the girls’ education challenge - full application form for

Guidance to applicants submitting a Full Application for the Step Change Window | 1

The Girls’ Education Challenge - Full Application Form for the Step Change Window

Your project number is: 5096

Section 1: Organisation/consortium details

Lead organisation

Organisation name Plan International UK

Organisation type Non-Governmental Organisation

Organisation address

Plan International UK Finsgate, 5 – 7 Cranwood Street London EC1V 9LH

Organisation website www.plan-uk.org

Name of the contact person [Removed for data protection reasons – please contact [email protected] for further information on this project]

Job title of the contact person

Office phone number

Mobile phone number

Email address

Registration numbers, as applicable 276035 (UK Company Number)

Bank details, including:

• Name of bank • Address • Bank manager contact details • Account details (name, account number, sort

code, SWIFT code) • Statement/ Letter of good standing from your bank

[Removed for data protection reasons] Letter of good standing is attached to this application

Key personnel identification

For each of the following staff: All Board Members (please identify the Chairperson), Chief Executive, Finance Director and GEC Project Lead, include: • Full legal name (and aliases); • Date of birth • Passport number • Passport country of Issue.

[Removed for data protection reasons]


Key partner organisation(s) and % of the budget they will deliver

Key partner organisations (KPOs) are those members of the consortium who deliver 20% (in monetary terms) or more of the overall project. Organisation’s full legal name and % of the budget they will control

International Rescue Committee, UK (28.6% of the budget)

Is the partner organisation not-for-profit or for-profit? Not-for Profit

Registration numbers, as applicable 3458056 (UK Company Number)


For each of the following staff: All Board Members(please identify Chair), Chief Executive, Finance Director and GEC Project Lead, please supply: • Full legal name (and aliases); • Date of birth • Passport Number • Passport Country of Issue.

[Removed for data protection reasons]

Annual reports/ financial statements – please attach separately last 3 years annual reports/ financial statements

Please find attached.


Organisation’s full legal name and % of the budget they will control

Forum for African Women Educationalist – Sierra Leone (20.1% of the budget)

Is the partner organisation not-for-profit or for-profit? Not-for Profit

Registration numbers, as applicable NNGO/031 (Sierra Leone NGO Registration Certificate)


For each of the following staff: All Board Members(please identify Chair), Chief Executive, Finance Director and GEC Project Lead, please supply: • Full legal name (and aliases); • Date of birth • Passport Number • Passport Country of Issue.

[Removed for Data Protection reasons]

Annual reports/ financial statements – please attach separately last 3 years annual reports/ financial statements

Please find attached.


Section 2: Project summary details 1

Project title Supporting Marginalised Girls in Sierra Leone to co mplete Basic Education with improved Learning Outcomes

GEC funding requested (GBP) 6,191,936

Organisation/consortium contribution (GBP and in kind) (if any) 612,389

Project start-date 01 January 2013

Project end-date 31 December 2015

Project country (ies) focus Sierra Leone

Project will be focused on:

(X) Primary education (X) Lower Secondary education

1 In the full proposal design process, the following revisions have been made from the Concept Note submitted to emphasise support for girls at JSS. Rather than supporting fee waivers to unapproved schools, the project will support more bursaries at JSS to better target the most marginalised girls. Bursaries will support either JSS tuition or 3 years of education through the transition from Primary to JSS. The composition of expected beneficiaries has changed; more out-of-school girls are anticipated to enrol in school but fewer Children with Disabilities are forecast to enter school than the initial assumptions made. Finally, Parent Advocacy Clubs, the Child-Friendly Scorecard approach and Code of Conduct training will be targeted more specifically at JSS given the widening gender disparities at this stage of schooling.


Section 3: Project summary (maximum 2 pages)

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and targeted communities, this project will support 21,060 marginalised girls at-risk of dropping out of Basic Education in five rural districts of Sierra Leone to access education and stay in school with improved learning outcomes. It also seeks to improve learning, retention and attendance for all 62,631 girls and 71,889 boys currently enrolled at targeted schools.

The project seeks to improve life changes for marginalised girls through:

1. Increasing Access and Retention in grades 5 and 6 of Primary School and grades 7, 8 and 9 of Junior Secondary School, and of children with disabilities in Primary School.

2. Strengthening girls’ learning in grades 5 and 6 of Primary School and JSS. 3. Ensuring that girls are learning in an inclusive environment and protected from harm 4. Ensuring girls’ voices and needs are listened to and responded to and that girls

participate in decision-making concerning their education

The project targets 21,060 of the most marginalised girls in 180 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and 540 Primary Schools . The project will reach 26% of all JSS in Sierra Leone and covers 77% of JSS in Kailahan, Kenema, Kono, Moyamba and Port Loko focussing on rural areas. These rural districts have extremely poor Gender Parity in enrolment at JSS level, with girl to boy enrolment ratios ranging from 0.57 to 0.75 below the national average of 0.85 (2010/11 School Census). Recognising that girls (and boys) with disabilities in rural areas face even greater disadvantages, disability will be mainstreamed and the project will specifically target Children with Disabilities, for whom enrolment in Primary is likely to be most appropriate.

The project will specifically target: • 8,804 girls in grades 5 and 6 of Primary and at risk of dropping out to complete Primary and

transition to JSS . • 3,300 girls in JSS at risk of dropping out to complete JSS. • 6,904 out of school girls who dropped out in grades 5 and 6 of Primary or are of JSS age to

re-enrol in Primary or JSS and stay in school. • 2,052 Girls with Disabilities to enrol and stay in school • Improved learning, retention and attendance for the 62,631 girls and 71,889 boys currently

enrolled at targeted schools.

The project adopts an integrated, holistic approach addressing the multiple, interrelated barriers marginalised girls face in completing quality basic education. It raises demand for girls’ education through targeted financial incentives to the poorest girls and child-led community awareness, strengthens learning in and after school through in-service teacher training, mentoring and girls’ study groups, provides female role models in schools and peer support mechanisms for girls, strengthens mechanisms to protect girls from Gender-Based Violence and works with childrens’ and parents’ clubs to identify and advocate for girls’ access to school and needs in school. The package of interventions involves tested methodologies of which consortium members FAWE, Handicap International, IRC, Plan and the Open University have substantial delivery experience. The interventions selected are endorsed by MEST, scalable and represent good value for money.


In partnership with The Open University, the project introduces to Sierra Leone a model for supporting women to enter teaching in the upper grades of Primary whilst assigning them as classroom Learning Assistants to support girls in grades 5 and 6. In partnership with Handicap International, the project scales up the Community Based Rehabilitation approach to identify and support Children with Disabilities (CWD) to access school. The project scales up the Girl and Boy Friendly School Scorecard approach to monitor school performance and accountability at JSS level.

Figure 3 below summarises the most recent available enrolment and examination data on girls’ enrolment in the targeted rural districts. The action specifically targets the high number of girls who drop out in grades 5 and 6 of Primary School and in the transition to JSS where gender parity also rapidly declines. The action focusses on adolescence as the transition stage when prevailing gender roles become entrenched. Tested approaches will be scaled up in five districts to support marginalised girls to stay in school and learn effectively in a safe and inclusive environment.

540 Primary Schools 180 Junior Secondary SchoolsAve enrolment 89 girls, 94 boys Ave enrolment 80 girls, 119 boys

Bursaries (12 girls in year 1)

Bursaries (30 girls in year 1)

Children's Clubs (25 girls, 25 boys)

Children's Clubs (25 girls, 25 boys)

Parent Advocacy Groups(20 parents, principally mothers)

Referrals through CBR Approach(4 per school)

In-service Teacher Trainin g (4 teachers)

In-service Teacher Training (8 teachers)

Girls' Mentoring (30 girls)

Girls' Mentoring (30 girls)

Girls Study Groups (30 girls)

Girls Study Groups (30 girls)

Learning Assistants(3 LAs in 180 schools)

Board of Governor Training (10 Governors including Headteacher)

Girl/Boy-friendly School Scorecards(25 girls, 25 boys)

Acc

ess

Lear

ning

Pro

tect

ion

Par

ticip

atio

n

Figure 2: Support Packages per Primary School and J SS


Section 4: Overall approach/Theory of Change (maxim um 4 pages)

Despite substantial political, social and economic development since the end of the civil war, human development indicators rank Sierra Leone 180 out of 187 countries (UNDP 2011). Women experience greater poverty than men: 74% live on less than 50 pence a day, relative to 54% of men. Women’s low socio-economic status in a highly patriarchal society and their unequal access to services, such as education, means they can’t lift themselves out of the vicious cycle of poverty; their lack of education is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Girls are marginalised from and in education in Sierra Leone due to multitude and interrelated supply and demand-side factors with barriers to access and retention acting at the school, community and systemic levels.

Barriers at school level: At present, 50% of primary and 10% of secondary teachers in schools are unqualified and there are few female teachers (16% at primary, 8% at secondary in five target districts relative to 25% & 14% nationally, ESR, 2011). The lack of female teachers has a negative impact on girls’ attendance and learning in school and reinforces low aspirations and confidence (Postles forthcoming, Camfed 2011). Many teachers feel they have limited capacity to identify and respond to specific learning needs of the most marginalised girls and CWD (HI Scoping Visit 2010). Teachers often give more attention to boys within the classroom, asking them more questions and girls’ learning is further hampered by teachers’ low expectations of their intellectual skills (PPA baseline). Girls’ (and boys) learning is also hindered by a lack of teaching and learning resources and reduced learning time in school: many schools run a double-shift system and rates of teacher absenteeism are reported as a problem by 5.1% of households (TI 2010). School-based gender-based violence (GBV) including corporal punishment, sex for grades, and sexual harassment and abuse is widespread in schools and is one of the main factors keeping girls out of school (PPA baseline) Teachers are the main perpetrators of sexual abuse against girls in schools and there are low levels of abuse reporting (National Study 2010).

Barriers at community level: Many of the barriers at school persist, in part, due to community attitudes and behaviour that promote unequal gender relations (WB Sierra Leone Strategic Country Gender Assessment) such as high levels of community acceptance of GBV and transactional sex (PPA baseline). This is interrelated with issues of early pregnancy (32.2% of 15-19 year old females have begun child-bearing) and early marriage (23% of 15-19 year olds are currently married, 8% before they were 15, MICS4). Girls lack knowledge on their SRHR and how to negotiate sexual relationships and have limited access to SRHR services (PPA baseline). At adolescence, the pressures of poverty, discrimination and prevailing gender norms see girls retreat to the domestic sphere; girls attending school spend more time than boys on domestic chores , leaving less time for study in the evenings. Furthermore, more value is placed on boys’ education and many parents feel it is more important for a boy to finish JSS than for a girl (PPA baseline). For girls with disabilities, discrimination, stigmatization, low expectations and low value attached to their education, add other layers of disadvantages for this group. Poverty is a primary barrier to girls’ access and retention. Only 14% of girls from the poorest quintile attend JSS relative to 55% from the richest (MICS4). There are hidden and opportunity costs of education. The partial fee waiver reimbursement at JSS level hinders enrolment because parents, who place lower priority on their girls’ education, must pay fees upfront

Barriers at systemic level: Women and girls are marginalised from decision-making in Sierra Leone (WB SCGA) and this is also true within the education system; there are few spaces for girls to raise issues of concern . In addition there are weak reporting and disciplinary systems in place and girls lack the skills, confidence and mechanisms to hold school and district authorities to account for their rights to education, protection, participation and SRHR (PPA baseline, 2011).


The action targets those girls who are least likely to complete basic education, focussing on upper Primary and JSS where large numbers of girls drop out of education. It focuses on adolescence as the transitional stage when prevailing gender roles become entrenched; this is the stage when girls are most vulnerable to early pregnancy and marriage and become confined to a life in the domestic sphere with restricted life chances. While the majority of children now start Primary School, significant challenges remain for girls’ enrolment and retention in higher Primary. The high drop-out rates in grades 4-6 can be seen clearly in Figure 3. For those girls that do complete grade 6, their NPSE pass rate is slightly lower than for boys at 73% (ESR 2010/11). Gender disparity rises substantially at the point of transition to JSS and through JSS (see Figure 1). Only 27% of girls of JSS age are in secondary school, with 41% still in Primary and 31% out-of-school (MICS4). Barriers to girls’ education rise at JSS; the cost of education, opportunity costs and distance to school all affect girls more than boys. BECE (year 9 completion exam) pass rates are much lower for girls at 39% relative to 47% (ESR). As this is a gateway exam, it is a major barrier for girls’ transition to Senior Secondary School (SSS). The action therefore targets girls of JSS age in upper Primary, who have recently dropped out of school, and aims to secure their transition to, and retention in, JSS.

While this project identifies gender as a key driver of disadvantage in Sierra Leone, there are also other factors that influence marginalisation in education – including poverty, living in a rural area and being disabled – and those who face the biggest challenges are often deprived in more than one way. While the core interventions focus on poor rural girls, within this group, girls with disabilities are more marginalised with 76% estimated to be out of school (ACPF 2011) due to discrimination, stigma and a lack of inclusive education opportunities, adequately trained teachers or accessible facilities. Because disability is such a strong factor of disadvantage in education in impoverished rural areas and because the C approach would also identify disabled boys, it is proposed that disabled boys are also targeted for direct support in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006). The CBR approach involves the whole community to foster educational inclusion. Disability will be mainstreamed through all interventions and accessibility needs addressed in terms of materials, communication and venue selection where relevant. It is assumed that children with disabilities (CWD) are even less likely to reach the end of Primary School and make the transition to JSS, and therefore most of the direct support for disabled children with focus on their enrolling/re-enrolling in Primary.

The project targets five rural districts with the lowest Gender Parity in enrolment at JSS level (see figure 3) and will reach 77% of JSS in these districts. The majority of primary and JSS in the five districts are government owned or assisted and only 3% are private (relative to 39% nationally) (ESR 2010/11). There are some non-formal education opportunities such as literacy and life skills programmes, but these are disparate and under-resourced. Special schools exist at primary level, mainly in Freetown, but cannot meet demand. There are very few teachers qualified to work with CWD and no teacher training courses specialising in special needs education (ESR 2010/11).

Planned interventions to overcome these barriers and supporting evidence

The interventions recognise that a holistic and multi-level approach at all levels is required to affect transformative and sustainable changes for girls, will act to reduce barriers at all three levels:

Community level: Attitudes to the value of girls’ education, violence, and gender equality will be challenged through child led advocacy , children’s clubs and parents’ advocacy clubs . The CBR approach is recognised as one of the most effective ways of getting out-of-school CWD into school (WHO 2011). Their enrolment facilitates their wider social inclusion and adjustment, facilitates acceptance by peers and staff and encourages the school to take responsibility for inclusion of all children with admittance becoming the norm rather than the exception (Dijkers et al 2000). To


support changing attitudes, men and boys will be included at every level of the project; they will be directly engaged through children’s and parents’ clubs and the majority of teachers receiving GRP training will be men. It is vital that men and boys are involved in discussions on gender norms if negative behaviours are to be challenged and meaningful change affected. Finally, targeted material and financial support will reduce financial barriers for the most marginalised and raise effective demand for girls’ education, drawing on substantial evidence that well-targeted subsidies can raise girls’ enrolment and retention (Lloyd 2009, Mac Foundation 2011).

School level: The action supports interventions to support girls’ learning and provide safe learning environments with teachers equipped to respond to the needs of all and improve learning outcomes. While learning is an extremely important outcome of schooling, this action also recognises that the values that schools pass on to students is also vital; work on transmitting positive values at the school level is also important to challenging negative attitudes and behavior. The project will support girls mentoring in upper Primary and JSS, supported by strong evidence that mentoring programmes and positive role models are effective in keeping girls in basic education (Lloyd 2009; Camfed 2011). A unit on SRHR will be infused into the mentoring package. 3,069 teachers and head-teachers will be trained on gender-responsive pedagogy , focusing on responding equally to the needs of all within the classroom and promoting positive perceptions on girls’ learning ability which has a positive impact on retention, participation, girls’ participation in class (FAWE 2009) and girls’ learning outcomes (Lloyd et al, 2000). Teacher training in inclusive education will build the capacity of teachers to adapt classroom methodologies to include all learners, and specifically those with disabilities. School-related GBV and teacher absenteeism will be addressed through Code of Conduct training for school staff and 1,800 Board of Governors members focusing on establishing systems of enforcement. Studies have shown that involvement of school boards and parents in school matters can improve teacher attendance (World Bank 2011). Improved teacher attendance alongside Girls’ Study Groups will increase learning time in and out of school, and provide a safe space for girls. Finally, the project will support 550 girls to enter teacher training college after taking remedial classes and working as classroom Learning Assistants (LAs) through this project. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that girls respond better to – and are best motivated by – female teachers, particularly from a similar social background to themselves (Lloyd 2009) and that female teachers can improve security and perceptions of gender equity (Rawal et al 2007).

System level: Children’s clubs will use the Scorecard Approach to monitor school performance, the CoC and gender responsiveness and to identify areas for school improvement. In pilots, scorecards have proved effective at raising issues of governance, violence against girls and teacher attendance and provide rich evidence of the issues facing both girls and boys (and differences between sexes) at school level. The approach is supported by a growing body of evidence that suggests scorecards can improve attendance and learning outcomes (World Bank 2011), collective problem solving (DfID/Plan Malawi, ODI 2011) and that countries with stronger local accountability mechanisms have better learning outcomes (Fuchs 2007). JSS clubs will be represented at SMC meetings & interface meetings facilitated at the chiefdom and district level. The action will support children with tools and forums to give them confidence and safe advocacy opportunities. The interventions will help hold duty bearers at school, chiefdom, district and national level to account to improve education service delivery and better meet the needs of marginalised girls, including those with disabilities.

In addition to increasing demand for girls’ education, the project also supports quality issues relating to the supply of education. 3,600 teachers will be trained on inclusive teaching methodologies for students with different needs, including GRP. 550 Learning Assistants will be placed in Primary Schools to support teachers and girls. The bursary programme will provide more textbooks in classrooms. The scorecard approach and Board of Governors training will strengthen teacher


accountability, along with training on the Teacher Code of Conduct and strengthening of referral pathways from the school to district level. The project will not directly address issues relating to school infrastructure, and the supply of qualified teachers but will monitor with MEST increasing enrolment and retention rates and link with other sources of funding available for Infrastructure (e.g. forthcoming GPE round) and teacher training Distance Education initiatives.

Strategic Goal and Expected Impacts

The action is anticipated to support 21,060 marginalised girls out-of-school or at-risk of dropping out of Basic Education to enroll in education, stay in school and achieve improved learning outcomes.

These estimates based on School Census data are also substantiated by early results from Plan and partner projects. IRC/FAWE’s (SIDA) girls’ education project supported mentoring and bursaries has seen 99% of the 1,160 targeted girls retained in school after 18 months, with enrolment rising by 14% and attendance rising by 27% in grades 4-6 & 22% in JSS. Plan’s PPA project in neighbouring Bombali saw girls’ enrollment rise by 8% in Primary and 16% in JSS1 in the first year. The number of girls with disabilities is supported by numbers identified through other HI CBR projects. Of the 21,060 girls targeted, 11,880 will benefit from a bursary package and a greater number of 21,600 girls will be supported through mentoring and Girls Study Groups.

The project will bring about quality improvements in school through in-service teacher training, strengthening accountability mechanisms and facilitating schools that are free from violence; this will benefit all 48,385 girls (and 50,261 boys) enrolled at targeted Primary schools and 14,246 girls enrolled at JSS (and 21,628 boys). Based on previous experience, it is expected that the project might increase attendance in target schools by at least 10% and increase school completion rates and the numbers of children sitting NPSE and BECE exams. Some improvement in NPSE and BECE is anticipated in the logframe, whilst noting that NPSE pass rates have been stable recently at 74% and BECE pass have been falling with only 39% of girls passing the four core subjects in 2010. More broadly, the project aims to increase accountability in schools, reduce teacher absenteeism and address the root causes of gender inequity in education by addressing the values that schools pass on to all students and by addressing discrimination at the community level.

There is substantial evidence that keeping girls in school is associated with greater lifetime earning capacity, employment opportunities, improved social status and healthier reproductive choices. A 2011 WB study found girls lifetime wages rose 5-15% if they completed primary education (4-8% for boys) and rates of return for completing secondary were even higher (Chaaban/Cunningham, 2011).

Target Group Objective Assumed Success Rate Assumption s / Calculations1. Girls with Disabilities (in and out-of-school)

2,052 Girls Enrol and Retained in Primary

60% success rate(Equivalent to 4 girls per Primary School targeted)

In 2010/11, 11,806 girls of primary school were not in school in our target areas. We assume that 30% have disabilities (UNESCO). In addition, 281 girls registered in target schools with special needs are considered vulnerable to drop-out.

2. Girls in Primary at risk of dropping out and with a low chance of transition to JSS

8,804 girls Complete Primary and Enrol in JSS

70% success rate(15 per Primary School

or 45 per JSS)

Using 2010/11 data, an estimated 12,578 girls in our 540 targeted Primary schools were enrolled in Grades 4, 5 and 6 but did not stay in school for 3 additional years.

3. Girls in JSS at risk of dropping out

3,300 Girls Complete JSS

60% success rate(18 girls per JSS)

Using 2010/11 data, 5,477 girls in our targeted 180 JSS did not complete JSS Grade 9.

4. Out-of-school girls of JSS age and who dropped out in grades 5 or 6 of Primary

6,905 girls Enrol and Retained in Primary or JSS

44% success rate(10 girls per Primary

School or JSS)

Using MICS4 and 2010/11 School Census data, 15,555 girls are out-of-school within this group.

TOTAL 21,600 (Estimates based on 2010/11 School Census Data)

Figure 4: Anticipated impact on enrolment and reten tion for targeted groups of marginalised girls


Section 5: Project activities and work plan (maximu m 4 pages)

The project workplan is based on a start date of 1st January 2013 with milestones following school years 2013/14 and 2014/15 and the end of the project. Following a three month inception period, the following five months will be used to identify beneficiaries to ensure that all bursaries are distributed ahead of September enrolment, undertake community sensitisation, train teachers and ensure mentors and learning assistants are all in place for two full academic years. The third annual bursary will be distributed at the start of the 2015/16 school year and field support and monitoring will continue until the end of the project. Please refer to Annex 5 for the detailed project workplan.

The project covers 77% of JSS and 25% of primary schools in target districts. However, JSS will be selected in the most rural locations so coverage will approach 100% outside district urban areas. Primary Schools will be selected considering proximity to a supported JSS and female enrolment.

Output 1: Marginalised girls access and complete nine years of basic education

Activity 1.1 Bursaries : 11,880 girls will be identified and offered three years of bursary support. Rather than focus on one grade, the project will reach more marginalised girls by identifying three cohorts of girls to be supported to enrol in each of Primary grade 5, 6 and JSS grade 1 in the 2013/14 school year. Girls will then receive bursaries for three consecutive years, conditional upon minimum attendance rates and completion. Marginalised girls will be identified using an existing, tested, FAWE questionnaire (with criteria to assess risk of drop out considering affordability, parental status and other risk factors) assessed by groups of girls themselves and validated by teachers and SMC members.

The bursary is in-kind, providing 4 core textbooks, uniform and bag for girls at Primary (value $30) and JSS level (value $52). Additionally, at JSS level, a 75,000Le ($18) advance towards girls’ school fees will be paid directly to the school, conditional on the establishment of a school-level child-friendly school fund managed by the Board of Governors (BoG) to allocate reimbursed fees. The action intends to (i) pay school fees not reimbursed by the government (fee waivers are partial in JSS2 and 3), (ii) advance fees that the parents of targeted marginalised girls are currently required to pay ahead of MEST transferring the fee waiver (currently in the third term and, despite WB/MEST review, unlikely to arrive at schools at the start of year in the near future). Schools will be required to establish a child-friendly school fund with all reimbursed fees, to be managed by the BoG. Funds will be used to implement actions plans and priorities identified through the child-friendly school scorecard process. It is estimated that 31% of reimbursed funds would only arrive after the end of the project and IRC and Plan staff will continue to monitor the allocation of funds following the project.

Activity 1.2 Child-led social advocacy activities a round girls’ right to education: Children’s clubs will be established in 540 Primary Schools and 180 JSS, consisting of 25 girls and 25 boys (a total of 36,000 children). They will raise social awareness around getting marginalised children, and notably girls and Children with Disabilities (CWD), to enrol in school, and provide a mechanism for

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Academic Year

Project Milestones

InceptionPeriod

School Year 2012/13 Term 3 School Year 2013/14 School Year 2014/15 2015/16 Term 1

MILESTONE 1: End of School Year 2013/14

MILESTONE 2: End School Year 2014/15

MILESTONE 3: End of Project


children’s advocacy at community, school, and system levels. Two teachers per school will be trained to facilitate the clubs by project field staff and will lead fortnightly meetings after school. Children’s clubs will receive training on the value of education for all children and their rights, including to protection and SRHR. There will be a small budget for each club to, in conjunction with MEST, engage community members on the value of girls’ education through radio, posters and billboards. In JSS, the clubs will use the scorecard approach and use these action plans to guide their activities.

Activity 1.3 Parent Advocacy clubs will be established in each of the 180 JSS, with 20 members per club, principally consisting of mothers (3,600 parents in total). The clubs will facilitate awareness raising of parents and communities on the value of education and keeping girls in school, inclusive education, teachers’ Code of Conduct (CoC) and Child Rights Act and issues relating to Gender Based Violence (GBV). FAWE will facilitate ToT training and IRC and Plan field staff will train club members (3 day training) in clusters of two schools using an existing manual developed by UNICEF and CORD SL. Parent advocacy clubs will officially meet monthly but may meet more regularly.

Activity 1.4 Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) a pproach will be used to identify 2,125 Children with Disabilities, and support their enrolment and retention in Primary School. The project will scale-up the CBR approach, identifying 200 CBR volunteers in five districts and establishing CBR networks in each district. Volunteers will be recruited with basic literacy and will preferably include some adults with disabilities. To contribute to their motivation and sustainability, the project will grant social recognition awards to recognise volunteerism. The volunteers will be trained at district level over five days using HI materials adapted to emphasise gender issues and access to education. They will then lead community awareness sessions, identify and appropriately refer CWD and provide some support to CWD enrolled in school. HI field staff will undertake structured monitoring visits, collect data from CBR volunteers, and provide technical support and advice. IRC and Plan field staff will facilitate linkages to school level activities and mainstream disability issues through all activities. A best practice exchange workshop will be supported in each district in 2014/15.

Activity 1.5 Individual accessibility support for c hildren with disabilities. An accessibility support fund of $150,000 (equivalent of $278 per primary school) – managed by HI – will provide targeted teaching and learning aids, training in specific skills such as sign-language (via sub-grants to CBOs) and assistive devices (e.g. mobility aids, magnifiers, glasses. Braille equipment) to individuals and schools. The fund will be allocated based on an assessment of individual and school-based accessibility needs, with all consortium partners collecting data ahead of the first academic year in order to maximise the number of children supported in 2013/14 academic year.

Output 2: Girls benefit from improved learning outcomes and build the skills they need for life

Activity 2.1: Introducing young women in primary sc hools as learning assistants and supporting into TT: 550 girls of senior secondary age (or slightly over) will be supported to become upper primary school teachers through remedial support to assist them to pass entrance exams for teacher training college whilst being assigned as Learning Assistants (LAs) in grades 5 and 6. The Open University will provide girls with self-study material specifically adapted to support girls to pass the entrance exam. Tutors (Secondary school teachers) will be selected and paid to run fortnightly tutorials and mentors (upper Primary teachers) and will provide support for the school attachments to enter Teacher Training College Distance Education courses. Initial workshops will be facilitated by Open University and involve Teacher Training Colleges, head-teachers and Ministry officials to tailor design the curriculum and self-study material to best prepare girls for teacher training and the entry exam, and outline clear roles and responsibilities of LAs in the classroom.

Girls will be clustered in primary schools where they can access tutorials easily and support each other. They will take on roles as learning assistants for girls in grades 5 and 6 and for girls with


special needs; this will contribute to improving learning outcomes for these primary school girls and LAs will also act as role models for younger girls, encouraging their transition to JSS. LAs will be equipped with pedagogical and methodological skills to be effective in the classroom. This activity will be closely coordinated with Teacher Training Colleges, who have been consulted at proposal stage, and an MoU will be signed in the inception period to ensure their full support in the design of curricula and in ensuring girls meet entry requirements. Following their experience as Learning Assistants, girls will be financially supported through the three years of distance education teacher training supported by IRC and Plan following the end of the project.

Activity 2.2: Girls’ Mentoring programme in Primary schools and JSS: 21,600 girls (16,200 girls in upper grades of Primary and 5,400 JSS girls), including recipients of bursaries, will be supported with mentoring. Mentees will be selected in a process involving girls themselves, validated by teachers and parents to ensure that the most marginalised girls are targeted. Mentors will ideally be female teachers, or where not available, women from the community with some level of education. Mentors will benefit from five days’ training, a stipend transferred monthly by Splash (a mobile payment provider) and a manual based on existing FAWE materials. Mentors will meet with the girls fortnightly: not only will they act as role models for the girls; they will also encourage their retention in school, their transition to JSS, and empower girls to have control over their sexual and reproductive rights. A module on girls’ sexual and reproductive health and access to relevant services will be incorporated into the mentoring and existing FAWE materials and mentors will be trained on how to facilitate sessions and discussions on SRHR during the 5-day training.

Activity 2.3: Girls’ Study Groups will increase 21,600 marginalised girls’ opportunities for learning through the provision of a safe place to study. One group will be established at each school (740 in total) for girls in JSS or Primary grades 5 and 6. The clubs will consist of 30 girls and will meet twice a week during the academic year. Each group will be provided with a solar lamp and a supervisor identified by project staff and mentors will facilitate the group and receive a small monthly stipend paid via Splash. The group facilitator is likely to be a mother or recent secondary school graduate.

Output 3: Girls are learning in a safe and inclusive environment

Activity 3.1: In–service training on inclusive educ ation, gender responsive pedagogy and Code of Conduct will be facilitated for 2,160 primary school teachers and head-teachers and 1,440 JSS teachers, head-teachers and deputy heads. FAWE, IRC and HI will use existing resources and experience to develop a harmonised training package for teachers on IE and GRP. The training will equip teachers with the skills and knowledge needed to ensure learning environments are safe, inclusive and that education provision responds to the needs of all. A pool of 50 trainers, consisting of MEST staff and teacher trainers, will receive four days’ training on the materials and methodology from experienced trainers from FAWE, HI and IRC. They will train 4 primary and 8 JSS teachers from each school in 5 days training at chiefdom level (75 groups of 48) before the 2013/14 academic year. The trainings will be conducted at the chiefdom level and will be conducted by a team of 2 trainers.

The training will provide grounding for head-teachers and teachers ahead of other activities focussed on supporting learning for girls, accountability mechanisms through Parents Clubs, Board of Governors and the scorecard approach. The Code of Conduct for teachers and head-teachers will set out standards of professional behaviour for teachers in their relationships with learners, their colleagues and parents and will be targeted to substantially address issues of GBV and teacher absenteeism. It also provides a guide on reporting mechanisms. While reasons for teacher de-motivation and absenteeism are multiple (including poor working conditions, poor training, ineffective school management), creating spaces for head-teachers and teachers to discuss the issue together


and come up with solutions, using the CoC as an accountability tool is expected to have a positive impact on teacher attendance.

Activity 3.2: Training School Board of Governors on Code of Conduct and girls’ education: 1,800 members of BoGs will receive 3 days of training on the teachers’ code of conduct, gender-based violence and girls’ right to education. Trainings will be conducted for every two JSS schools with 18 trainings per district, and will be facilitated by MEST and Plan/IRC staff. The training will build the capacity of BoGs to ensure that teachers are adhering to the Code of Conduct including issues of teacher attendance and ensuring that learning environments are safe and inclusive. The training will facilitate BoGs to put in place enforcement mechanisms, such as local by-laws to hold teachers accountable to the Code. The training will also ensure BoGs are aware of and linked to referral pathways, especially Family Support Units and where established Child Welfare Committees.

Output 4: Ensuring girls’ voices and needs are heard and responded to

Activity 4.1: Girl and boy friendly school scorecar ds will be used by 9,000 girls and boys in 180 JSS to monitor the extent to which schools are child-friendly. This project will scale up successful experience piloting school scorecards within Plan using DFID PPA and IrishAid funding in Sierra Leone and internationally. The scorecard tool to be used will be selected in consultation with UNICEF to ensure consistency at a national level. In pilots, scorecards have proved effective at raising issues of violence against girls and teacher attendance and provide rich evidence of the issues facing both girls and boys (and differences between sexes) at school level.

Groups of girls and boys will assess the child-friendliness of their school by listing and rating factors they deem important. The first 2-day sessions will be run over the mid-term break of the 2013/14 academic year or on weekends and on the second day the headteacher, teachers and key BoG members will be invited to the school, sensitised to the process, assess the school themselves and finally an interface meeting is arranged where all stakeholders come together to discuss their issues and create action plans for making improvements. The process will be facilitated to create a space where everyone feels comfortable and will highlight the importance of working together to create a better quality school that will benefit everyone. The process will be repeated in the second year to assess progress and support an on-going process to encourage continuous improvement.

Activity 4.2: Children’s clubs interface meetings a t chiefdom and district level: Representatives of the JSS clubs will be represented at SMC meetings on a regular basis to raise issues of concern, particularly those pertaining to marginalised girls and children with disabilities. Interface meetings will be facilitated at the chiefdom and district level with girl and boy representatives, Chiefdom Education Committees and MEST education officials to discuss issues arising through the scorecard process.

Oversight and Management Structure

The project will invest in a Central Coordination Unit, staffed by 4 full-time staff (Project Coordinator, M&E Coordinator, Financial Coordinator and Administrative Assistant). The Project Coordinator will be managed by Plan but accountable to a Project Strategic Group including Senior Managers from each partner, MEST and peer organisations. To minimise duplication, district-level activities will be led by IRC (Kailahun, Kenema and Kono) and Plan (Port Loko and Moyamba) who will each manage 24 field staff who will undertake regular monitoring and support visits to all supported schools. Plan’s field activities will be undertaken by local partner Pikin-to-Pikin, who have substantial experience implementing projects in Plan districts including UNICEF and DFID WASH projects. FAWE and HI will provide cross-cutting support; FAWE will manage the mentoring, learning assistant components and bursaries in two districts and HI the CBR programme, with staff based in IRC and Plan offices. The Open University will provide technical consultancy support from the UK with regular technical support visits from staff with experience of implementing a similar project in Malawi.


Section 6: Value for Money (maximum 2 pages)

Percentage of the base cost of education per year covered by the project

Primary JSS

Base cost of education per year (£)1 £17 £28

Percentage of the base cost of education covered by the project (%)

43% 53%

Cost of education covered by the project per year (£)2 £7.35 £14.81

1 National level data indicates recurrent public spending per Student to 2010 was £17 (111,530 Le) at Primary School and £28 (186,849) at recent exchange rates (2010/11 School Census Report) 2 The project has been designed not to cover the base costs of running schools, which will remain the ongoing responsibility of the government. The project will not fund teachers’ salaries nor infrastructure and almost all activities supported will take place outside of normal school teaching time or community level. Nonetheless, the project will fund bursaries, of which a proportion relates to the purchase of core textbooks for marginalised girls, which will remain in schools following the end of each year and this data is presented in the table above. The project will also support teacher training in 540 Primary Schools and 180 JSS relating to Gender Responsive teaching, inclusive education and the teachers’ Code of Conduct. A detailed breakdown of these costs and other metrics can be seen from the table below.

Primary JSS Cost per child in targeted schools Cost of school materials purchased per children enrolled in targeted schools £0.95 £8.41 Cost of training teachers per child enrolled in targeted school £6.40 £6.40 TOTAL £7.35 £14.81 Other metrics Value of school materials purchased per girl targeted with bursary package (11,880 girls)

£10 £14

Value of bursary package per supported girl (11,880 girls from year one) £20 £45 Total project cost per additional girl enrolling at JSS (21,060 girls) £323

Percentage of additional time in school (or equivalent) per year attributable to project

Increased enrolment 1 (% of girls) 25% * 100% (21,060 girls)

Decreased drop-out 2 (% of girls, % of school year) 17% * 25% (14,405 girls)

Increased attendance 3 (% of girls, % of school year) 58% * 10% (48,226 girls)

Percentage of additional time in a school (or equiv alent) per year attributable to your project (%)

35.1% (83,691 girls)

21,060 girls are anticipated to enrol in school through the project, and we assume that 23% of girls drop-out during a school year, which implies that 14,405 of the 62,631 girls currently enrolled in targeted schools drop out every school year. The remainder of girls, 48,226, remain enrolled in school and the project will influence their attendance.


1 Increased enrolment : See Table 4 in Section 4 for a breakdown of underlying assumptions. 2 Reduced drop-out : A drop-out rate of 23% is assumed as an average of the last published Proxy Completion Rates of 86% for Primary and 48% for JSS (2010/11 ESR) weighted by numbers enrolled in Primary and JSS. It is assumed that girls who drop-out leave half way through the year and that the project will able to reduce drop-out by 50% (i.e. on average, the project would expect to see 25% of the 14,405 girls not drop-out following project interventions). In practice, when girls drop out during a year is difficult to measure as girls may attend inconsistently and it will only be possible to measure dropout at the end of the year when enrolment is compared with end-of-year exams. 3 Increased attendance : the interventions are expected to increase the proportion of time girls attend school and the consistency of their attendance. We assume conservatively that the project might bring about a 10% improvement in attendance. Plan’s CIDA project saw attendance rise 7% for girls based on school attendance data with more limited support. IRC/FAWE’s SIDA project in Kono and Kenema saw attendance rise by 27% in Primary grades 4-6 and 22% in JSS based on headcounts taken by IRC staff. Number of marginalised girls benefitting from improved learning outcomes per year

Through additional time in school (or equivalent) alone (#) -

Through quality improvement (#)

Through additional time in school (or equivalent), combined with quality improvement 4 (#)

20,923 (83,691 girls *25%)

Number of marginalised girls benefitting from impro ved learning outcomes per year (#)

20,923 (83,691 girls *25%)

4 The project will support 83,691 girls to spend additional time in school as detailed in the previous chart. We would argue that there is a difference between quality improvements and learning outcomes and that all girls enrolling and currently enrolled in targeted schools will benefit from inclusive teaching styles, and violence-free and accountable schools. It is also expected that marginalised girls will benefit from improved learning outcomes. The project is supporting in-teacher training and female Learning Assistants in upper Primary grades in approximately 180 schools, 11,880 girls will benefit from bursary packages including learning materials, and 21,600 girls will benefit from mentoring and participate in after school Girls’ Study Groups to provide a safe place to study after school. We assume that 25% of the marginalised girls spending more time in school – or 20,923 girls – will benefit from improved learning outcomes through the course of the project.


Section 7: Sustainability (maximum 2 pages) A quality education can be expected to provide long-term benefits for those who receive it. The project supports girls through the lifetime of the project and their achievement of key education milestones (passing NPSE and BECE exams) can be expected to bring about economic, social and health benefits to the girls supported and their families. Beyond this, however, the three main strategies this project will adopt to achieve sustainability are: (a) to seek changes in attitudes around education for girls and excluded groups and gender equality among parents and communities to increase the likelihood of other girls and CWD being supported to go to school beyond the project lifetime; (b) to support systematic improvements in school quality, management and accountability which will continue to deliver benefits to new cohorts of students long after the project ends without significant further investment; and (c) to document and communicate learning about the benefits of other activities that would require ongoing financing or budget allocations to deliver future streams of benefits. Rigorous M&E will enable us to capture the benefits of interventions, which address current priorities of the Ministry of Education and issues anticipated for inclusion in the forthcoming revised Education Sector Plan (ESP).2 The project contributes to and complements the current ESP and the interventions have been endorsed by MESTwho have been consulted at Concept and Full Proposal stage. Key staff from the Ministry of Education would be involved in implementing all school level interventions. FAWE is co-chair with MEST on the Girls’ Education Network Taskforce, through which project learning will be shared.

The project has a substantial focus on attitudinal change and social advocacy. Men and boys will be engaged at every level of the project; the majority of teachers receiving GRP training and Code of Conduct training will be male. Headteachers will be systematically included and activities will target school management, school boards, parent’s and children’s clubs. The project will bring about systematic improvements in school quality, manageme nt and accountability through in-service training, school board training, raising awareness of the Teachers’ Code of Conduct and establishing mechanisms to ensure its enforcement, such as through passing local by-laws. The scorecard approach has been a successful accountability tool, and the data generated through the scorecard programme will document issues identified by children and facilitate action plans for improving school quality and management. Funding is allocated to document and share learning from the project, including learning from the girl and boy friendly school scorecard approach, best practice exchange workshops for the CBR approach and the women into teaching component supported by The OU.

The project provides financial incentives and support to girls. At primary school and JSS, the in-kind bursary consists of four core textbooks, school uniform and bag of value $30 at primary and $52 at JSS. The core textbooks purchased (worth $17-23 per girl) will be retained in schools at the end of each year, building their school materials library to benefit future years. Additionally, at JSS level, a 75,000Le ($18) advance is budgeted per marginalised girl per year to support school fees. A payment mechanism has been designed to ensure there is no double-funding of costs which the government have committed to pay, whilst ensuring that affordability of up-front fees does not represent a barrier to girl’s enrolment. MEST’s fee-waiver scheme, the ‘Girl Child Support Programme’, currently funds 3 terms of school fees in JSS1, 2 terms in JSS2 and JSS3, but fees have recently arrived only in April/May and parents have been required to pay for fees up-front.

The project will make a uniform payment of 75,000Le to schools for each marginalised girl enrolled on the condition that the school establish a child-friendly school fund in which fees reimbursed by the

2 At the GPE Pledging Conference, Nov. 2011, the Minister of Education highlighted priority areas for funding as scholarships for girls to encourage female retention and bring about gender parity in grades 7 to 9, innovative practices designed to attract out of school children and improving education quality with a special focus on learning and learning outcomes. The WB is currently supporting a review of the Education Sector Plan and PRSP and emphasising supporting girls to transit to JSS/SSS.


government are placed. This will be managed by the Board of Governors (BoG) who will be mandated to authorise expenditure on the basis of action plans identified in the school scorecard process in the first two academic years of the project. This will provide incentives for schools to continue to request fee payments from MEST and funds for children and BoG to action identified action plans. Note that the fee waiver tails off in JSS2 and JSS3, when completion rates also drop dramatically and this project would fund the fee shortfall so financing is not a barrier to the targeted girls accessing school. It is estimated that 31% of reimbursed funds would only arrive after the end of the project and IRC/Plan staff will continue to monitor the allocation of funds after the project ends.

Whilst creating demand for education, the project supports quality issues relating to the supply of education . 3,600 teachers will be trained on inclusive teaching methodologies, 550 Learning Assistants placed in Primary schools, there will be more textbooks in classrooms, and interventions will target more teacher accountability and a safer learning environment. The project will not support infrastructure, but constraints related to class sizes and infrastructure may be lower as the project supports government approved schools in rural areas and focusses on P5, P6 and JSS. It is noteworthy that IRC’s SIDA-funded education project in Kenema and Kono saw girls’ enrolment rise by 23% so far without substantial absorption constraints. This issue has been discussed with MEST and it was agreed that project staff should monitor enrolment in conjunction with MEST and create appropriate linkages with other potential funding sources which are likely to be available for Infrastructure (e.g. GPE), and existing teacher distance education (DE) initiatives.

The identification of Children with Disabilities (both in and out of school) will contribute to their opportunities following the end of the project. Sustainability is central to the design of the CBR model, engaging volunteers with no incentives paid and focussing on attitudinal change. HI have adapted the model for Sierra Leone to integrate community members already involved in social work as volunteers (government staff, members of Disabled People Organisation) to reinforce this sustainability. CBR is internationally endorsed as the most effective way of brokering access to education for children with disabilities and reducing stigma in communities. There is almost no reliable data on special needs in school in Sierra Leone and the project will make available data for the first time on a scale to inform donors and policy makers.

The project introduces a Learning Assistant model to Sierra Leone, to facilitate motivated women to become teachers whilst providing role models in classrooms. Increasing numbers of female teachers in upper grades of Primary will have a long term impact on girls beyond the project period. It’s sustainability depends upon (a) how effectively the project supports girls to pass the required WASCCE or entrance exam to enter the 3 year Teacher’s Certificate DE course; (b) Teacher Training Colleges agreeing to waive the requirement for 3 years’ classroom experience; (c) the government lifting the recruitment freeze for new teachers and (d) supported women staying in teaching. Teacher Training Colleges have been engaged during the proposal process, and have expressed openness to facilitate entry for women with one year’s experience as Learning Assistants given the intensive support that would be provided by tutors and mentors, and were enthusiastic that this project would support their own objective to increase female enrolment. MoUs with Teacher Training Colleges would be signed to ensure their consistent support. Plan and IRC have committed to fund the 3 years of Teacher Training costs (£300,000) for women following the project period with other funding. Selection processes for LAs will emphasise community buy-in (girls nominated by communities and more likely to stay and teach in that community) and will involve the inspectorate to ensure careful selection of girls with potential to pass entrance exams. The results and effectiveness of the approach will be documented and shared given substantial interest in Sierra Leone in how more women can be supported to enter teaching, particularly at upper Primary and Secondary level.


Section 8: Risks (maximum 2 pages)

Risk description Likelihood of risk

Impact on project

Countermeasures and contingencies

Project -related Risks Community resistance to the project because it prioritises girls over boys

Low High Many activities (children’s clubs, scorecards, CBR approach, teacher/ BoG training) benefit boys and girls or explicitly address issues of equality & exclusion. Partners have strong established relationships within target communities.

Women supported to enter teacher training don’t complete college or leave teaching (fail exams, entry requirements, recruitment freeze, women teacher attrition/migration to other locations or professions with higher salaries)

Medium Medium Selection process emphasises community buy-in and nomination for local post, involvement Inspectorate in selection, MoUs signed with TTCs to negotiate entry requirements, customise learning materials and remedial teaching syllabus to ensure good pass rates, sponsor teacher training college costs after project end.

Girls supported through bursary programme drop out of school due to early pregnancy or marriage

Medium Medium Mentoring support to girls includes SRHR and issues of self-esteem. Mentors will be supported to inform girls of contraception and health services that they can access (for example from Marie Stopes Intl.) Activities with boys, parents and communities to promote changing attitudes to early marriage. Some drop-out assumed in projections.

JSS fees for girls are not reimbursed when the government GCSP rebate reaches the school JSS fee waivers do not reach the school and schools have limited powerful to influence

Medium Medium Schools will be required to sign a formal agreement before receiving fee advances and materials support. The project will work with Board of Governors and community mechanisms to hold schools accountable for fee reimbursement and use of materials provided by the project. The project cannot directly influence whether the school receives fee waivers but will collate information and support advocacy at chiefdom/district level.

Girls do not transition to JSS due to long journeys to or lack of safety on the way to school

Low High Primary schools will be targeted in clusters around rural JSS to ensure schools are within walking distance.

Government schools do not have the capacity to absorb large increases in enrolment whilst maintaining quality Teachers leave their posts for better paid jobs in mining industry

Low Medium Capacity constraints are lower in Primary grades 5 and 6 and JSS in the rural areas targeted. Project staff will monitor increasing enrolment and retention rates with MEST and link with other sources of funding. In-service training will include training to teach large and multigrade classes with children of different sex and ability.


Girls supported with financial incentives do not complete years (high repetition rate)

Low High Subsequent year’s bursary support will be conditional upon school attendance and school year completion. Mentoring and study group activities will support slow learners.

Insufficient school-level support is available to support identified Children with Disabilities from entering and staying in school.

Medium High The project will mainstream issues of disability through all trainings/activities to address issues of stigma. The limited funds available are likely to support more children with physical and sensory impairments. We will link with other NGOs, CBOs and Special schools for more support. Where possible, HI will cover gaps through its existing and future projects. The data gathered will be used to advocate for further programming in this area.

Weak coordination amongst consortium partners results in slow and inconsistent project delivery.

Low High A Central Coordination Unit will be hosted by Plan with dedicated full-time staff and accountable to a Project Strategic Group. All partners have played central roles in project design. Plan and IRC field staff will lead on all school level activities, with FAWE, HI and OU providing targeted support on specific activities to minimise duplication.

Funds are used for corrupt purposes

Low Medium Plan, IRC, FAWE and HI have standard financial procedures in place and Plan contracts have clauses on fraud and corruption, disbursement and liquidation mechanisms. Training will ensure that partners are well informed on financial procedures and can deliver according to donor requirements. Periodic audits and unannounced spot checks will take place.

National election in Nov 2012 disrupts project inception period

Low Low The workplan allows sufficient time in the first 8 project months to ensure the project can deliver support for the first full academic year.

Risks to Beneficiaries Activities to promote participation of children and engage on issues of school-related GBV put children at risk

Low High Plan and partners have child protection procedures and policies in place and all engagement on sensitive issues will be facilitated by field staff following risk assessments and considering Child Protection issues. All travel outside of schools will seek permission of parents and children accompanied at all times.

Planned activities (such as teacher training or children’s clubs) disrupt teaching time for children

Low High Teacher training will be scheduled for the summer period (Aug to mid Oct). Activities will be scheduled outside of normal school hours.


Section 9: Ethical and environmental considerations (maximum 1 page)

Environmental Impact

The proposed package of activities, focussing on school and community-level interventions using existing infrastructure, means that the project is not anticipated to have negative impacts on the climate and environment. No large-scale construction is planned, no changes in land use are expected and there is limited large scale procurement with the exception of the annual in-kind bursaries, for which materials will be procured centrally annually and trucked to clustered distribution points. The project is efficient in delivery as it covers the majority of JSS in target districts, most trainings will be held locally and staff will be based locally working with clusters of schools. The Women into Teaching component supports the retention of potential local teachers to support local schools, promotes Distance Education methods and will ensure ‘Learning Assistants’ can meet with a tutor within walking distance. The project will support solar lamps for Girls’ Study Groups.

Although not an intentional outcome of this programme, we recognise recent research from the Centre for Global Development indicating that investing in girls’ education can have positive long-term effects on climate change, in that educated girls want – and are better able to insist on – smaller families, and fewer people means reduced carbon emissions. CGD estimate that girls’ education is highly cost-competitive with a broad range of carbon emissions abatement options and also has a high rate of return in terms of disaster prevention.

While we do not anticipate any significant negative impact on the environment as a result of the activities planned, Sierra Leone is vulnerable to a variety of natural and man-made disasters (e.g. flooding, fire and conflict). Plan has mainstreamed Disaster Risk Reduction in our work in Sierra Leone, with the support of a 5-year DFID grant from 2005-10, involving children as agents of change. Children are well placed to identify risks and the scorecard approach proposed will give them an opportunity to identify risks through this project and design action plans.

Plan UK is currently carrying out updated research into our carbon footprint. Data is expected to be available by the end 2012, which will provide clearer information on sources of carbon emissions and provide benchmarks against which targets can be set for reduction. Globally, Plan International has commissioned PWC to assist in developing a new Environment Policy.

Ethical Considerations

The project has been designed consistent with a child rights approach, to support the government and families with their primary duty to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights. The project promotes children’s ethical and meaningful participation in projects, taking into account their evolving capacities and ensuring that all aspects of projects are in the best interests of children involved. It seeks to reduce discrimination against marginalised groups, including girls and CWD. Whilst specific activities target girl’s enrolment and activities are targeted at girls, careful consideration has been placed on including boys and girls in all school based activities, and engaging men and women at different levels on issues of gender equality. The project will purposely work closely with headteachers, teachers and community leaders, who are mostly men. Both boys and girls with disabilities are targeted for support in accordance with the 2008 UNCRPD. Child Protection procedures will be followed by all partners and risks assessed for all project activities.

The project will seek to identify Children with Disabilities, and children may be identified who the project is unable to support. Children with severe multiple disabilities or who due to age fall out of the scope of the project will be referred to appropriate support services either within HI or to other organisations. We will also adhere to the principal of reasonable accommodation when recruiting staff with disabilities or working with volunteers to support implementation.


Section 10: Monitoring and evaluation of progress ( maximum 4 pages)

Monitoring strategy

The project’s theory of change (section 4) and logframe (Annex 4) provide the over-arching framework for monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning through this project. To the greatest extent possible, the project seeks to support the consistent collection of existing school data to minimise duplication. The project’s network of field staff are well placed to support schools and collate data specific to the targeted schools. In addition, the project will collect data specific to project interventions, findings of scorecard assessments, secondary sources including national government and survey data and undertake external baseline and final evaluations to examine issues affecting girls’ education in more detail.

Key project indicators have been formulated to ensure comparability with the GEC Programme Logframe and the monitoring strategy will be finalised in coordination with the GEC Evaluation Manager and DFID Sierra Leone to ensure that this data collected is comparable across the GEC and implementing agencies in Sierra Leone.

Project school data (on enrolment, attendance, completion, repetition and exam (NSPE, BECE, year-end) pass rates, by sex and grade) will be collected for all targeted schools at the beginning and end of the school year (in September and July). This will be used to calculate retention rates, measure learning outcomes and track changes and will be a key data source for project outcome indicators. Where available, this information will be collected from District Education Offices, but it is anticipated that for some districts, it will necessarily to collect and collate data from individual schools which has not reached district level with sufficient reliability. Collection of attendance data is currently inconsistent, but project staff will support schools to track data from registers where necessary using a data entry tool developed through Plan’s CIDA-funded project.

Project management data specific to project interventions (such as the number of CWD identified) and tracking marginalised girls benefitting from targeted support such as bursaries will be systematically collected, collated every quarter at district-level (coordinated by IRC or Plan) and aggregated nationally. Project Management data will cover standardised activity updates, output level data and financial reporting. The M&E Manager will have responsibility for primary verification of the data, supported by regular monitoring and verification by M&E staff in Plan Sierra Leone and Plan UK. Consolidated data will be shared with all partners for quarterly peer review, as well as used as the basis for reporting to the GEC Fund Manager. Quarterly peer reviews between project partners will be held on a rotating basis to double-check project management data, peer review partners’ M&E capacity and implementation challenges, and assist in the identification and documentation of lessons to be shared among all partners (as outlined in the performance management framework). Data will be collected for both boys and girls allowing a comparison between sexes, relative to comparison groups.

It will be necessary to maintain individual records of specific girls supported through bursary support over the project period, and their attendance and completion rates and exam performance. This will allow us to compare the performance of these girls relative to school, district and national level data.

Scorecarding and beneficiary feedback: the voice of marginalised girls is central to the monitoring strategy of the project (see also baseline methodology below). Two specific tools will be used. One is an adapted score-card approach that Plan has already piloted in Sierra Leone, to engage girls and boys in Junior Secondary Schools in monitoring critical aspects of their schools and working with duty-bearers on joint action plans to bring about positive change. The second tool will be piloted by Plan with small groups of girls. The ‘Girls Opportunity Star’ has been developed as part of Plan’s


global Because I am a Girl programme to gather information through a participatory process on girls’ perceptions of key aspects of active citizenship, life skills, social status, and to directly seek girls’ feedback of the interventions that have the biggest impact on their empowerment through a ranking process. This also helps identify the relative impact of Plan’s work and assess questions of attribution from beneficiaries’ perspectives. The project will also make use of Learning Assistants in primary schools to collect qualitative data around teaching time in schools and teacher attendance, availability of learning resources, school-based gender-based violence, and reporting and disciplinary systems.

Secondary data sources : alongside primary, project school data, comparative secondary data will be collected and analysed on an annual basis which will allow us to compare the project results to other changes in district-level data and relative to other districts. Secondary data sources will include MEST district-level data, the national School Census Report, and MICS surveys. Monitoring changes in District and Regional level data over time will allow us to compare the performance of girls in targeted schools relative to other districts. The project supports the majority (77%) of JSS in target districts and secondary data will be used to support and verify the school-level data collected.

Performance management framework

The Project and M&E Coordinator will be responsible for collating quarterly performance reports which will be the basis for reports submitted to DFID and progress will be reported through quarterly Project Strategic Group meetings to examine data from all monitoring activities and ensure this is used appropriately to shape project implementation. The project will establish a Project Strategic Group including representatives from MEST and all project partners. Plan will sign contracts with all implementing partners including performance measures and break clauses where the Project Strategic Group recommended that a party was failing to meet performance indicators.

Annual participatory programme meetings will be held inviting district and national level MEST representatives, donors, UNICEF, NGOs and local stakeholders. These meetings will be used to collectively review and validate annual performance data, as well as share and address project implementation challenges and successes. In addition, the project will use the scorecard approach as a tool to collect data to inform advocacy events at Chiefdom and District level in the targeted districts, targeting Chiefdom Education Committees and District Education offices and government stakeholders.

The project’s design also emphasises shared learning at project level. Community engagement and participation are critical to many project activities and specific budgets have been allocated for sharing events relating to children’s clubs at chiefdom level, chiefdom and district-level interface meetings, and CBR best practice exchange workshops in every district. The project will document the processes and findings of the scorecard tool used, Women into Teaching component and CBR approach to be shared with local and national level stakeholders.

All relevant project details will be made publicly available in line with Plan UK’s published commitment on IATI.

Project Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation resources

Project Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation will be the ultimate responsibility of the Project Coordinator in the Central Coordination Unit, supported by a full-time M&E Coordinator, Financial Coordinator and Administrative Officer. In addition, two full-time M&E officers will be based separately within IRC and Plan and two data-entry clerks employed given the project’s coverage and


data requirements. The project will have an extensive network of 48 school-focussed field staff, who will lead on data collection for school-level activities and district-level staff employed by FAWE and HI focussing on mentoring, learning assistant and community disability activities. The Central Coordination Unit will also be supported by Plan Sierra Leone’s M&E Advisor and the learning and impact assessment unit at Plan UK, who are also overseeing monitoring, reporting and evaluation processes for Plan’s global PPA which focusses on secondary education for girls.

External evaluations will be undertaken following the project baseline and at the end of the project in line with guidance in the ‘Grantee Handbook’. The baseline will be conducted in the first three months of the project, collating existing secondary school and district level data, specific survey data and qualitative data from Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews with girls, school staff and communities. The baseline findings will be used to review the project logframe and theory of change and propose any revision in project design as necessary. An internal mid-term evaluation will be conducted in August 2014following the first full academic year supported. The final evaluation will collect quantitative survey data and qualitative data analysed alongside the school-level data collected through the Project Monitoring System and provide an early evaluation of the project outcomes and impact. For the baseline and final evaluation, it is planned to use international consultants alongside local consultants to support data collection and analysis, and £25,000 has been budgeted for each of the planned baseline and evaluation budgeted on the basis of estimates from recent similar tenders.

Plan will commission four external audits through the project to verify expenditure from partners, and audit Plan’s data collection relating to payments by results. Audits will correspond to the end of DFID’s financial year and the end of project. This is advantageous in that the first audit will take place three months into the project and will assess that partner systems are established and robust in advance of major expenditure forecast for the second and third quarters of the project.

Evaluation Plan

The Theory of Change described in Section 4 will be the analytical framework for the project evaluation. The evaluation will seek to assess whether the project has improved life chances for the girls targeted and supported marginalised girls in targeted districts to access education, stay in school and achieve improved learning outcomes. It will evaluate the intervention strategies proposed assessing: (a) whether access was supported through changing attitudes to girls’ education, violence and gender equality and targeted financial support; (b) whether girls retention and learning was supported by mentoring, the presence of learning assistants in classrooms and inclusive, gender-responsive teaching; (c) whether girls safety in school improved and influenced retention and learning outcomes and (d) whether school performance and accountability was influenced by the scorecard process and school, chiefdom, and district level advocacy. In evaluating the influence of project interventions, the evaluations will consider whether the project represents value for money in terms of Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness.

International consultant(s) and local consultants and a data collection team will be engaged to collect baseline and final evaluation data, with technical support from Plan UK’s Learning and Impact Assessment team. In the last year Plan has carried out two education project baselines in Sierra Leone, supported by external academic research specialists, and will use the same overall methodology. This provides a significant advantage as Plan staff have experience of the tools used and have been supported through a process of research capacity building, the tools have already


been field-tested and can be quickly refined to suit the project reducing the risk of delays and enabling the process to be managed internally.

The consultant will evaluate these hypotheses of change through an assessment of:

• Primary School and activity level data collected through the Project Monitoring system. Note that primary data from each target school will be collected with a School Checklist to map the physical, social and policy characteristics of all schools (e.g. observations of teaching methodologies and learning resources in use, and the presence and functions of school clubs, student councils, school management committees and child protection systems)

• Quantitative survey of adolescent girls and boys in and out-of-school and their primary carer. This will address issues of social and community attitudes to girls’ education, financial barriers to girls’ education, and knowledge, attitudes and practice on SRHR. A sampling strategy will be developed to ensure a 95% confidence level with a ±5% interval.

• Qualitative focus group discussions with groups of girls and boys in school and separate FGDs with particularly marginalised groups such as disabled girls and boys, as well as with groups of parents, and teachers. These will be used to triangulate the quantitative survey, and to probe more deeply on particular topics.

• As part of the FGDs, ‘blind voting’ will be used with adolescent girls and boys to generate quantifiable information on particularly sensitive topics including sexual violence and teenage pregnancy. Experience has shown that social desirability bias can unduly influence survey questions on these areas, and blind voting has worked well to elicit participatory numbers.

• Key informant interviews with a small sample of teachers, head teachers, MEST officials, Board of Governor members, and Chiefdom and District Education Committee members.

• District data, and secondary data sources, to compare project outcomes to trends in enrolment, retention and exam pass rates for girls and boys in other districts of Sierra Leone.


Section 11: Capacity of the lead applicant and key partner organisations to implement the project (maximum 3 pages, excluding CVs and project references) The project will be implemented by a technically capable consortium with a strong track record and over 60 years’ experience supporting education in Sierra Leone. FAWE, Handicap International and IRC have been operational in country since 1995, 1996 and 1999 respectively.

Plan has supported education projects in Sierra Leone since 1976 and approximately 40% of its $18m annual budget is allocated to project’s supporting Basic Education. Plan now supports children’s education in more than 800 schools in 51 chiefdoms in four districts. Plan’s existing MoU with the Ministry of Health and FAWE has been in place since 2000 and Plan has diplomatic status with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to its Educational Renewal Programme and peace building with youth following the war. Plan’s work equally seeks to address child protection and community empowerment and build a favourable socio-cultural environment to uphold children’s rights, promote inclusion and prevent the exploitation of vulnerable girls and boys..

The Sierra Leone chapter of Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) works closely with the MEST and a wide array of education stakeholders to influence policy in education and implement model interventions that ensure quality education for girls. FAWE works with parents and community leaders to influence attitudes to girls’ education, train teachers and school managers in Gender Responsive Pedagogy. It reaches thousands of girls through school mentoring, girls’ study clubs, bursary programmes and youth technical and vocational education models. FAWE implemented the USAID funded ‘Ambassador’s Girls Scholarship programme’ in Kailahun and Kenema from 2004-11, reaching 4,760 girls. This approach was scaled up with UNICEF funding in 2009, reaching 7,200 girls in 120 schools in seven districts, and including bursaries, mentoring, girls study groups and holiday activities. Since 2010, FAWE has regularly trained teachers and lecturers in technical vocational institutions nationwide in Gender Responsive Pedagogies. In partnership with Children in Crisis, FAWE is currently training 60 teachers in Kambia district and is working with UNICEF to support the establishment of mothers’ clubs.

Handicap International (HI)’s work in Sierra Leone focusses on Health and Rehabilitation services, Inclusive Development and Rights and Public Policies, building the capacity of organisations of people with disabilities and influencing public policy. All HI’s projects place special emphasis on women and girls with disabilities, who are the most vulnerable and marginalised. HI have extensive international and national experience in disability mainstreaming. HI presently supports a network of 108 CBR workers in Sierra Leone covering three districts. Materials for the CBR model are already in place which can be drawn upon for this project. HI have extensive partnerships in Country with the National Rehabilitation Centre, Bo and Koidu Government Hospitals, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (DPO) and government ministries. HI currently implement a €770,000 EC-funded project supporting rehabilitation services and accessibility in Sierra Leone. HI will also draw on the resources and lessons learnt from successful inclusive education projects in Burundi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Cambodia and Niger and their headquarters technical team.

The IRC have worked with MEST since 2008 to improve the quality of JSS education. IRC have supported MEST officials and lecturers from all six Teacher Training Colleges to revise the previous JSS pre-service teacher training curriculum and roll out a nationwide Distance Education programme, with harmonised content and integrating current Child Centred Teaching Techniques including the following learner-centred methodologies: inclusive education (gender-inclusive methodologies, learning styles, students with special needs), classroom assessment, classroom management, child-centred lesson planning, and reading strategies in the content areas. One of


IRC’s global education priorities is to improve literacy, and the IRC is currently implementing a reading and writing programme in Sierra Leone in lower Primary and JSS, training master teacher trainers and developing training and teaching resources. Through the literacy programme, a local authors group is creating children’s books for three levels of reading, which will be distributed to schools and teachers will be trained on how to use them. The IRC is currently implementing a girls’ SIDA-funded education programme in Kenema and Kono - in partnership with FAWE - through which School Management Committees, Community Teacher Associations, Boards of Governors, local authorities, teachers, and head teachers are trained on gender inclusive strategies and girls supported with mentoring and stipends.

Plan Sierra Leone is currently implementing five strategic projects to support girls’ education and gender equality listed below. In addition, in partnership with WFP, Plan is supporting children’s access to food for education, and working with the British Council and Teacher Training Colleges to improve English teaching in schools through ‘Teach English Learn English’ radio programmes.

Project Donor Description

Girl Power (2011-16)

Dutch Govt. £2.5m

Strengthens the capacity of CSOs to promote the rights of 6000 girls & 3000 young women to post-primary education and socio-economic opportunities in Moyamba and Western Area.

PAGES (2010-15)

CIDA £1.7m

Promoting African Grassroots Economic Security Through Education and Skills (PAGES) supports 1,410 children below 15 years in Kailahun to access quality basic education through capacity building for 715 teachers, school directors and MEST staff and supports economic opportunities for girls.

Equality through

Adolescent Girls’

Education (2011-14)

DFID PPA

£0.8m

Plan’s current PPA (£12.3m) aims to improve adolescent girls’ access to and completion of lower secondary education. In Sierra Leone, the project supports 2,050 boys and 2,200 girls in Bombali to access and complete JSS through; awareness-raising with children, parents, local authorities and traditional leaders, strengthening education quality, reducing violence in schools and increasing access to SRHR services.

Equip (2012-15)

IrishAID £0.8m

The Equip project aims to increase access to quality education for the most vulnerable children, particularly girls and children with disabilities, and improve learning outcomes, directly targeting 3,844 Primary school students and 1,421 JSS students.

Girl Power (2011-16)

Plan USA

£0.4m

The US-funded girl power project supports equal rights and opportunities for 5,000 Girls aged 7-14 years in rural Western Area. The project is strengthening mechanisms to protect and prevent children from pregnancy, early marriage and Gender Based Violence.

The Open University (OU) is one of the world’s largest universities with 250,000 students. It brings Distance Learning expertise to the consortia through over 40 years’ experience designing effective learning environments and experiences for learners across different contexts. The OU is a world leader in modern distance learning and brings experience supporting a similar project with Learning Assistants in Malawi to support girls to enter teaching supported by the Scottish Government. DFID Malawi have requested the OU submit a bid to scale up this project. The OU Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) project has developed a range of teacher education and training resources, working collaboratively with a number of African universities, to support classroom-based continuing professional development for teachers in over 10 African countries. In 2011 TESSA won one of six awards from The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) and was praised by the judging panel for its “outstanding quality and…exceptional impact.”


Capacity of Plan to manage its performance and the performance of partners

Plan has a large country programme in Sierra Leone and is supported by a regional office in Dakar and international headquarters in the UK. Plan Sierra Leone has established systems for programme effectiveness and performance and financial management of partners. Teaming agreements have been signed with all partners and if successful, separate contracts will be signed with each partner with clear deliverables detailed. A Central Coordination Unit (CCU) will be established and managed by Plan with a Project Coordinator responsible for overall programme leadership, performance management and technical direction of the programme, assuring an integrated vision among consortium members. Given the scale of M&E and finances, a dedicated M&E Coordinator and Financial Coordinator will be hired in the CCU. The Project Coordinator will be employed by Plan Sierra Leone but will report quarterly to the Project Strategic Group.

Plan UK will provide technical and project management support. Plan UK has a rolling portfolio of medium- to large grants, including some 35-40 projects with a total value of £60-70 million, funded by institutional and large corporate donors. Plan’s experienced project managers, technical experts, learning and impact and grants finance teams have established financial and programme accountability systems, and will support field training to ensure effective implementation.

Roles of each organisation in project implementation, capacity and key technical expertise

The consortium has agreed to a harmonised approach to implementation to minimise duplication and administration costs. Plan (through local partner Pikin to Pikin) and IRC will lead on project delivery at school level in separate districts; IRC in Kenema, Kono and Kailahun, and Plan in Moyamba and Port Loko. Plan and IRC will lead on childrens’ clubs, parent’s groups, BoG training, girls study groups, scorecards and in-service teacher training. FAWE and HI will provide specialist support across all five districts with one staff member located in the IRC and Plan offices. FAWE will lead on girls mentoring and the women into teaching component with technical support from The OU who will have no permanent staff located in country. The distribution of bursaries will be split between FAWE, IRC and Plan. HI will lead on the identification of Children with Disabilities, and support all partners to mainstream disability issues within the project.

The project has been designed to ensure that each organisation has the capacity to deliver , especially where this funding is in addition to a large portfolio of work. Plan and IRC have each committed to lead on activities in districts where they have established field networks and can assure that these interventions are additional to interventions underway. Plan’s major education grants are mostly outside of these regions, including the PPA programme in Bombali district, providing opportunities for cross-learning between districts. Plan is implementing a DFID-funded WASH project in Moyamba and Port Loko working with the implementing partner Pikin-to-Pikin but this is not expected to impact this GEC grant. FAWE and HI will have smaller staff numbers and focus on particular programme elements where they have specific technical experience.

The scale required to operate the project has been recognised in the project design, and the establishment a Central Coordination Unit with dedicated Financial and M&E Coordinator. Each organisation will employ a project manager, and in total 9 field supervisors and 68 field staff will be hired to ensure the consortium members have the capacity to deliver and support the collection of the data required to monitor the effectiveness of this project. IRC and Plan will each hire a dedicated M&E officer and data entry clerk. In addition, each organisation will draw on internal technical specialists to support the implementation of different project components. Technical support visits have been budgeted for HI, IRC, Plan and The OU.

Please refer to Annex 1 for CVs of four key staff


Section 12: Proposed payment arrangements (maximum 2 pages)

Payment by Results

We propose to link 10% of DFID’s funding (9% of total budget) to results indicators related to primary school academic outcomes, JSS enrolment and JSS attendance as follows: Indicator Target Relative Weight

1. Total number of girls passing NPSE exam in 540 targeted schools within the project lifetime1 10% increase 20% of RBP

2. Total number of girls enrolled in JSS grades 1,2 and 3 in 180 targeted JSS2

19,008 increase 60% of RBP

3. Increase in girls attendance rates in JSS grades 1,2 and 3 in 180 targeted JSS3

10% increase 20% of RBP 1 Relative to baseline of the average number of girls passing NPSE exam in from 2010-2011 2 Relative to baseline from enrolment at start of the 2012/13 academic year

3 Baseline determined at baseline survey

Indicator 1 captures increases in the numbers of girls completing primary grade 6, and sitting and passing the NPSE during June 2014 and 2015 (which the project will have been in a position to influence and for which it will be possible to collect data during the project period). It is an indicator of completion rates for primary schools targeted and improved learning outcomes.

Indicator 2 refers to the total number of additional marginalised girls enrolling in JSS grades 1, 2 and 3 throughout the lifecycle of the project. Because the project effectively supports girls for two academic years and one term of the third year, this indicator captures retention between years. It also captures girls who are supported from primary grades 5 and 6 through the project and who successfully transition to JSS. Indicator 2 reflects the forecasts and assumptions for girls enrolled and retained detailed in Figure 4 in Section 4 and Outcome Indicator 2 of the logframe. The 2,052 targeted girls with disabilities are not included in this figure because of the nature of the approach taken to supporting children with disabilities, girls and boys will be supported to enter at any grade of school, and the vast majority are expected to enrol at primary level. Given this indicator reflects enrolment and retention across groups and so best reflects addition time in school of marginalised girls, it has been allocated the largest weighting of 60% in the targets proposed.

In addition to additional girls enrolled in JSS, Indicator 3 reflects the expected result that attendance will increase in targeted JSS as a result of project interventions. The 10% increase in attendance is consistent with assumptions made in Section 6 relating to additional time in school per year attributable to the project and reflects previous success rates from other projects.

The indicators above have been selected because they capture changes for girls at all 540 primary schools and 180 JSS targeted and will use existing school-level data , rather than establish parallel data collection systems for accuracy, transparency and ease of verification. This data is already collected by schools and project staff will support the collection and collation for the purposes of reporting to DFID (and building capacity within schools). The indicators selected are also comparable to national data collected through MEST and National School Census data.

It is proposed that the above indicators are independently verified by auditors engaged by the project on an annual basis at the end of DFID project years. As part of their annual financial audit, auditors terms of reference will include undertaking an audit of data collection systems and provide


an independent opinion on data quality and accuracy. Because the project is covering the majority (77%) of JSS in the target districts, reported changes can also be cross-checked against published school census data internally and by the Fund Manager. Given that it will not be possible to verify results before month 20 and the cash-flow implications of pre-financing PbR for such a long period, it is proposed that DFID will not withhold funds from quarterly payments but that payment by results adjustments will be made in annual financial report s submitted to DFID along with the independent assessment from the auditor.

IRC will assume responsibility for payment-by-results for their proportion of the project budget. Plan has agreed to assume responsibility for results for the remaining project partners, whose activities are less related to these specific results or who do not have the resources to take on this potential liability.

It is proposed that a mutually-agreed premium is paid to reflect the risk that the results proposed are not achieved and to incentivise achievement of results. It is also proposed that where the project exceed the targets, that this would trigger proportionate additional payments up to a maximum payment agreed with DFID.

Timing of payments

The project will accept quarterly payment in arrears based on actual reported expenditure (adjusted for match funding and Payment by Results in annual reports). Where partners are not in a position to pre-finance expenditure, Plan UK will provide pre-financing for the project as a whole from reserves generated by child sponsorship. Project reports will be submitted to the GEC fund manager within 30 days of the end of each quarter, and it is envisaged that requests for payments are processed promptly to not disadvantage Plan’s operational cash flows.

Match funding.

Plan will commit to secure match funding of 10% of the budget or £612,389 from corporates, major donors, trusts and the public over the course of the project or would allocate core funding to provide the match funding for this project if it were not possible to secure the full 10% match funding from other donors.

Our corporate engagement strategy is heavily focussed on securing support for adolescent girls through our Building Skills for Life Programme, and Plan is currently in discussion with existing partners about the potential to match donations on this programme. If successful in our application, we would seek to further develop this programme to leverage additional donations from both existing partners and new supporters. In 2012 Plan UK secured £3.6million of corporate funding – we aim to significantly increase this over 2013-2016, utilising this matched programme of support as a key pillar.

We would also seek to incorporate this project into our public engagement activity to raise awareness and support by gearing up our successful Girls Fund product. Currently we have 4,000 members of the UK public that donate to this fund and receive a multi-channel stewardship programme. Our Girls’ Fund promotional activity this year will be seen in excess of 500million times – promoting girls’ issues, our work, motivating the public to get involved and make a donation and become a long term supporter of our Girls’ Fund, asking them to help keep girls out of forced marriage and in school. We would seek to recruit a further 10,000 donors to this programme, further raising awareness amongst the UK public of development issues. Up to £1 million of the match funding between 2013-2016 could come from members of the UK general public.


Section 13: Financial management arrangements (maxi mum 5 pages)

Flow of Funds i) Within the Plan system

Funds from DFID will flow to Plan UK into our Sterling Restricted Bank Account used exclusively for DFID funds. This account is reconciled in such a way that it acts as a fund-management tool. This system is already used for the PPA. All non-UK funds other than working capital and reserves are sent to our International Headquarters (IH) in Woking, Surrey. The restricted nature of the funds are tracked through a proprietary “Grants Tracking System” (GTS) which is a global web-based system that matches all restricted income and expenditure for all Country Offices including Plan Sierra Leone and National Organisations including Plan UK. Plan Sierra Leone complete an “Indicative Funding” template on a monthly basis of funds required which is reconciled to country budget, forecasts and previous remittances in order to calculate a monthly remittance which will include allocations required for the GEC project. The main advantage of this system is that long term funds are held at IH, which maintains a professional treasury function, which manages currency risk through natural hedges and risk of bank failure through maintenance of several accounts at leading banks. ii) To consortium members

Plan’s Country Finance Manager will work with the GEC Country Coordination Unit (finance function) to set up a system of remittances to consortium members. Plan will pre-finance partners who are not able to pre-finance their own activities from unrestricted funds. Each consortium member will liquidate their funds with the CCU on a quarterly basis and receive a payment based on realised expenditure and forecast expenditure for the following quarter. A schedule of payments will be put in place with each consortium member which will be adjusted according to actual spending and attainment of milestones. The CCU will review at least 30% of vouchers by value during liquidation procedures. iii) To sub-grantees

Any grants to partners below the level of consortium members will be managed by the consortium member concerned. Although they will be able to follow their own procedures, there will be certain common standards that will be set out in sub-contracts. These will include: • The requirement to have formally assessed the partners’ financial capacity using an agreed

checklist which will include evidence of registration, quality of financial systems, qualifications of finance staff and security of cash holdings

• The need to liquidate based on actual expenditure • The requirement to review a sample of at least 30% of vouchers by value on liquidation iii) To ultimate recipients of funds (suppliers, staff, community based organisations, schools)

Plan’s financial operations are guided by an Operations Manual. The Operations Manual sets out procedures and minimum standards in relation to Opening and Closing Operations, Budget management, Authorisation, Reporting, Cash and bank, Assets and liabilities, Income, Expenditure, Partnerships and contracts, Logistics, Insurance, Administration, Audit, Legal and Regulatory, Risk Management and Accounting policies


The procedures and standards contained in the Operations Manual are followed by all Plan staff, and it is only when these procedures and standards are followed that a payment is made to a third party by Plan. It is relevant to note that the European Commission Humanitarian Organisation (ECHO) has assessed our controls as being of a high enough level to be used in place of their own procedures for their grants (P-control mechanism). Other consortium members have been assessed as having suitable organisational capacity to manage the funds. The liquidation procedures described above will help ensure that procedures are followed as evidence of appropriate level sign-off and relevant documentation (contracts, vehicle log-books, invoices, authorised purchase orders, payroll records etc) will be sought. In high risk areas such as cash-disbursements (scholarships, prizes etc) the CCU will approve a set of common guidelines that are approved by all consortium members. Finance Function Plan UK has a finance team of ten including five qualified accountants managing £55-60m of funds. The team manages all risks to funds relating to UK institutional and private donors. As such the team undertakes compliance and capacity building visits to field offices to help ensure appropriate use of funds and controls in place. Plan globally has implemented a functional line management structure for Finance to ensure that proper financial control is of the upmost priority. As such the Country Finance Manager directly or indirectly line manages all finance staff within the country including project and grants accountants. In Sierra Leone, Plan has six finance staff in the country office and five staff in programme units. The Country Finance Manager reports to the Regional Finance Manager who reports to the global Director of Finance and Operations. A series of reports are produced on a monthly basis to International Headquarters including the Indicative Funding report that determines the amount of money remitted to Country based on expenditure and forecast funding requirements. Financial Controls Plan UK has controls and procedures in place over all aspects of financial management. This includes procurement and purchasing policies. Plan UK’s largest expenditure areas are staff, media (for fundraising) and programme costs (mainly research and consultancy in relation to the small percentage of funds we keep in the UK). We have brought in policies to ensure financial control, value for money and quality over all these areas. This includes a consultancy policy that relates consultancy rates to staff grades and a procurement procedure that deals with retained suppliers to ensure regular review of terms. A new general ledger has recently been installed which has dramatically improved the tracking of restricted funds. An internal audit was recently completed regarding Plan UK’s financial control environment (through the global assurance department, see later). This audit made some minor recommendations which are being implemented. Plan globally takes a risk based approach to financial management. As noted above, the Operations Manual deals with all the key areas of financial risk. Additionally a Global Assurance Function in based at Plan’s International Headquarters (IH) which reports directly to the international board. This undertakes regular audits of finance, child protection, HR and grants risks. This function is expanding its capacity to ensure it is able to respond flexibly to new risks identified (for example, during large emergency responses). Plan IH is setting up a new Fraud Unit to respond robustly to this risk. This unit will have a global responsibility to prevent and detect fraud.


Plan currently uses the Microsoft Great Plains General Ledger but this is currently being replaced with an SAP based system. East and Southern Africa is the first region to migrate so the new system will be in place by the time the grant begins. This system has grants and programme modules embedded within the system so financial reporting, grants tracking and programme output reporting will be integrated within the same system. This will be a powerful tool. All consortium members are established organisations with computerised double entry General Ledger systems. Plan’s systems will be used at CCU level to consolidate the project’s financial reporting. The project will be externally audited on an annual basis in line with DFID’s financial years by an international auditor agreed with the GEC Fund Manager. The first DFID year will follow only three months implementation but will provide an early opportunity to verify partner systems ahead of the large expenditures anticipated in quarters 2 and 3 of implementation. In line with their terms of reference, the auditor will perform specific agreed-upon procedures to verify that expenditure reported by the consortium has occurred (‘reality’), is accurate (‘exact’) and eligible according to the draft GEC grant agreement. The auditor will submit a report of factual findings with regard to the agreed-upon procedures performed which will be shared with DFID alongside the annual financial report and request for payment. Subject to approval of the GEC Fund Manager, it is planned to include in the audit terms of reference an audit of data collected to report results that trigger payments and provide an independent opinion on data quality and accuracy. It has been agreed that Plan’s Global Assurance Department will undertake audits as required of the project including all consortium members. The terms of reference will be agreed so as to address the most pertinent risks to the project but will undoubtedly cover the risk of fraud or misappropriation of funds and the veracity of expenditure reports. The Global Assurance department is independent of any operational unit within Plan, so we can secure the cost and knowledge benefits of using in-house staff whilst maintaining substantial independence. All consortium members are legal entities so will have all financial flows subject to external statutory audit. Procurement Capacity A key objective of the secretariat will be to secure economies of scale across the project. In particular this will apply to purchase of assets and securing of good rates for the project in areas such as venue hire. All vehicles will be held centrally and the purchase price and terms reviewed by the project steering committee. All items purchased over a value of £500 will be approved by the project Director of Finance and Operations. Each partner has their own expertise in procurement and are familiar with local markets. Most other purchases will be at a low level but rigorous cost comparison will take place. Fiduciary Risk All consortium members are legal entities and are established NGOs across several countries. Funds will be transferred to all partners on a quarterly basis so there is a limited exposure to misappropriation of funds since the previous tranche will need to be accounted for before the following is remitted (see above on liquidations). The Project Strategic Group will take its governance responsibility seriously and will include representatives of the five organisations and other stakeholders. This will ensure that the interests of one organisation do not take precedence and that project risks are constantly updated, reviewed and managed.


Section 14: Checklist

I have read the draft grant agreement and should we be successful in our application, we agree to the terms and conditions outlined therein.

Signed:

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

(Signature of Chief Executive or other legal signatory)


Included within the Full Application form

Please place an X against the information that you have included:

Organisation registration numbers for lead and partner organisations

• For companies – company registration number X

• For charities –charity registration number X

• Any other Government-issued registration number (if relevant and available)

X


• Full legal name (and aliases) X

• Date of Birth X

• Passport number X

• Passport country of Issue X

Bank details for lead organisation X

Attachments

Please place an X against the documents that you have attached.

For the lead applicant

Letter of good standing from your bank.

Please provide a Statement/ Letter of Good Standing from your bank setting out how long the organisation has held the account; indicating if the account is in good standing; to whom the account is registered.

X

Registration documents, as applicable

• For companies – certificate of incorporation X

• For charities –certificate of registration

• Any other Government-issued registration document (if relevant and available)

Organisation’s policy documents

• Child protection (if already provided at Concept Note stage please note) Sent at CN

• Anti-Bribery/Anti-Corruption X (Money laundering and Fraud policies)

• Use of partners/ sub-contractors X (Partnership Policy)

• Staff training X (Learning and Development Policy)

• Quality assurance X (Global Assurance Charter)

• Equal opportunities X

For key partner organisations


Annual reports – last 3 years accounts: X

Registration documents, as applicable

• For companies – certificate of incorporation X (IRC)

• For charities – certificate of registration X (FAWE)

• Any other Government-issued registration document (if relevant and available)

Equal opportunities policies X

Other attachments

• Completed project budget X

• Completed project logframe X

• CVs of key personnel X

• Project references X

• Detailed project workplan X

the girls’ education challenge - full application form for

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