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Education and Skills for Employment in Central and West Asia: Technical

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Education and Skills for Employment in Central and West Asia: Technical Completion Report Project Number: 47312-001 Technical Assistance Number: 8774 August 2018 Education and Skills for Employment in Central and West Asia This document is being disclosed to the public in accordance with ADB’s Public Communications Policy 2011. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. TA Number, Country, and Name: Amount Approved: $1,000,000.00 TA 8774-REG: Education and Skills for Employment in Central Revised Amount: Not Applicable and West Asia Executing Agency: Source of Funding: Amount Undisbursed: Amount Utilized: Asian Development Bank Japan Fund for Poverty $150,525.27 $849,474.73 Reduction TA Approval TA Signing Fielding of First TA Completion Date Date: Date: Consultant: Original:28 Feb 2017 Actual: 28 Feb 2018 3 Dec 2014 3 Dec 2014 15 Feb 2015 Account Closing Date Original:28 Feb 2017 Actual: 31 July 2018 Description In the past two decades, countries in Central and West Asia (CWA) have carried out reforms of their education and skills development systems. However, despite the achievements, challenges remain with modernizing education and skills to meet current and future labor market demand and improve economic competitiveness. Realizing the challenges they face, the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan requested the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide the captioned regional technical assistance (TA) to support education sector assessment and help build capacity for planning reforms in education and skills development. The TA was designed to address specific needs of the three countries as well as to address CWA regional level collaboration and knowledge sharing needs. Expected Impact, Outcome, and Outputs The TA’s expected impact is improved education and skills development systems aligned to employment requirements in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The expected outcome was increased knowledge and capacity of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan to adopt appropriate policies and investments for education and skills development. The TA design included two expected outputs: (i) thematic analytical studies and knowledge products; and (ii) capacity building for education policy makers. The formulation of the TA scope and activities is considered appropriate and having adequate flexibility for responding to needs of the three countries. The focus, scope, terms of reference, and schedule for the consultancies were finalized in close consultation with the three countries. Delivery of Inputs and Conduct of Activities The responsiveness of the TA implementation created a strong demand for further technical support in the three countries. Savings in some line items and contingencies in the TA budget were utilized, where necessary, to finance the further support, and TA completion date was extended twice: first to 31 August 2017 and thereafter to 28 February 2018. The TA design included indicative technical areas for which individual consultants were provided. A total of 14 international consultants (30.82 person-months) and 5 national consultants (8.41 person-months) was provided.a The unspecified pool of consultants facilitated engagement of additional international consultants that were identified as implementation progressed. The performance of the consultants and resource persons was satisfactory as they produced quality outputs which was relevant to the objectives of their assignments and thus contributed to the achievement of the TA outputs. Evaluation of Outputs and Achievement of Outcome The TA significantly exceeded the performance targets indicated in the TA’s design and monitoring framework for the two outputs. Under the first output, eleven assignments were carried out (five in Azerbaijan, four in Armenia, and two in Uzbekistan) with technical outputs, such as study reports, technical manuals and guides. Some assignments resulted to more than one written output. The coverage of the assignments ranged from policy and strategy analysis and recommendations to technical guidance for implementation planning in the sector. These included in Azerbaijan a comprehensive assessment of the needs and readiness to shift to a K-12 education system; design of a financial model for the K-12 system; comprehensive assessment of reform needs in technical and vocational education and training (TVET); a study on skills development for green economy; and a design of a public-private partnership model for construction and maintenance of student dormitories at universities. In Armenia, the TA carried out comprehensive assessments of teacher education system, governance and management of schools, and education sector financial planning and budgeting, and formulated policy and operational recommendations for reform in these areas. In addition, technical inputs and guidance were provided to the preparation of a new long-term State Program for Education Development that covers all subsectors of education. In Uzbekistan, the TA helped develop skills technical manuals, 2 teaching guides, and learning materials for TVET institutions to improve graduates’ skills competencies. The TA also prepared a study on labor market evolution in the country and models for collaboration and partnerships between secondary schools, higher education institutions, and industries in the country.b Under the second output, a total of sixteen capacity development programs/events were implemented. This included two CWA regional forums and fourteen in-country seminars and workshops. The first regional forum was held in May 2015 in Azerbaijan and the second forum in July 2017 in the Kyrgyz Republic.c The total combined number of participants of the forums was about 150. This included education sector leaders, policy makers, practitioners, and private sector representatives from CWA countries. In addition, international and CWA regional experts were invited to the forums to share their knowledge on education reforms and best practice. The in-country workshops were conducted in Azerbaijan (3), Armenia (4) and Uzbekistan (7), for a total combined number of approximately 300 participants.d. All forum materials, including banners, reports and presentation materials, had the logos of both JFPR and the Government of Japan and key events were opened by representatives of the Government of Japan. The TA very well contributed to achieving the outcome. The knowledge and capacity of line ministries and stakeholders in the three countries was evidently increased to adopt appropriate policies and investments in education and skills development in specific reform focus areas prioritized by the three countries.e Overall Assessment and Rating The TA is rated highly successful. In the three countries, through its outputs the TA helped generate awareness and knowledge about strategies, options, and operational solutions in priority reform areas and supported related in-country capacity building efforts. Through the regional forums, the TA supported awareness building, professional networking, and knowledge sharing, at CWA regional level and beyond at international level, from which the three countries benefit, together with many other CWA countries that participated in the forums. Major Lessons The flexibility built in the TA design, facilitated through the allocation for unspecified pool of consultants, was important. It also was important for the ADB to carry out regularly TA review missions to assess progress of implementation and to explore, in close consultation with respective line ministries and other stakeholders, emerging needs for further technical support to be financed from the pool allocation in the TA budget. Thus, it was possible to maintain a strong demand-driven implementation approach throughout the TA period. Extension of TA period also was important to continue to respond to the demand by utilizing emerging savings in the TA budget. On one hand, the TA scope enabled the selected three individual countries to focus on their specific education and skills reform needs, learn from international best practice and consider options for the way forward in their country context. On the other hand, the TA scope also enabled CWA region level knowledge sharing and collaboration between the three countries and other CWA countries that are former Soviet Republics. The countries share the same legacy and similar challenges in developing education and skills. However, some of them have pursued more proactively reforms in this field than others, yet not always with good success. The regional level forums under the TA facilitated knowledge sharing on the successes and less successful reform efforts among countries with similar legacy, and also helped the countries to jointly assess lessons and solutions from international best practice. Recommendations and Follow-Up Actions Given the visibility and technical value the TA has created, the TA outputs also can serve as useful reference for ADB’s dialogue with the governments in the three countries on possible loan pipeline in the education sector. In Azerbaijan, the TA outputs have already been well utilized in 2018 for CPS preparation process. The outputs can also inform ensuing loan project design and preparation, e.g. in Armenia, in 2017 the preparation of ADB concept paper for loan financed support to education reform much drew on outputs
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