Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan

Girls Education Flexible Response Fund Study 2015

(Funded by UNGEI)

OutlinePresentation Outline

• Introduction• Methodology• Findings and Analysis• Discussion

The Overall Goal• The Overall Goal of the Aga Khan Development

Network is the improvement in Quality of Life of communities where we work through a Multi Input Area Development Approach (MIAD)

• Going beyond material standards of living, health and education

• Including positive values and norms in the organization of society – pluralism and cultural tolerance – gender and social equity – civil society organization and good

governance • Holistic view of what constitutes progress

– encompasses a more rounded view of human experience and aspirations

Community Based ECD Class AKF Program Area, Doshi, Baghlan

Context Overview

– Three decades of armed conflict and continued insecurity

– Poverty and climate related disasters– Deep-rooted cultural taboos (child marriages)– Destruction of Schools and related infrastructure –

toilets, drinking water, boundary walls– Shortage of qualified teachers and learning materials

(Female teachers)– Distance to accessing schools– Widespread gender disparity in literacy, enrollment,

dropout, attendance and completion rate.

Education Statistics for Afghanistan

• Afghanistan has a very young population. The demographic composition is 50 % under the age of 15, and 36% of the population are at school age. (NRVA 2011-12)

• 21% of Afghan children aged 6 17 (about 1.9 ‐million) are working. Of these, at least 13% (1.2 million) can be classified as child labourers, e.g. only working. Child labour is a key reason for children being out of school. (NRVA 2008)

Education Statistics for Afghanistan

• According to the 2012 Global Peace Index (GPI), Afghanistan was the most insecure country in the world after Somalia.

• In 2012, about 553 schools were closed due to insecurity, depriving over 275.000 students from education.

Education Statistics for Afghanistan

• Increase in enrolment from 1 million pupils in 2001, almost all boys to today’s enrolment of more than 8 million students, 39 % of whom are girls (UNESCO 2015)

• The number of teachers has also significantly increased from 110,000 in 2007 to around 187,000 in 2013 of which 32 % are females (UNESCO 2015)

• Enrolment at higher education institutions has risen from less than 8,000 in 2001 to more than 132,000 in 2013.

Improved Quality of Life

• A young girl in Deh Asl, Baghlan stated “our quality of life has improved a little in the past four years, because I have completed my high school and beside studying at the TTC I am working as a teacher in the school in my village”

• AKF QoL Study 2014

School Children AKF Program Area, Takhar

Badakhshan (AKF QoL Study 2014)Trends in Adult and Youth Literacy

2011 2014

Indicators Male Female Male Female

Adult literacy* (19 years and older)

N=1516 N=1570 N=1886 N=2013

33% 13% 36% 21%

Youth literacy (age 19-24)

N=362 N=378 N=442 N=552

56% 35% 63% 50%

Quality of Education

• As a male interviewee in Takhar shared: “Teachers at the school do not teach very well, students (boys and girls) at grade 6-8 cannot read and write”. (AKF QoL Study, 2014)

School Children, Khalafgan

Disability

As shared by a young disabled woman from Qalacha, Takhar:

“I am really disappointed with my life because I cannot live like other girls and will never have my own family. The only person who cares about me is my mother I always think if my mother dies no one will look after me”. (AKF QoL Study, 2014)

Girls Education Support Program

• Funded by Canada(DFATD) 2009-2013 increasing access to improved and sustainable learning opportunities for girls and women in target districts in Badakhshan, Baghlan and Bamyan.

• AKF’s Education Department has been supporting 216 government schools,70 ECDs, nearly 300 CBEs with the Ministry of Education.

• GESP benefited over 175,000 students (70,000 girls), 5000 teachers, Head Teachers, PED and DED, over 3000PTA & SMC members

GESP Objectives

• To effectively achieve this purpose, GESP focuses on the following three intermediate outcomes:

• Increased girls’ access to learning opportunities and sustained progression into higher levels of the education system.

• Improved quality of teaching and learning practices to create a supportive learning environment for girls.

• Enhanced capacity and commitment among stakeholders to further girls’ education.

Flexible Response Fund

• FRF was reserved to responsively address an array of barriers preventing Afghan girls from entry and retention in the upper grades.

• The assumption: barriers and difficulties to girls’ education differs from situation to situation and community to community, therefore, the innovation and approach must remain flexible so that relevant needs can be identified

• It is a mechanism for needs-based analysis with communities and local education authorities was created to identify specific activities which promote girls' attendance.

Flexible response fund has been used to:

– Pay for extra female teachers; – hire boys' school teachers to

teach girls, where communities allow;

– Assist with transport for girls – Assist with accommodation

for girls– Run accelerated learning

programs for girls– Run Konkor preparatory

classes.

Research Design

• Methodology– Qualitative Case Study

• Methods– Document Analysis– FGDs– SSIs

• Analysis Approach– Coding, Categorizing and Thematic Display of Data

Framework of Analysis

Field Work, Nusai

FINDINGS, ANALYSIS &TRENDSAKF Program Area, Takhar

FRF as a ‘good practice’

• Originality • Remaining temporal (Flexible to context)• Inclusive• Reaching remote communities• Showing Results (Effective)

Talking about the grant allocation per community the Deputy Director explained

“There was no (specific) a lump sum amount for each community. It very much depended on the size of project. For instance, in Baghlan the average FRF grants per community were about $3,000 per year. What was actually done was that communities were asked to identify a pressing challenge with a resolution which is potential enough to promote girls' entry, attendance and retention in schools along with a budget. The proposals were then reviewed and approved by the Project Management Committee consisting representatives from CDC, PED, DED and AKF.”

Results

• Findings from the study show that the FRF approach was quite effective as it managed to address an array of barriers that were preventing girls from accessing school and completing their education.

• As a result, in the targeted areas and schools, enrollment and graduation rates increased, school dropout rates decreased, the number of students, especially girls who appeared and cleared the Konkur exams successfully also increased.

Retaining Girls in School

• When girls were getting older their families tried to stop them going to school and according to local norms it was not appropriate to send a grown-up girl to a school which had male teachers. As a result of FRF interventions, male teachers were replaced with qualified female teachers and it affected girls’ enrollment positively.

Focus Group Discussion Bamyan

Results

• Graduates returned and joined their schools as teachers which helped in overcoming the shortage of female teachers in the community.

• The physical environment the schools and classrooms improved and teaching and learning approaches also became more engaging for students.

• Apart from these, the custom of early marriages was reported to have decreased and the discriminating traditions, especially towards girls’ education started to also change

A male CDC member shared

“Boys and girls using the same toilet was a problem for girls. Realizing this AKF built separate toilets for girls. Similarly, some of schools located near public roads had no boundary walls, which was a problem for girls to study due to lack of privacy and security. Once AKF built these boundary walls we have noticed that girls feel safer in the school and it is a key factor in increasing their enrollment”.

Hawa, a female beneficiary of FRF who is studying at Bamyan University shared,

“Graduation from school and attending at university was one of my biggest goals in my life I wanted to appear in exam but it looked difficult and stressful to me. When the Konkur preparation course started by education department of AKF, I also attended this course which improved my confidence and skills significantly. After three months I participated in university placement test (Konkur) and luckily, passed it successfully. I cannot explain how glad I was when I saw my result. Now I am studying Philosophy and Sociology at Bamyan University.”

Challenges

• Time and Resource Constraints• Geographical and Climatic Harshness• High Demands and Over Dependency of

Communities• Security

Some Conclusions

• The process of design, implementation and evaluation of this innovation demonstrates that initiatives that are loosely structured, inclusive, relevant, multifaceted and deliberate build a sense of ownership among the communities.

Questions?

Thank You

Dr. Parveen Roy Research Specialist Evaluation, Research

and Learning Unit, AKF Afghanistan

Dr. Shama Dossa Director, Evaluation,

Research and Learning Unit, AKF Afghanistan