to local CSOs following a final technical and financial review of their proposals. This was followed by inception meetings and rolling out of the AGECS MERL templates and systems. Under ACCD, both virtual and in-person events were organized and digital campaigns continued.

Year 1 UPDATES

During the first year of the project, efforts were largely focused on implementation of the COVID- 19 Emergency Response Plans and development of the PIP. The Emergency Response Plans were developed through consultations with local implementing partners, communities, and host governments. In Mombasa, Kenya, Aga Khan Academy (AKA) provided 31 female teachers and school leaders training in Social Emotional and Ethical Learning workshops to ensure they are prepared to address the psychosocial needs of students once schools reopen. Through the workshops, AKA provided concrete techniques that teachers and school leaders could use to create an emotionally safe space in their classrooms, such as active listening (“Stop, Breathe, Listen and Respond”) or using emojis to help students identify their feelings. AKA also provided 96 (50F; 46M) school leaders and 20 (5F; 10M) Senior Education Officers with training on instructional and adaptive leadership. This included a component in which participants developed an action plan on how to implement adaptive leadership skills in their schools to ensure the participants had concrete plans to put into practice the knowledge and skills received through the training. Senior Education Officers were also included in the training, so that they too have the knowledge and skills on instructional and adaptive leadership and are therefore able to support school leaders during their supervisory visits. By doing so, AKA was able to use a system-strengthening approach and embed instructional and adaptive leadership approaches within the network of 96 schools. In Uganda, Madrasa Early Childhood Programme (MECP) partnered with 50 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres during the Emergency Response Activities. Subsequently, MECP held meetings with 20 (8F; 12M) members of the Arua district ECD Task Force, the Education department, and the chairperson of social services to develop a road map on how ECD centres will re-open while adhering to the COVID-19 standard operating procedures released by the Ministry of Health. This entailed a survey to determine the starting point on key issues around caregivers’ support to learning during the lockdown and to understand phone ownership, radio access and use, parental support of children for continued learning, and challenges parents face in supporting children’s learning. Drawing on the results of the survey, a set of guidelines were developed and distributed to ECD centres. All 50 (22F; 28M) head teachers were then provided training on these guidelines to ensure they were prepared to address remote learning as well as the return to schools. In Tanzania, Aga Khan University (AKU) organised multiple training activities to improve teacher capacity on accelerated learning (given the lost learning time), covering both pedagogy and the development of new teaching-learning materials to support this pedagogy. 49 Head Teachers and one Education Officer (21F; 29M) received training on leadership in emergency situations, which also allowed them to develop concrete plans to respond to the effects of crises on their schools, including the pandemic. Finally, teachers and head teachers were connected through WhatsApp groups to support and learn from each other as they navigate the new realities brought on by the pandemic, such as remote learning and accelerated learning. In total, AKU trained 162 teachers (92F; 58M) from Standards 1, 2 and 3 through these various trainings and workshops.