High Level Strategic Meeting to Accelerate Efforts to Reach out of School Children

Save the Children. Côte d'Ivoire

HIGH LEVEL STRATEGIC MEETING TO ACCELERATE EFFORTS TO REACH OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

REPORT OF MEETING: PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES

Under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser

28-30 April, 2013

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1

3 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS ...... 2 3.1 Sunday 28th April ...... 2 3.1.1 Welcoming Reception ...... 2 3.2 Monday 29th April ...... 2 3.2.1 Opening Session ...... 2 3.2.2 High Level Segment, Chaired By Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser ...... 5 3.2.3 Signing Ceremony ...... 6 3.2.4 Benefits of Education and the Costs of OOSC, Dr. Nicholas Burnett (concurrent to HLS) ...... 6 3.2.5 Measuring and Understanding Exclusion from Primary Education, Dr. Mark Waltham & Mr. Albert Motivans ...... 8 3.2.6 Regional Dialogue – What will it take to make a difference? ...... 10 3.3 Tuesday 30th April ...... 15 3.3.1 Building on Success, Dr. Audrey Moore ...... 15 3.3.2 Mobilizing Resources for Education, Dr. Tidu Maini...... 16 3.3.3 Partners’ market place for ideas ...... 17

4 CONCLUSION ...... 19

4.1 Summary and closing, Mohammed Al Naimi and Mary Joy Pigozzi, PhD ...... 19

“EAC and its partners need to HIGH LEVEL STRATEGIC MEETING TO ACCELERATE immediately EFFORTS TO REACH OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN scale-up REPORT OF MEETING: PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES innovative models and 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY program th On April 28-30 , 2013 the Educate A Child (EAC) High level strategic meeting to partnerships. accelerate efforts to reach out of school children (OOSC) was held at the Qatar National Convention Centre, chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Establishing and supporting Delegations representing 19 countries attended and 13 ministers of Education effective participated. Inclusive of all invited parties (country representatives, development partnerships is partners, private sector participants, implementing partners and potential future partners), a total of 246 attendees were present. critical to achieving our Opening with a welcoming reception to encourage networking, the agenda was ambitious organized to ensure that relevant topics were featured throughout the two-day gathering. Participants were engaged through strategic meetings, technical enrollment representation by specialists and interactive sessions addressing contemporary goal.” issues related to OOSC: Her Highness Sheikha  High Level Segment with Her Highness Sheikha Moza and Ministers of Moza bint Nasser education  Benefits of Education and the Costs of OOSC  Measuring and Understanding Exclusion from Primary Education  Regional dialogue – What will it take to make a difference? INNOVATION  Building on Success – EAC Monitoring and Evaluation  Mobilizing Resources for Education NEW  Partners’ Marketplace for Ideas APPROACHES & SOLUTIONS In a special event, Her Highness Sheikha Moza held a signing ceremony with new EAC partners. INSPIRATION

Participants were highly interactive during plenary sessions and the Partners’ PARTNERSHIPS Marketplace for Ideas. The closing ceremony outlined several key outcomes, as announced by Mohammed Al Naimi, Executive Committee Member, Education CONTRIBUTION Above All Foundation and Mary Joy Pigozzi, PhD, Director of Educate A Child. KNOWLEDGE EAC and attendees agreed on actions and outcomes across three key areas: SHARING  Building on successful collaboration  Benefits of education and costs of OOSC USING TRIED AND  Accelerating action on the OOSC initiative TESTED METHODS

Global Initiative on OOSC SCALING-UP Participants recommended that the findings from this meeting be taken forward APPROACH AND from Doha to the High-Level Event of the Global Education First Initiative during the TARGET United Nations General Assembly [New York, September 2013], the G-20 summit NUMBERS OF [Saint Petersburg, September 2013], and the 2013 Global EFA Meeting [Paris, November 2013] to further galvanize international attention to ensure that OOSC education of out of school children is prioritized on the political agenda.

3 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

3.1 Sunday 28th April 3.1.1 Welcoming Reception The welcoming reception was held on Sunday the 28th of April, (7-8.30pm) on the outdoor patio at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Doha. Guests were offered refreshments and entertainment by an Oudh player cultivated a favorable and informal networking environment, followed by dinner.

3.2 Monday 29th April 3.2.1 Opening Session The opening plenary, introduced by Moderator Shiulie Ghosh, broadcast journalist for Al-Jazeera English news channel, outlined the Educate A Child (EAC) mission and summarized accomplishments to date, since the launch in November 2012.

Ghosh informed participants that currently, there are 61 million out of school children (OOSC) in the world; a visual map image reflected the numbers of OOSC already enrolled through EAC partnerships and represented how EAC aims to expand in 2013 and beyond. A video of Her Highness, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, emphasized the importance of ensuring that out of school children have access to and provision of primary education. The video documented Her Highness Sheikhs Moza’s visits to some of the EAC project locations around the world, and her interactions with children.

Following the Video, Her Highness was introduced as the Chair of the meeting. “The EAC program is based on the She spoke on the global imperative notion of innovative solutions… working to reach children who are denied an together with all of our noble partners education. Her Highness said, “This who believe, as we do, in a world in determination is embodied in our which no child is deprived of his or her meeting today and must be translated into action on the ground, to enable right to education, under any condition.” these children to gain their birthright to

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser educational opportunity.”

Sheikha Moza explained that the EAC program is inspired by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which have been agreed at a global level, and goal number 2 addresses universal access to primary education by 2015. The EAC initiative fosters creative approaches and mechanisms to ensure that children have access to schooling, no matter how difficult the challenges; from conflict to rural isolation to cultural barriers to poverty.

“Sixty-one million children are out of school… the world has a moral and development responsibility

to address this problem, a responsibility that

cannot be evaded.” 2

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser

Her Highness posed the question: “How can we build stable communities, achieve economic growth and create a more sound future if we cannot overcome the conditions that hinder children from having access to schooling? It is truly embarrassing that we live in a world where… the humanitarian issue of children missing out on school cannot be addressed, or is Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser ignored.”

To achieve the second UN Millennium Development Goal 2 (MDG2); namely to see universal primary education become a reality, Her Highness Sheikha Moza believes that action is necessary on three different levels:

•This is how we will deal with the roots of Address barriers the problems that lead to this deprivation, as a pre-emptive measure

•Getting children into school is not enough – there must be effective Prevent dropouts mechanisms that help them continue their schooling beyond primary level

UNHCR, Pakistan

•To eradicate once and for Design all the situation of 61 programmes million children being out of school

“All issues are interlinked, and partial solutions will not work.”

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser 3

There is a need to strategically link education to efforts to fight poverty, provide gainful employment, invest in skills development, encourage sustainable development, enhance mechanisms of social protection, bolster gender equality, emphasize human development and respect “As long as we believe cultural differences. that education is an inalienable right for all

people, enshrined by the Targeting 34 countries that EAC is working to cement this vision Universal Declaration of represent 70% of OOSC by providing a holistic approach to Human Rights; world-wide education. as long as we agree that education serves as the Her Highness Sheikha Moza said that “during this technical meeting, it is solid foundation for incumbent upon us to discuss the most appropriate ways, means, funding development, progress mechanisms and expertise, and move towards enhancing our individual and peace; and collective readiness at various levels. This will help us accelerate the implementation of measures that we have agreed to, and see the largest as long as we jointly possible number of children enter school.” “As with all issues of global share our responsibility scope, there is no alternative to partnership if we are to come up with the to out of school children; required solutions… none of us working alone will be able to overcome and the global education challenge that we face.” as long as our intentions EAC has succeeded in enrolling 600,000 children into education during are centered on taking this school year – marking the beginning of this ambitious effort. Our action to solve this goal is to reach 10 million OOSC by the end of 2015. EAC is targeting 34 global problem, priority countries, which represent more than 70 percent of out of school children world-wide. then we have no option EAC’s belief in the value of partnership is firm; the benefits and potency but to join in pooling all of partnership are evident every day. EAC is fortunate to have partners our capacities and efforts throughout the world with whom we are planning and working to help to ensure that innocent some of their children attain their right to primary schooling. children are not Her Highness thanked the ministers and participants all over the world for deprived of primary- their demonstration of commitment by attending the meeting. level education, through no fault of their own. Special guest speaker, RT. Honourable Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education discussed ‘The road to Doha’. On behalf of everyone present, Mr. Brown thanked Her Highness I am fully confident that Sheikha Moza for “this amazing, breathtaking, powerful initiative we will not disappoint that is already beginning to transform the world. No one has done more on the case of girls and boys education than Sheikha Moza.” the innocent children Mr. Brown stated that “no initiative has achieved so much in such a who are looking to us for short space of time.” assistance.”

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser 4

Mr. Brown explained that despite everything that is being done, we still face an educational emergency. We are only one thousand days away from the MDG2 deadline in 2015 and despite this, in many countries educational aid, particularly for basic education, is now being decreased. “We have a moral obligation to support these children. There is not a single country in the world today that will become a high income country without developing a strong education system and to educate a child,” means that in turn, their Rt. Honourable Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education family and their community also reap the benefits.

Mr. Brown urged every government present to support the initiative; “we have to bring formal people into this correlation.” Furthermore, he appealed to companies and foundations to become sponsors and partners. To the general public, he appealed to them to consider how they can donate to charities in support of education programs under discussion at the meeting.

Mr. Brown concluded by noting that “we can be the first generation in history where every child is at school.”

H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Jabr Al Thani, Minister's Assistant for International Co- operation Affairs who attended on behalf of H.E Dr. Khalid Bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Member of the Council of Ministers, offered welcome and introductory remarks. He spoke of the importance in having such a program in Qatar and concluded that it was an integral component of the Qatar 2030 national vision. H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Jabr Al Thani, Minister's Assistant for International Co-operation Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar

3.2.2 High Level Segment, Chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser At this invitation only, round table discussion with Ministers, Heads of Agencies and CEOs, Ministers of Education were given an opportunity to briefly present their plans for providing primary education access to out of school children and the related obstacles they face.

High-level officials from international and bilateral organizations along with leaders from civil society and the private sector exchanged views on the challenges to provide educational opportunities to out of school children in EAC target countries. Participants shared ideas, insights and plans for implementation and discussed how to achieve MDG 2. At the end, participants confirmed their willingness to work together, as part of a concerted global effort, to galvanize international action in order to decrease the numbers of out of school children and to guarantee their retention in schools at a higher rate than today.

3.2.3 Signing Ceremony Several agreements and MOUs were signed during the course of the Doha meeting with a number of partners representing International Organizations, NGOS, Development Agencies and the Private Sector, which contribute to the growing momentum in support of OOSC and MDG.

Project Execution Agreements Memoranda of Understanding

• Associacao Cidade Escola Aprendiz in • The Abraaj Group conjunction with the City Department of • British Council Education, Rio de Janeiro • Credit Suisse Foundation • Exxon Mobil Foundation • Todos Pela Educação, Brazil • Mohammed S. Farsi Foundation • Qatar Airways • UNESCO, the Global Education First • Solar World & QSTEC Initiative (GEFI) • Vodafone Group Foundation

3.2.4 Benefits of Education and the Costs of OOSC, Dr. Nicholas Burnett Dr. Nicholas Burnett presented the summary of a publication that was prepared for the meeting: ‘A MORAL OBLIGATION, AN ECONOMIC PRIORITY: The urgency of enrolling out of school children.’ The EAC commissioned paper summarizes the multiple benefits of primary education and estimates the costs of not educating children.

Dr. Burnett stated that progress in reducing the “Out of school children represent an unconscionable number of OOSC has stagnated since the mid underinvestment that prevents nations from reaching 2000’s; and currently, there are 61 million OOSC. Dr. Burnett informed the audience that their full economic and social potential” geographically, OOSC are concentrated in Sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia and demographically including females, children living with disabilities, the poor and those in conflict zones.

Dr. Burnett suggested education is not only about reading, writing and arithmetic. It is a social process that contributes to the development of current and future generations; develops and applies new knowledge; serves to reinforce and/or change social and cultural norms and practices; and contributes to identity building. Thus, the benefits of education are more than economic. 6

Economic Benefits •Primary education provides the highest individual returns on investment of any level of education •Each additional year of schooling is associated with a 10-30% increase in wages •Education increases farming output by imparting general skills and inspiring innovation •Primary education has a key role to play in breaking the cycle of poverty—the risk of being poor declined from 46% to 28% for those who completed 6 years of primary education

Social Benefits •A mother’s education level plays a key role in predicting her children’s school attainment •On average, a mother’s participation in the labor market prolongs her child’s schooling by 2-3 years •Primary school enrollment rates are negatively correlated with thefts and contact crime •Schools that foster respect and equal treatment contribute to a more cohesive society

Health Benefits •A Strong negative correlation between educational attainment and fertility rates •A Strong positive correlation between educational attainment and intervals between births •Women with 7 or more years of schooling tend to marry about 5 years later than women with no education •Women’s education is strongly and significantly associated with decline in malnutrition •Education improves health literacy and health outcomes, including child survival

Political Benefits •A positive, significant relationship between primary education and democracy-related indicators •Schooling at all levels has a positive effect on political, civic, and voter participation •During conflict, schools can provide a safe haven and help children develop coping strategies •Post conflict, education can enable populations to feel that life is returning to normalcy

Psychosocial Benefits •Primary education provides the foundation for individuals to develop means of functioning, including the opening of perceptual doors and consideration of options, even if they are not acted upon •Education is an instrument of empowerment—it facilitates the acquisition of human capital which enables participation in a wide range of activities •Primary education can contribute to the development of self-concept and self-esteem, which in turn contributes to resilience and other non-cognitive skill development

Environmental Benefits •Recent research is showing a link between education and reduced vulnerability to climate shocks •Education is widely seen as a ray of hope for the global sustainability vision

In terms of cost, Dr. Burnett explained that the economic cost of todays out of school children is as much as 7% of GDP in some developing countries. He added: “research confirms that primary education has a range of strong positive impacts, increasing income potential, empowering citizens, reducing crime rates, improving public health, and breaking the cycle of poverty.” Good quality education fosters life-long learning and ensures progress to higher education. OOSC represent an even greater source of economic loss when uneducated adults (out of school children of past generations) are counted.

The technical paper was published for all meeting delegates and is on the EAC website, available at: http://www.educateachild.org.qa/reports.

Dr. Nicholas Burnett, Principal & M.D., Results for Development

3.2.5 Measuring and Understanding Exclusion from Primary Education, Dr. Mark Waltham & Mr. Albert Motivans Dr. Mark Waltham, Senior Education Advisor at UNICEF and Mr. Albert Motivans of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics demonstrated a tested methodology that identifies out of school children and related exclusion factors, and which also provides means to consider and weigh alternative inclusion responses.

The work of the Global OOSC Initiative (GOOSCI) is a joint UNICEF/UNESCO UIS undertaking, which seeks to

strengthen national data collection, analysis and policy on enrolment of OOSC.

The 3 core components of GOOSCI are:  Analysis of data: Develop comprehensive profiles of excluded children based on standardized and innovative statistical methods  Analysis of barriers: Link quantitative data with the socio-cultural barriers and resource-based bottlenecks that create exclusion  Analysis of policies: Identify policies which address exclusion from education from a multi-sector perspective

Dr. Mark Waltham, Senior Education Advisor, UNICEF

Progress to date: Between 2000 and 2005, progress in attracting and retaining OOSC was significant; numbers have since slowed. Therefore, maintaining a static year by year decline in the numbers of OOSC will prove to be considerably challenging (2011 figures will be published in June 2013).

Definitions of OOSC: OOSC at the primary level were defined within three levels: pre-primary, primary and lower secondary school students. Mr. Albert Motivans, UNESCO Institute for Statistics

1 2 3 Not in pre- Attended but Attended but primary school dropped out dropped out

Will never enter Will never enter

Will enter late Will enter late

Primary school students Lower secondary school students

Figure 1: Dimensions of OOSC.

The OOSC Initiative focuses on three questions:

Who are they? Why are they out of school? How can they be brought back and stay there?

Profiles Barriers Policy

Children living in Evidence based policies Socio-cultural (practices) remote rural Costed strategies Demand side: child areas Devolution to schools marriage, disagreement on Transparency purpose or process of Monitoring & Evaluation education (language/religious issues) Gender Home and community Awareness creation campaigns, violence combat stigmatization, initiate partnerships

Improve access to schools by building Health Economic schools in rural areas Supply side: Lack of school, teachers, books, safety, food Institute gender sensitive schools and Demand side: Often school systems Children from the is free but governments poorest families cannot always supply the gaps: cost of travel, Give social support, such as cash- uniforms, books, food transfers or remove school fees, insecurity etc.. offer scholarships and/or subsidies, school feeding, micro-suppliments

Political Commitment Remove discriminatory policies legal provision especially for minorities such as Decentalization refugees Accountability Budget allocations Creation of school polices for health and feeding

Figure 2: Barriers that keep children out of school and policies that make a difference

GOOSCI, to date has conducted studies in 26 countries across 7 regions.

GOOSCI’s future plans include the production of a guidance and operational manual, regional workshops, new studies in up to 15 countries, as well as capacity building in partner countries, support on policy development and support with implementation.

Ten country and regional reports have been published, new partnerships have been formed in more than 5 countries and policy development has taken place. Countries need evidence-based policies and cost strategies in order to advance the OOSC agenda.

3.2.6 Regional Dialogue – What will it take to make a difference? Participants were given the opportunity to discuss specific challenges from 4 regional dialogue sessions, each focusing on current and emerging challenges related to OOSC from a regional perspective.

Asia: The ever rising school age population and rapid urbanization

Moderator: Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF, Pakistan Panelist 1: Mr. Vijay Chadda, Chief Executive Officer, Bharti Foundation, India Panelist 2: Ms. Claudia Costin, Secretary of Education, City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dr. Gupta outlined the challenges associated with providing education to urbanized populations in several countries of Asia. She described the issues of poverty faced by people who live in the slums of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. She requested panelists to outline their experiences in delivering education in congested urban areas of India and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Vijay Chadda from Bharti Foundation described some good practices that are being implemented in the urban slums of India. He suggested that there is a need to alter the urban planning activities to cater to the needs of the poor and make cities more poor friendly. He noted that there is a need to effectively

utilize the existing infrastructure in order for more children to benefit from public education system.

Claudia Costin of the Rio de Janeiro Education Department outlined the challenges of gang wars and crime in the slums of Rio and how the education department is trying to address Poverty them. The Rio department is utilizing technology in an effective manner to communicate with parents and teachers on a daily Improved urban planning basis so that education delivery is a collective effort. She also activities described other community level efforts where businesses are Gang war/Crime partnering with schools to fill the resources gap in education Regular communication via and improve local schools. technology

The question and answer session focused on issues of delivering Collective effort education in urban settings. Ms. Rosemary McCarney of Plan Partnerships: International summed up the discussion: businesses/schools/ communities

“Cities everywhere must adapt to cater to the Safety safety and educational needs of young and poor boys and girls.”

East Africa: Extreme poverty within some of the region’s countries Moderator: Imran Riza, UNHCR Representative for GCC Region Panelist 1: Sally Gear, Senior Education Advisor, DFID Panelist 2: Suzie Ndaruhutse, Head of International Development and Education, CfBT

Mr. Riza noted that during the past three decades all regions of the world have made gains in enrolling and retaining more children in schools; with primary completion rate in low-income countries rising from 57 percent to 73 percent between 1991 and 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, experienced the lowest increase in primary completion rates – just 9% (from 51 to 60 percent) for that same period.

Poor and lower income households in East African countries especially, tend to face a variety of income risks. Being poor means that often, they are unable to mitigate the additional shocks to their livelihood caused by such things as natural disaster, illness, crop failure, and conflict. Not only does this affect them in the short-term, but it makes it harder, and often impossible, for them to sustain or improve their standard of living over the long term. Further, the poor often react to such external shocks by selling whatever little assets they have, migrating to new areas, and requiring that children look for food or work. Each of these situations often means children are removed from school; with girl children usually bearing the brunt of this. Within poor countries, gaps between educational attainments of the rich and poor can be staggering. In East Africa, countries such as Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and South Sudan where poverty is pervasive, less than 30 percent of the children in the poorest quintiles complete primary education. Ms. Gear discussed cash transfers, in the East African Context, as a way to provide education to poor children. There has been an exponential growth in cash transfers and as educators we need to better understand how and when they work best. In 1997, there were only 3 cash transfer programs; but now they serve over 1 billion households. She offered these initial points to consider:

Improving learning Economic barrier Sustainability outcomes

•While the idea of cash transfers is •Sustainability is another key issue as •Getting children into school is very appealing, we need to confirm cash transfer programs are often necessary and important, but it is the assumption on which they are dependent on external donor not sufficient to improving learning. based that the main barrier to financing. Cash transfers might What are we doing to improve accessing schooling by a population offer short-term solutions, but may learning outcomes? Cash transfers of children is economic. There are have negative results over the might not be the only solution. often other and multiple barriers longer term. Cost-effectiveness and and cash transfers may not be intergenerational spread of poverty effective against these. still need to be evaluated.

Ms. Gear noted that there are a lot of examples of success from Latin America. A systematic study of cash transfer programs by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) showed they have strong effects on school attendance, good evidence on the impact on enrollment, reduction in child labor, and persuasive evidence on protecting household spending on education, especially in times of crisis. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, cash transfer programs have had positive effects on access for boys and in particular for girls. There have been mixed results in terms of effects of cash transfers on learning achievement. 11

She highlighted two good examples from East Africa: Malawi: Kenya: Provided $10/month plus school fees to adolescent girls to stay or re-enroll in school, The program, which is in its early stages, aims to which resulted in: effect 3,000 households in Garissa over the next - Improvements in learning outcomes two years. UK-DFID will institute a randomized - reduction in teen marriage & teen pregnancy control trial with this program to look at the - Improvements in school-related outcomes issues of conditional versus non-conditional cash when conditions were placed upon the transfer and varying cash transfer amounts. How use of the cash much do we need to spend on cash transfer to - Non-schooling factors were not impacted have the desired impact? The project will use mobile phone technology for payments and a This experience raises the question about community-based approach for targeting of conditional versus non-conditional cash transfers beneficiaries. and when to use them.

Several participants noted the need to ensure strict control mechanisms for cash transfer programs in order to avoid fraud. The importance of involving the community in identifying potential beneficiaries and distribution was cited as a way to mitigate this. Another participant shared that sometimes money intended for orphans is taken by relatives or caregivers and never passed onto the children it is intended to reach. In closing, Ms. Gear asked participants to keep these two statistics in the forefront. According to the Global Monitoring Report: (1) 1.7 million more trained teachers will be needed by 2015; (2) 250 million children still cannot read and write, including those who have completed four years of schooling. Ms. Ndaruhutse was asked to talk about the role low cost private schools could play in East Africa and whether these schools should be required to enroll at least 10% of its students from poorer households without charging fees. She responded that in terms of equity, a 10% requirement is good, but the viability of this should be questioned. Two key factors to consider include: (1) location; and (2) cost-basis. Private schools are often located in urban areas, so they can only help address OOSC in those areas. For a low-cost private school strategy to be effective the schools need to be located where the OOSC are. The cost of this private schooling must also be based on what the constituents can afford. If you are targeting the poorest- of-the-poor, then you might not be able to recover enough fees from the fee-paying students to pay for those who cannot pay. She highlighted three good low-cost, private school programs:

Supports 25,000 children in high density urban slums in Aim is to reach 22,000 primary Gujarat and Bihar. They do not construct schools, they 1,000,000 children schools; 3/4 rent to reduce capital costs; use non-certified teachers at $4/child/month. million children. (who have completed a higher level of education than the “School-in-box” BRAC directly students) and pay at local market rates (about 1/7th or model includes targets the 1/8th the cost of certified teachers); offer continuous Teacher Training, marginalized: 63% (India) training & mentoring of teachers; adjust the timetable, curriculum. This is are girls; 3% are

location, and price point to the needs of the (Kenya) replicable through special needs; 6%

constituency. Over the 4 years of the program they have distributing (Bangladesh) from ethnic experienced only a 5% dropout rate across grades. The materials. Funding minorities. 70- model has been replicated in other urban areas; key is provided by 80% self-financed question is whether the model can be replicated in rural three venture from commercial

areas. capital firms and a BRAC enterprises from Gyan Gyan Shala The program has three sources of funding: (1) Grades 1-3 social investment the rest of the mix of public and private sector funding; (2) middle firm – profit- NGO. Is this grades fee based; (3) higher grades receive funding from making model. model corporate donors. This may be a good short or even WIll this model transferable to long-term solution but over the long-term, we need to also work in rural government ask who will be providing that public subsidy? Academies Bridge areas? schools? 12

Ms. Ndaruhutse concluded that the education being offered has to be relevant and useful to children’s lives in employment or further schooling. While addressing access we need also to address relevance and quality. We need to make sure we are using resources to their best effect and that these are being coordinated.

West and Central Africa: The provision of education to children in conflict and emergency situations Moderator: Michael Gibbons, Director of Children’s Rights Programs, Wellspring Advisors Panelist 1: Ita Sheehy, Senior Education Program Officer, UNHCR Panelist 2: Louise Mvono, Chief, Education, UNICEF/Sudan Mr. Gibbons framed the session, “We want to explore conflict as one dimension of the context of educational development. We do not want to equate conflict with Central and West Africa; they are not fundamentally intertwined. Conflict is one theme. But it is unfair to call conflict the defining characteristic of this dynamic region.”

There are other more cogent characteristics:

Continued high fertility Major political and Unique people ecology growth rates and economic transitions space – the Sahel, population growth rates Cross border, multi- underway; managing tropical rainforests, leads to continued surge lingual, and multi-ethnic large amounts of natural savannah zones; fragile of young children and communities that do not resources; extractive lands; food insecurity; the youth bulge, which directly correspond to industries and the ways relationships between pose tremendous nation-state structures that they can help or land and human challenges for hinder the inequalities in settlements educational planning and each society development

This combination of factors makes this region very volatile, dynamic, and complex; this may provide reasons why conflict is such a part of the region. These are societies on the move, rapidly changing and conflict is often a constant part of this dynamic process. Ms. Sheehy began by clarifying a misconception: most refugees do not live in camps. They live in urban and rural areas; mixed in with the host community. In West and Central Africa there are many refugee populations, some have been displaced for 15-20 years, i.e., Togolese, Mauritanians, and Chadians. There is also the current crisis in Mali with refugees migrating into Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Mvono reminded participants that there are 61 million out of school children and more than 30 million in Africa; it would be fair to say that education is an emergency all over the world and in Africa it is an acute emergency. We need to address this; crises

further exacerbate the situation. 13

Refugee children often do not get access to education for a myriad of reasons, including limited classrooms, not enough teachers, issues of dialect and language of instruction, and lack of a birth registration or legal status.

Mr. Gibbons concluded that we have a lot of work to do. We are seeking to rearrange our relationships as development partners; with government stepping forward and taking the lead and international agencies stepping back. We are trying to transform the way we think about and plan education, so that it is resilient in the face of dynamics and complexity and it is increasingly effective in delivering learning outcomes. With dialogue and partnership, we have an opportunity to work together to advance this cause.

Latin America and the Middle East: Required factors for children’s quality education

Moderator: Dr. Carol Bellamy, Chair Board of Director Global Partnership for Education Panelist 1: Dr. Guy Bessette, Senior Policy Advisor, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Panelist 2: Joshua Muskin, Program Officer Aga Khan Foundation Session moderator, Dr. Bellamy initiated discussion by describing gains in educational access in both Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) during the past two decades. She lauded the two regions in making visible improvements in educational access. She called attention to the continued educational challenges in Yemen, and some rural areas of Morocco and Egypt. She also pointed out that although the LAC region has made great progress there are still some countries where children face difficulties staying in schools due to poverty. Her questions to the two panelists were directed at how the two regions can focus on providing meaningful education to the children in terms of good quality education.

Guy Bessette from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) focused the discussion on the skills that must be provided to children so they are better able to transition from schools to the job market. He described some examples from LAC and some African countries where school curriculum sets were being adapted to provide not only literacy and numeracy skills but also solid jobs skills. Those children who have to support their families are able to do so in a more skilled manner and, at the same time, avoid employer exploitation.

Dr. Joshua Muskin elaborated on the value of nutrition and learning. He said that unless children are better nourished adequate learning cannot take place in schools. He described the experiences of the Aga Khan Foundation in terms of breakfast and lunch programs in schools that help in improving learning with children. 14

Figure 3: UNESCO & Brooking Institute Learning Metrics Task Force, February 2013 Dr. Muskin also discussed the 7 domains of learning that were recently released by UNESCO and The Brookings Institution. He said that while these domains are elaborate and necessary, ensuring their universal application would require concerted efforts at all levels, including proper development of student assessment techniques.

Dr. Muskin suggested governments must take the lead in delivering education in all situations, including crisis and education for refugees. Participants agreed that cities need to adapt and cater to the educational and safety needs of poor boys and girls. Education is not only about literacy and numeracy, but also social and emotional needs of children. Reducing the economic cost of education for parents is important, but ensuring inclusive and good quality education is essential to reduce the number of OOSC.

3.3 Tuesday 30th April

3.3.1 Building on Success, Dr. Audrey Moore The session “Measuring and Understanding What Works”, Dr. Audrey-marie Shuh Moore, Research and Evaluation Technical Advisor, FHI 360, spoke about finding, sharing and expanding what works. Dr. Moore focused on the EAC monitoring and evaluation plan. EAC will measure attainment of targets and contribute to the knowledge base as lessons are learned. This will enable EAC to:

Advocate for OOSC Increase funding Form new partnerships

National and Increase funding Advocate for international for reaching OOSC issues partners expand programming to OOSC enroll and retain OOSC

Build Build Knowledgebase partnerships Increased enrollment and retention of OOSC

FIGURE 4: EAC Theory of Change

The EAC approach to M&E includes 2 types of evaluation:

EAC Monitoring and Evaluation Developmental Theory driven Supports innovation Theoretical issues Flexible design Causation Multi-method Links intervention to outcomes

Dr. Moore listed the types of evaluation questions underpinning the EAC M&E plan. • To what extent does EAC contribute to increased enrollment, retention, learning of OOSC? • To what extent are enrollment, retention and learning data credible? Valid? Reliable? • Is EAC an effective mechanism to reduce OOSCs? • Are lessons learned utilized for improved programming for OOSC?

Dr. Moore noted that “this is a multi-country, multi-level evaluation with major challenges. We need indicators of program achievement as well as school and classroom level data, and how the communities perceive the value of keeping their children in school. The projects in-country are implementing their own M&E plans and are monitoring teachers and students at the classroom level, which they report to EAC. We are collecting the aggregate data of EAC projects around the world, and when data show interesting anomalies EAC will conduct qualitative case study investigations.” Dr. Audrey-marie Shuh Moore, Research and Evaluation Technical Advisor, FHI 360 It was highlighted that in combining all pieces of the M&E approach, EAC together with its partners can improve enrollment, retention and quality of education for OOSC.

3.3.2 Mobilizing Resources for Education, Dr. Tidu Maini Dr. Tidu Maini, Executive Committee member of Qatar Foundation Endowment and EAC Special Envoy, addressed the role of the private sector in mobilizing resources for out of school children and introduced selected examples from sectors other than education.

Panel Members included: Jim Jones, Manager, Community Investment Programs, Exxon Mobil Corporation Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways Aladdin Hangari, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Credit Suisse Qatar Manuel Rybach, Managing Director, Credit Suisse Foundation Frederic Sicre, Managing 16 Director, The Abraaj Group

The potential roles and contributions of partnerships among the private sector were addressed during this session on resource mobilization for education. The panel discussion focused on the interest and reach of the private sector, the range of potential contributions that it can bring, and the power of refocusing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs on primary education and children who are out of school.

3.3.3 Partners’ Market Place for Ideas EAC organized the Market Place for Ideas in cooperation with eight of EAC current partners and sixteen prospective partners. The Market Place aimed to highlight and promote new ideas and program mechanisms that are meeting the challenges posed by barriers hindering the education of out of school children in various regions and countries. The Market Place was organized to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, promote cutting-edge projects, and advance the agenda of creating innovative approaches to reach and serve out of school children.

The Market Place brought together education practitioners, NGOs, donors, private sector representatives, social enterprises and policy makers who exchanged their experiences and ideas.

The Market Place generated excellent intensity that will contribute efforts to develop, scale up and support high impact programs, innovative financing and resource mobilization models, and new collaborations and partnerships to accelerate and deliver better results for out of school children.

Mr. Nathaniel Fields, the Director of Field Operations of the Education Above All (EAA) foundation, highlighted the four major areas of focus: children living in rural and remote areas; children living in urban slums, girl children and children in displaced situations. Seven ongoing EAC projects were highlighted.

Safique ul Islam, Director of BRAC Education program from Bangladesh said, “Access to rural areas is the most challenging factor as more than six months most of the places are flooded. Conventional methods of education do not work here and we are using boat schools to reach the children in these places,” he said. The boats go to every house and collect up to 30 children per boat children and conduct classes on board. At present there are 200 boat schools in Bangladesh and around 18,750 children taught through this system. Mr. Dean Brooks, representing the Norwegian Refugee Council project in Côte d’Ivoire. NRC is working in the remote northwestern border region of the country with primarily internally displaced people (IDP). So far 57 schools and 122 classrooms have been constructed, 122 teachers have been trained and 3823 children enrolled. He said that their accelerated learning program provided the last chance for most of their over aged students to have an education and that small class sizes are essential.

Dr. Ehsanur Rahman of the Dhaka Ahsania Mission in Bangladesh discussed the necessity of flexibility in timing and the school calendar, as well as in the learning process, by having multi-grade classrooms. He explained that fast learners are able to proceed quicker through the courses and can help those that are not as fast. He also stated that there was an urgent need for continuation after the children have completed the full course of primary education as there is a high transition loss. 17

Ms. Khyatti Bhatt from Gyan Shala in India highlighted the efforts of her organization in providing high quality education to the students of urban slums in different parts of India. She said that around 38,000 children at 1,350 centers in four states of the country were learning under the Gyan Shala model, which is on par with some of the best private schools in the country. She pointed out that the program was very cost-effective as it charged only $60 annually for the elementary classes including all the study materials and $80 for the middle level classes. Ms. Mercy Musomi from the Girl Child Network (GCN) in Kenya talked about the negative cultural practices of marginalized communities. She stated how important it was to sensitize and educate the community. As an example of the negative challenges she faced, she cited the taboo in the community to build latrines and how it was overcome. Ms. Safeena Husain, the Executive Director of Educate Girls from India explained the plight of girl children in “In some parts of the country 68% of girls different areas of the country and the region. Ms. Husain are married off before they complete their observed that India had the largest number of out of school primary education. Some of the girls get girl children. There were significant improvements with more than 50,000 girls being enrolled in school through the married even before the age of 10. Child Educate Girls organization. They use a comprehensive marriage, low status of women and caste model to create all-community ownership. Educate Girls system are the major factors of the plight of uses an “army” of 3,500 volunteer girls who go into the the girls in the country.” communities to combat cultural issues. They support systemic change by talking to parents, community members and the girls who are not going to school, convincing them Ms. Safeena Husain Executive Director of Educate Girls, India of the importance of an education.

Ms. Ita Sheehy of UNHCR talked about education and durable solutions for refugee children. This can be accomplished by determining and defending the legal status of refugees in the host communities and by integrating these children into the host country education network. With EAC help, UNHCR is educating 176,000 children in 14 refugee camps from Uganda to Malaysia. Their schools are comprehensive and focus on conflict-sensitive education.

The Market Place has generated a wealth of ideas and opportunities for utilizing new and more innovative approaches for reaching out of school children. Equally important, many opportunities for creating new partnerships between existing and prospective EAC partners, as well as with traditional and new donors are emerging. These two major outcomes will catalyze benefits for a significant

number of out of school children. 18

4 CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary and closing, Mohammed Al Naimi, Executive Committee Member, Education Above All Foundation and Mary Joy Pigozzi, PhD, Director, Educate A Child

Shiulie Ghosh returned as moderator for a summary of the meeting with

Mohammed and Mary.

Research clearly indicates that students world-wide who complete primary education will earn more in their lifetime, have better health and nutrition, and are more likely to send their own children to school. Furthermore, the real economic costs of OOSC to individuals, countries and the global community in relation to the benefits of Shiulie Ghosh: Moderator, Mohammed Al Naimi, Mary Joy Piozzi, PhD. primary education were presented and discussed. Research findings indicated that the economic cost of OOSC is as much as 7% of GDP in some developing countries which is a heavy burden for the economy. The significance of these findings needs to be understood and disseminated more widely.

Participants were informed of agreements and MOUs signed during the Doha meeting with a number of partners representing International Organizations, NGOS and the Private Sector, which contribute to the growing momentum in support of OOSC and MDG 2.

Over the day and a half meeting, all participants had the chance to discuss how to move forward. Two over- riding conclusions were the need to accelerate action and the need to work collaboratively across society; from the individual to communities, the private sector and governments. There was a call for more involvement and leadership from governments towards the OOSC cause. A range of issues were highlighted as important and substantial. Benefits of education do not only correlate to learned skills, there are many additional gains such as: transfer of learning to families and communities; decrease in child labor; less vulnerability to climate variability; increasingly cohesive societies; decline in malnutrition; and improvements in health including child survival.

Overall quality of primary education is an important factor in educating OOSC. A variety of interesting topics were discussed ranging from cash transfer programs and educational loans to the relevance of topics taught in the classroom, utilizing tried and tested methods rather than “reinventing the wheel” and, measuring and evaluating quality of education.

EAC, a new program launched in November 2012, is currently supporting 29 projects in 17 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It is reaching, with its partners, more than 500,000 OOSC. By identifying additional priority countries, EAC will be targeting those countries that, together, are home to approximately 70% of the world’s OOSC. Focusing on these and other committed countries and working through partnerships with different types of organizations, EAC’s commitment to significantly reduce globally the millions of primary-aged children out of school by the end of 2015 and beyond will be realized.

Participants renewed their support for primary education, and confirmed their intention to decrease the number of OOSC through concerted action, knowledge sharing, transfer of successful experiences, and the allocation of material and financial resources to accelerate efforts aimed at inclusion. EAC’s progress will be reported at the next WISE international conference in Doha, October 2013.

Participants suggested that recommendations from this meeting be taken forward from Doha to the High- Level Event of the Global Education First Initiative during the United Nations General Assembly [New York, September 2013], the G-20 summit [Saint Petersburg, September 2013], and the 2013 Global EFA Meeting [Paris, November 2013] to further galvanize international attention to ensure that education of out of school children is prioritized on the political agenda.