USAID MALI SELECTIVE INTEGRATED READING ACTIVITY (SIRA) Annual Report October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 Submission Date: October 30, 2020 Contract Number: AID-688-TO-16-0005 under IDIQC No. AID-OAA-I-14-00053 Activity Start Date and End Date: 02/08/2016 to 02/07/2021 COR: Binta Bocoum Submitted by: Suzanne Reier, Chief of Party Adwoa Atta-Krah, Project Director Emails: [email protected]/ [email protected] Education Development Center Rue 209, Porte 45 Hamdallaye ACI 2000, Bamako Tel: (223) 2029 0018 Disclaimer: This report is made possible by the support of the American People jointly through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) andJuly the 2008Government of Mali. The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and 1its subcontractors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. 1. PROGRAM OVERVIEW/SUMMARY USAID Mali/SIRA (Selective Integrated Reading Activity) Program Name: Activity Start Date and End February 8, 2016 to July 30, 2021 Date: Name of Prime Education Development Center Implementing Partner: [Contract/Agreement] AID-688-TO-16-0005 under IDIQC No. AID-OAA-I-14-00053 Number: Œuvre Malienne d’Aide à l’Enfance du Sahel (OMAES), Save the Children, Name of Subcontractors School to School International, Cowater Sogema Total Estimated Cost $50,238,568 Major Counterpart Ministry of National Education (MEN) Organizations Mali: Administrative regions of Koulikoro, Ségou, Sikasso and the District Geographic Coverage of Bamako (cities and or countries) October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020 Reporting Period: October 30, 2020 2 1.1. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Program Overview/Summary ................................................................................................ 2 1.1. Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... 3 1.2. List of Acronyms ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.3. Executive Summary- ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9 1.5. Overview/Background and Objectives ................................................................................ 9 2. Activities Update by IR and Sub IR ..................................................................................... 10 2.1. Planned Activities for this Reporting period by IR and Sub-IR ....................................... 24 2.2. Activities Achieved during this Reporting Period .............................................................. 24 3. Actions to be taken for Activities Planned but not Achieved ..................................... 24 4. Challenges/Difficulties Encountered ................................................................................. 50 5. ReSilience ................................................................................................................................. 52 6. Cross-cutting Issues ............................................................................................................... 54 7. Policy and Governance Support.......................................................................................... 57 8. Collaboration, Partnerships, communications/Events .................................................... 58 9. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning .................................................................................. 61 10. Management/Staffing .............................................................................................................. 73 11. Risk Management and Security ............................................................................................ 76 12. Planned Activities/Events for Next Quarter .................................................................... 78 13. Annexes .................................................................................................................................... 78 October 30, 2020 3 1.2. LIST OF ACRONYMS AE Académie d’Enseignement (Regional Education Office) AME Associations Mères/Elèves (Associations of Mothers of Students) AV Associations Villageoises (Village Associations) CADDE Cellule d’appui à la déconcentration et décentralisation de l’éducation (Unit to Support Decentralized Education) CAM Communautés d’apprentissage des Maîtres (Teacher Learning Communities) CAP Centre d’Animation Pédagogique (District Education Office) CBO Community Based Organizations (Organisations Communautaires de Base) CDA Community Development Agent (Agent de Développement Communautaire) CF Community Facilitators CGS Comité de Gestion Scolaire (School Management Committee) CP Conseiller Pédagogique (Pedagogical Counselor) CPS Cellule de Planification et de Statistiques (Planning and Statistic Office) CRPC Regional Coordinator of Community Participation CV Community Volunteers DAE Directeur de l’Académie de l’Enseignement (Director - Regional Education Office) DCAP Directeur du Centre d’Animation Pédagogique (Director - District Education Office) DNEF Direction Nationale de l’Enseignement Fondamental (National Directorate of Fundamental Education) DNEN Direction Nationale de l’Enseignement Normal (National Directorate of Teacher Education) DNP Direction Nationale de la Pédagogie (National Directorate of Pedagogy) EDC Education Development Center EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment IDIQC Indefinite Deliverable/ Indefinite Quantity Contract IRI/IAI Interactive Radio Instruction/Interactive Audio Instruction IEP Institut pour l’Education Populaire (Institute for Popular Education) IR Intermediate Result (Résultat Intermédiaire) MEN Ministère de l’Education Nationale (Ministry of National Education) M&E Monitoring and Evaluation OMAES Œuvre Malienne d’Aide à l’Enfance du Sahel (Malian Works to Support Children in the Sahel) SBCCC Social Behavior Change Communication Campaign SC Save the Children SIG-FC Système Intégré de Gestion de la Formation Continue (Integrated System for Managing In service Training) SIRA Selective Integrated Reading Activity SMC School Management Committee STS School to School International USAID United States Agency for International Development October 30, 2020 4 1.3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY- Education Development Center (EDC) and its implementing partners, Oeuvre Malienne d’Aide à l’Enfance du Sahel (OMAES), Save the Children, School to School International and Cowater Sogema are pleased to submit this annual report for the period covering October 2019 through September 2020. The year began very hopeful, leaving behind the prior year’s 5 months of teacher strikes. Start-up monitoring visits showed an enthusiastic team of school directors, teachers and students, as well as community organizations and parents who were all ready to support their children’s early education. Starting in mid-December however, teachers went on strike again and public schools, as well as some community schools, closed. Although SIRA’s school-centered activities such as trainings and classroom visits and monitoring, had to be suspended, its community activities continued during this period of strikes. In March 2020, COVID-19 hit Mali. Almost all activities across the project’s three components (pedagogical, institutional and community participation) were suspended and only resumed starting in August. Given the sudden school closures, restrictions regarding face to face meetings and the need to social distance and respect other safety protocol, it was not possible to proceed with school-centered activities such as trainings and classroom visits and monitoring. The pedagogy component continued to offer support to the MEN for high level discussions and planning while at the same time providing continued learning for our students through interactive radio instruction (IRI) lessons developed by EDC under the USAID Mali PHARE project. The institutional component continued to make inroads with the SIG-FC, managing to update teacher data for the database to be ready to use. School to School International (STS) continued to plan for the last EGRA training and data collection and discussed with partners, their potential collaboration for this next phase of EGRA which would help to ensure sustainability of the process. Although the community participation component significantly cut back activities, continued book lending took place where Yeelenkɛnɛ exist, community volunteers and facilitators phoned parents when possible to monitor their continued support to children, Community Development Agents (CDA) monitored sustainability plan development by phone and the broadcasting of radio spots continued. In addition, broadcasting of Social Behavior Communications Campaign messages that emphasized the importance of early grade reading and equity in terms of boys’ and girls’ access to education, continued. Just as activities were starting up again in August after months of suspension, Mali suffered from political unrest which ultimately led to the resignation in August of President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita and also caused additional interruptions to project implementation. USAID’s external “mid-term” evaluation of SIRA which was carried out by the Mitchell Group and Ed Intersect, was finalized on May 21, 2020. October 30,