Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) Operations and Monitoring Support Team (OMST)

Annual Progress Monitoring Report

Reporting Period: January-December 2018 Reporting Date: 16 January 2019

Submitted By: Operation and Monitoring Support Team

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Contents Acronyms ...... iii A. Executive Summary ...... 1 B) Component One Activities: ...... 3 Theme1.1: Increasing Access to Priority Degree Program for Economic Development ...... 3 Theme1.2: Modernizing and Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning ...... 4 Theme 1.2.2: Information and Communications Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning ...... 7 Theme1.3: Improving the Qualification and Skills of Academic and Technical Staff Members ...... 8 Theme 1.4: Strengthening Governance, Quality Assurance and Accreditation ...... 9 Theme 1.5: Stimulating Development Oriented Research (DLI) ...... 13 C) Component Two: Program Operations and Technical Support ...... 14 Social and Environmental Safeguard ...... 14 Physical Infrastructure Projects ...... 15 Communication ...... 16 Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 17 Internal Audit ...... 17 Financial Management: ...... 17 D) Challenges and Recommendations ...... 18 Annex A: Intermediate Outcome Indicators Status for 2018 based on the revised PIM ...... 20

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Acronyms ANASTU National Agriculture Science and Technology University ARTF Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund DLI Disbursement Linked Indicator ESMF Environmental and Social Management Framework HEDP Higher Education Development Project ICT Information and Communication Technology IQA Internal Quality Assurance IQAU Internal Quality Assurance Unit IT Information Technology KMU’s Medical University QAA Quality Assurance and Accreditation KPU Kabul Polytechnic University M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MoHE Ministry of Higher Education MoU Memorandum of Understanding NEPA National Environmental Protection Agency OBE Outcome Based Education OMST Operation Monitoring and Support Team QAAD Quality Assurance and Accreditation Directorate SAO Supreme Audit Office SCL Student-Centered Learning SIDP Strategic Institutional Development Plan SZU (Khost) WB World Bank

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A. Executive Summary

This annual report presents the latest progress of the higher education development program. The program, by the closing of year 2018, achieved all its PDO and intermediate level targets (except short term technical and leadership trainings). Starting from the enrollment in priority degree programs, the program has achieved 2018 PDO target which was to increase the enrollment in priory disciplines into 78,500 in public universities, while the current data stands at 81,984. In addition, on the DLI I, the program should have increased the first year female enrollment into 5,000 in priority disciplines by 2018, where we have 5,348 female first year enrollment in public universities in 2018. In respect to the access of female students to adequate residential facilities on university campuses, the program should have provided the facilities for 3,750 female students, while this figure currently stands at 4,405. During the second half of 2018, the disadvantaged scholarships for female students have been expanded from 100 to 150. was included to the list of KMU and KPU for awarding these scholarships. The first round of 2,500 AFs stipends were distributed starting from the month of September 2019 in two universities (KMU, KPU) and the stipend distribution of Balkh is in process. In FY 2019, the disadvantaged female scholarships will be expanded into six universities (four KUs, along with and Mazar universities). As a measure to promote female enrolment in public universities, the program established two child care centers in Kabul and Kabul medical universities in 2018, while the centers will be expanded into Bamyan and Takhar universities by 2019. The physical work of these two centers is in progress by now and near to completion. In addition, Seven lavatories for female students in Badakhshan, Jawzjan, Takhar, SZU, Parwan, Al- Bironi and Nangarhar universities were established and the contracts of establishing two more lavatories in Ghazni and Paktiya universities have been awarded in late 2018, the physical work has been started. The program has established counselling center in KEU, and the physical work of counselling centers of KU, Balkh and Bamyan Universities has been started and would be completed by end of January 2019.

The program has had tremendous progress in the field of OBE-SCL. During the 2018, The OBE and SCL workshops have been conducted in more than 20 universities. The OBE and SCL trainees have been increased from 707 in 2017 into 1,247 in 2018. The target of 2018 has been achieved and exceeded into some extent. According to the project documents, at least 500 academic staff must be trained in and practice OBE-SCL. The program has trained 1,246 academic staff by now with the composition of 1,139 male and 107 female academic staff at 24 public universities and more than 10 Higher Education Institutes. The program conducted the verification survey of OBE and SCL practices in late 2018. The findings based on the analyzed data indicates that 96% of the sample size practice both OBE and SCL. This as a result show that in a broader sense, 1200 faculty staff are trained in and also practice OBE-SCL out of the total trained 1246 faculty staff. On the PDCs the update is that nine PDCs have been established and completed, and the specification and infrastructure document and package of establishing three more PDCs at Bamyan, Alberoni and Universities were completed and shared with MoHE relevant directorates for further process. The program organized and led the Advanced ToT OBE-SCL Certification Workshop for 22 Afghan faculty staff at the University of Technology Malaysia during in early 2018. The current number of available and active OBE-SCL master trainers is 56. In respect to the ICTs, the update is that that seven ICT center in (Shahid Rabani, Khost, Ghazni, Paktya, Kunar, Takhar and Faryab) universities have been completed and recently the ICT center of Said Jamaluddin Afghan (Kunar) has been inaugurated, the ICT Center of Khost University will be inaugurated soon. The program has achieved the DLI target on ICT. Two ICTs (Ghaznai and Faryab) have been reported as functional. The program has started on establishing three additional ICT centers in Bamyan, Kabul Polytechnic and Kabul Medical universities and two IT centers in Baghlan and Alberoni Universities to achieve the intermediate outcome indicator target of 2020 which is 12 ICTs to be established and functional by 2020. In addition, the program has trained 21 ICT technicians during 2018. During the year 2018, the program has increased the number of awarded scholarships from 209 in 2017 into 336 in 2018. Furthermore, the number of scholars returned back after the completion of their courses

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 1 has been increased from 0 in 2017 into 70 in 2018. Out of 127 scholarships awarded in 2018, 106 candidates (76 male and 30 female) have been placed in their universities and have started the courses, while the others are still awaiting for issuance their visas and other clearance. The target on scholarships indicator (300 scholarships to be awarded by December 2018) has been achieved. The current status stands at 336 out of this 35% scholarships have been awarded to female. For this theme, the PDO level indicator of the program is to Increase the numbers of full time academic staff with at least a Master’s degree in priority degree programs to 12,00 by 2018. The information on this indicator by end of December 2018 stands at 1952 academic staff in priority disciplines with 1692 male and 260 female. For the short term technical trainings, there has been no progress made in 2018. However, the program is behind the plan for this task, the target of 2016, 2017 and 2018 which is 100, 200 and 200 respectively, have not been achieved so far. There is still a deep confusion in terms of the nature of technical trainings. The program needs to coordinate with the World Bank to define this theme and come to a consensus on the realistic target and the way forward to carry out the short terms trainings.

The program has achieved 2018 target on IQAUs. Seven IQAUs have been established and are functional based on the score card criteria, while the target was to establish four IQAUs by 2018. HEDP will establish nine more IQAUs by 2019, the specification has been developed and the procurement package is ready to be announced. Regarding external per review, the QAAD and HEDP have externally reviewed 10 public and 13 private universities. Since its establishment, QAAD had never been assessed by an external qualified agency to outline its strengths and weaknesses for improvement of its operations and systems. MoHE/HEDP has selected UNESCO to undertake this assignment. The UNESCO will start working on this in the early 2019. During the reporting period, 13 universities with the composition of 10 public and 3 private, conducted their SIDPs to the leadership of MoHE. Out of these 10, the SIDPs of nine universities were approved. In addition, 6 universities issued their APRs, by having this, the target of 2018 on SIDPs and APRs have been achieved. In 2018, the program has awarded 38 research projects with the composition of 15 group researches and 24 individual researches. The number of awarded research projects have been increased from 60 in 2017 into 98 in 2018. The same there has been increase in the completed research projects in 2018, which stands at 53, while this was 35 in 2017.

The overall budget execution rate as of the fiscal year 2018 stands at 94.5% with 95% of component I and 91.5% of component II, which seems a high percentage of budget execution. The budget execution rate at 2017 was 77.5%. Out of the total program budget (55 Million), the execution rate up to now stands at 49.7%. However, in 2018 there was low balance in the smooth budget execution. During the first half of 2018, the budget execution rate was approximately at 30%, while in in the second half, the budget execution rate had a raising graph, which creates the load of work, delay in payments in various themes and complaints received from the scholars and infrastructure vendors. As a lessons learned, the program can develop a good financial management plan and has a strict follow up with MoHE, MoF and the vendors to proceed the payments on time. The program was challenged by the delay happened in the procuring TPV agency to conduct the verification of 2018 DLIs. According to the program documents, the TPV must present its report by end of February each year, while in 2018, the TPV conducted their verification during July and September 2018, while their final report was submitted during the very end of fiscal year 2018. This delay in TPV report, in consequence made the program run out of the budget. The release of fund from the World Bank happened where only few days of the fiscal year remained. The program needs to procure the TPV agency early 2019. If it happens to be procured later than the planned timing, the release of DLI budget planned for 2019 will in consequence be proceed later, where the program will suffer the shortage of budget accordingly. There was a huge delay in the payments of HEDP scholars who are pursuing their master courses abroad the country. The scholars repeatedly sent emails and complains to the MoHE and HEDP, where some of them have posted some of the complaints in the social media too. The program should make a mitigating plan for the next year to have on time payments for the scholars.

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B) Component One Activities: Theme1.1: Increasing Access to Priority Degree Program for Economic Development The objective of this theme is to expand the student’s enrollment in priority degree program in public universities. In 2018, the number of reserved seats in priority disciplines for female students has expanded from 4,670 in 2017 to 4,962 seats, along with the inclusion of Paktya University. The program in 2018 intended to increase the female enrollment in priority degree programs from 4,500 in 2017 to 5,000 in 2018 (DLI Target) and the total enrollment from 68,000 (Males: 55,000 Females: 13,000) in 2017 to 78,500 (Males: 64,000 and Females: 14,500) in 2018 (PDO Indicator target) through variety of interventions and initiatives. The targets set for 2017 were achieved by December 2017 and exceeded into some extent (79,479 students were enrolled in priority disciplines), and with the new data released by planning directorate of MoHE in November 2018, the targets of 2018 have as well been achieved. The current enrolment data stands at 81,984 with the composition of 16,935 female and 65,049 male. The data further shows that 5,348 females have been enrolled in the first year in priority degree programs in public universities. Having this, the 2019 DLI target, which states that 5,000 females should be enrolled in priority disciplines by December 2018, have been achieved by the program. The data on this theme is collected and analyzed on annual basis after Kankor exam is conducted, and the data have been collected by planning and policy directorate of MoHE from the public universities. Table 1: Comparison of 2017 and 2018 Students Enrollment in Higher Education at Public Universities

2017 2018 Indicators Female Male Total Female Male Total Total Enrollment in Priority 15,095 64,384 79,479 16,935 65,049 81,984 Disciplines (Project Development Indicator) 13,000 55,000 68,000 14,500 64,000 78,500 First Year Enrollment in 4,748 5,348 Priority Disciplines 19,002 23,750 18,861 24,209 (Intermediate Outcome Indicator, 4,500 5,000 DLI I) First Year Total Enrollment in 13,215 35,446 48,661 14,566 35,487 49,955 All Disciplines Total Enrollment in All 42,646 124,614 167,260 46,505 123,888 170,393 Disciplines *Note: The figures highlighted in yellow color is the target values, while the figures in black are the actual values. The figures in bold text are the DLIs target values. The cells where targets values are not placed, are not project indicators. The enrollment data is based on the last priority disciplines list stipulated in PIM. The table 1 shows that there is a rise of 2505 in the enrollment in 2018 comparing to 2017. The table further outlines that the increase in male enrollment is less comparing to the female enrollment number, which might be the result of increasing in the number of seats reserved for female in priority degree programs. In 2018, the number of reserved seats in priority disciplines for female students has expanded from 4670 in 2017 into 4962, along with the inclusion of Paktya University. The table further shows that there has been significant increase in both first year total enrollment in all disciplines and total enrollment in all disciplines. In 2017, there were 48,661 students enrolled in the first year in all disciplines, while this number has increased into 49,955 students. The same, in 2017 total enrollment number in all disciplines was 167,260, which has increased into 170,393 in 2018. If we compare gender segregation, it is apparent that in both priority and none priority disciplines, the increase in number of female students is higher than male. In respect to the access of female students to adequate residential facilities at university campuses, the program should have provided the facilities for 3,750 female students, while this figure currently stands at 4,405.

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In 2018, the MoHE initiated the process of awarding disadvantaged scholarships to the female students with the disadvantaged background in order to retain the targeted female students in higher education. The scholarships were distributed in two universities (KMU and KPU) as a pilot with the intention of expansion into four more public universities. During the reporting period, an action plan for finalizing the scholarships awarding process was prepared by OSMT and shared with each committee established. The committees were established in each of the above universities and reviewed all the applications, and based on the set criteria, they prepared a list of 100 students, 50 for each university. During the second half of 2018, the scholarships have been expanded from 100 to 150. Balkh University was included to the list of KMU and KPU for awarding these scholarships. The first round of 2,500 AFs stipends were distributed starting from the month of September 2019 in two universities (KMU, KPU) and the stipend distribution of Balkh is in process. In FY2019, the disadvantaged female scholarships will be expanded into six universities (four KUs, along with Herat and Mazar universities). HEDP conducted the orientation programs for the first year enrolled students in three universities in 2017. These three universities are Balkh, Herat and Jawzjan. During the 2018, MoHE took the lead of this initiatives with the technical support of HEDP and conducted the orientation program at ten public universities which are Kabul, Kabul Education, , Jawzjan, Herat, Balkh, Khost, Ghazni, Nangarhar and Paktiya universities. Most of these universities have conducted the program and shared the reports with Gender Department of MoHE. As a measure to promote female enrolment in public universities, the program continued on expanding the child care centers into more public universities in 2018. Two child care centers were established and functioning in Kabul and Kabul medical universities in 2018, while the centers will be expanded into Bamyan and Takhar universities. The physical work of these two centers is in progress by now and near to completion. In 2019, two more child care centers will be established at Herat and Jowzjan universities from the government budget of MoHE. The government will provide the operation budget for sustaining the functionality of the child care centers established and those to be established. In addition, the program expanded the establishing of lavatories in public universities. Seven lavatories for female students in Badakhshan, Jawzjan, Takhar, SZU, Parwan, Al- Bironi and Nangarhar universities were established and the contracts of establishing two more lavatories in Ghazni and Paktiya universities were awarded in late 2018, the physical work has been started. Regarding the Counselling center, one position (Clinic/ Center Head) has been approved for KEU counselling center, the Head for the center has been hired and the center was inaugurated in October and it is fully functional. The physical work of counselling center in KU, Balkh and Bamyan Universities has been started and would be completed by end of January. HEDP followed with MoHE to allocate two tashkeel positions for KU’s Counselling center. This center has been established in 2018 and requires staff to run the center. The Counselling centers have been expanded into four more universities (Bamyan, Kabul, Balkh and Jawzjan). These centers will be established by 2019. MoHE allocated 4 positions for each counselling center in plan of 2019. During the reporting period, for 25 universities, one mini bus was distributed to each given by HEDP in this year. In addition to the 25 given by HEDP, 25 more, one mini bus to each public university was given by the MoHE, donated by Ozbakistan. Theme1.2: Modernizing and Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning Theme 1.2.1: Outcome Based Education and Student-Centered Learning HEDP has had significant progress over the program life cycle in this component of the program. The program has exceeded the 2018 target, and almost doubled the figure. According to the project documents, HEDP should have trained at least 500 academic staff in OBE-SCL and they should be practicing outcome- based education and student centered learning. The program has trained 1,246 academic staff by now with the composition of 1,139 male and 107 female at 24 public universities and more than 10 Higher Education Institutes. In addition, the program has 68 OBE-SCL Champions/ Master Trainers with a gender distribution of 3 female and 65 male. Academic Team at OMST in close coordination and with cooperation of General Directorate of Academic Affairs Coordination organized, led and managed the local OBE-SCL Workshops at more than 20

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 4 universities during 2018. The workshops started in early February and continued until August 2018. As result 539 faculty staff completed the OBE-SCL workshops in 2018. OMST designed and developed Certificate of Participation for all faculty staff who participated and were trained in the OBE-SCL workshops and handed them over to the respective universities. A report on the Local OBE-SCL workshops during 2018 had been drafted and shared with MoHE. OMST in close collaboration with the General Directorate of Academic Affairs Coordination at MoHE facilitated, managed and supported the OBE-SCL workshop at (Private University) in which as a result 28 faculty staff out 35 participants managed to obtain the certificate of completion of OBE-SCL Workshop. Kardan University held a ceremony and awarded the certificates to the participants in presence of MoHE, OMST and Kardan leadership and staff. The process of verification of 1246 faculty staff trained in and practice OBE-SCL during 2016, 2017 and 2018 was completed during October & November 2018. University operations coordinator with support of the universities’ leadership conducted the verification survey with the faculty staff. A questionnaire to collect data on practice of OBE-SCL was designed. The questionnaire contained specific questions to verify the practice of OBE and SCL. Out of the whole 1246 faculty staff trained in OBE-SCL at all public universities and higher education institutes, a sample size was taken. The sample size was 296 in which each faculty staff trained would represent 4 faculty staff from the total number trained in OBE-SCL. The target sample were also required to provide some supporting documents to ensure that they truly practice OBE-SCL. After the sample filled in the questionnaires and provided the supporting documents to the university operations coordinators, the UOCs transferred the data and answers Group work, OBE-SCL workshop, Kardan Private from the questionnaire into the online google form. University, August, 2018 OMST also received the hard copies of the questionnaires along with the supporting documents later. Academic Team of OMST extracted the data from the online google form and analyzed it. The findings based on the analyzed data indicates that 96% of the sample size practice both OBE and SCL. This as a result show that in a broader sense, 1200 faculty staff are trained in and also practice OBE-SCL out of the total trained 1246 faculty staff. The verification survey of OBE-SCL practice by trained faculty staff in the next year will include not only the trained faculty staff but also the students. The process of Interview for the selection of PDC Director (Lead) from Kabul, Kabul Education, Kabul Polytechnic, Kandahar, Herat, Nangarhar, Balkh, and Shaikh Zayed Universities was completed. One faculty Faculty Members Trained in staff candidate from each university was selected as the & Practicing both OBE-SCL Director of PDC on the basis of merit, experience and 285 300 enthusiasm. The interview panel comprised of two directors from MoHE and the Senior Teaching & 200 Learning Manager from HEDP. As the PDC already 100 existed at and it had its own 11 Tashkeel. OMST described the matter to the academic 0 board meeting of General Directorate of Academic Less Than 60% 60% or More Affairs Coordination and they officially approved and agreed with the current Tashkeel of KMU’s PDC and there was not any interview conducted to select a new PDC director at KMU.

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Academic Team at OMST organized and led the Advanced ToT OBE-SCL Certification Workshop for 22 Afghan faculty staff at the University of Technology Malaysia during 1st-16th April 2018. OMST received the Champions’ assessment report developed by UTM OBE- SCL experts and shared it with Afghan OBE-SCL master trainers/champions. Total number of OBE-SCL master trainers/champions is 68 out which 11 master trainers left the country to pursue their master and Ph.D. studies overseas and 1 master trainer has retired and 3 master trainers are currently the chancellor of university. Hence, the number of available and active OBE-SCL master trainers is 56. These OBE-SCL master trainers represent 24 universities and 2 Higher Education institute. Champions during OBE and SCL workshop, April, 2018, University of Technology, Malaysia The establishment of 9 PDCs completed and were officially handed over to the universities in presence of an appointed panel comprising staff from Academic Programs Development Directorate, Plan & Policy Directorate and IT Directorate. These PDCs will also be officially inaugurated by MoHE & OMST. The PDCs at Kandahar and Balkh Universities each were officially inaugurated in a separate ceremony by a council from MoHE comprising of H.E. DM for Academic Affairs as well as Kandahar & Balkh Universities leadership team. During the year 2018, the Academic Team at OMST developed and designed a Capacity Development Plan for the Professional Development Center (PDC) Director (Lead) of 12 PDCs. This document elaborates the key roles and responsibilities of the PDC director on how to successfully and effectively run the PDC, and stresses on the importance and the need for a Capacity Development/Capacity Building Training or Workshop for the PDCs Directors. The Capacity Development Plan for PDC Leads was officially shared with UTM Malaysia, Lovely Professional University , Chulalongkorn University of , and Amity University. UTM & Amity University worked on a proposal for the tailored Training Program for the PDC leads capacity development. They shared separate proposals for the workshop. However, LPU and Chulalongkorn University did not show further interest in undertaking the capacity building training and discontinued the communications on this matter. As of now, OMST is waiting for the World Bank Team approval so that capacity building workshop can take place at an earlier time. OMST strongly suggests that the training shall take place soon as the PDC Directors should have the required knowledge and skills to launch activities at the PDC and be able to run it smoothly. To establish three more PDCs at Bamyan, Kunduz and Alberoni Universities, the Professional Development Center (PDC) Technical Specification, Infrastructure and Requirement Document was reviewed with support from the technical staff of MoHE (Plan & Policy/ IT Directorates) and the document was revised and the previously unnoticed issues have been resolved. Now, the updated PDC technical specification document is enriched and it is anticipated that the problems and mistakes that existed in the earlier version of the PDC Technical Specification document, will no longer interrupt the implementation phase at the 3 new PDCs. The updated PDC Specifications Document was shared with Bamyan, Kunduz and Alberoni Universities to review and complete the renovation part of the document by an appointed technical team of the three universities. The signed and stamped PDCs specification documents were submitted by universities, approved by the technical engineers of MoHE, were shared with MoHE for the approval. Currently, the documents are at the admin and finance directorate and they are working on them. The program requested Bamyan, Alberoni and Kunduz Universities in order to introduce 3 qualified academic faculty staff for the position of PDC Director (Lead). OMST received the official response from the above-mentioned universities in which 3 faculty staff along with their CVs were introduced and the interview with them will be jointly scheduled and conducted between Academic Programs Development Directorate and OMST. The response Maktoobs and CVs were shared with Academic Programs Development Directorate as well. OMST have officially requested the Academic Programs Directorate to introduce someone as a panel to jointly conduct the interview. According to the decision made at the academic board meeting of Academic Programs Development Directorate, Dr. Abdul Aziz Mohebi was

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 6 introduced as the panel member for the interview of the candidates for the position of PDC Director (Lead). The interview will be conducted during January 2019. Academic Team at OMST regularly attended the National Curriculum Commission at MoHE and provided insight and support to the members. During the third quarter of 2018, Academic Programs Development Directorate requested OMST to organize the attendance of OBE-SCL Master Trainers/Champions at the national curriculum commission 3-day workshop on reviewing and revising several clusters (specific disciplines curriculums categories) namely; economics, computer science, agriculture, English, and law and political sciences. OMST managed to invite all the OBE- SCL champions to attend the workshop. The OBE-SCL master trainers’ presence, input, contribution and knowledge were very effective and remarkable. At the end of the 3-day workshop, H.E. Minister and DM ministers for academic and students’ affairs appreciated the OBE-SCL master trainers and urged the continuation of OBE-SCL master trainers’ support to such significant programs. After Inauguration of task force workshop, HEDP, that event, there were some other similar workshops for August, 2018 reviewing the curriculums of other clusters and the OBE- SCL master trainers from the same discipline background as those of the clusters, attended in the workshops. The next national curriculum commission workshop on review and revision of curriculums based on the clusters will be held in 2019 and OBE-SCL master trainers will be the moderators and key resource people. The Task Force Workshop for the review and revision of the Credit System and Examination Bylaws based on OBE-SCL system was conducted during 6th and 7th August 2018. There were 9 OBE-SCL champions, one academic faculty staff from each of the Kabul based universities, Mr. Zubair Sediqi the director of Academic Programs Development Directorate and the Senior Teaching & Learning Manager as the participants in this two-day workshop. The participants worked very hard. The suggestions and comments made by the participants were documented during the workshop. Those suggestions and comments for the revision of the Credit System and Exam Bylaws were shared with H.Es. DM for Students Affairs and DM for Academic Affairs for the final review and approval. It is worth mentioning that the centric emphasis from the participants of the Task Force Workshop which was on the revision of the Assessment and Passing Grade. However, they were not accepted by H.E. DM for Students Affairs as he claimed that the proposed revised assessment and passing grade will not suit the current situation. He added that probably in the next 6-12 months, the two bylaws can be reviewed and revised again to further modify them. However, H.E. DM for Academic Affairs emphasized a lot on implementing the proposed revisions for the two Bylaws. He strongly supported task force team and stated that he will make sure that the proposed revisions are embedded into the bylaws and will be effective soon. It is noteworthy to say that nearly 80% of the suggestions and comments made by the participants of the Task Force Workshop for the revision of the two bylaws were accepted by H.E. DM for Students Affairs. Theme 1.2.2: Information and Communications Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning According to the revised PIM, HEDP should have established 4 functional ICT centers by December 2018 in order to meet the target of 2019 DLI. The program has achieved the 2019 DLI target on ICTs. The current status of ICTs is that seven ICT center in (Shahid Rabani, Khost, Ghazni, Paktya, Kunar, Takhar and Faryab) universities have been completed and recently the ICT center of Said Jamaluddin Afghan (Kunar) has been inaugurated, the ICT Center of Khost University will be inaugurated soon. ICT is as well the DLI indictor in 2018, which 2 ICTs must be established, functional by December, 2017, and verified by the TPV in 2018. During second half the year, a consultancy has conducted TPV for Ghazni, Faryab, KEU and Khost universities ICT centers, with the result of having two functional, which are Ghazni and Faryab. The DLI target has been achieved.

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The program has started on establishing three additional ICT centers in Bamyan, Kabul Polytechnic and Kabul Medical universities and two IT centers in Baghlan and Alberoni Universities to achieve the intermediate outcome indicator target of 2020 which is 12 ICTs to be established and functional. The specification have been made and submitted to procurement directorate of MoHE for further processing. The projects had announced for two times, but still not awarded to any firm, currently they are in announcement step for 3rd time. This is due to no qualified firm bid for these ICT projects. During the period under review, the program trained 21 ICT technician though a five day training on the maintenance of ICT centers for ICT technicians and Administrators. The participants of this training were ICT Administrators and technicians of 7 public universities (SREU, Faryab, Khost, Takhar, Paktia and Said Jamaluddin Afghan) where the ICT centers have been established. The total number of participants were 21 divided into two categories, the first category was ICT technicians trained in basic level for three days and the second category was ICT Administrators trained in advanced level for 5 days. The training was conducted and facilitated by two experienced lecturers such as: Mr. Nazin “Kabiri” (MCS of Japan) and Asmatullah “Yaree” (MCS of Malaysia). During the training session, the following contents have been taught: Networking fundamentals ( Types of computers Networks, Network devices, and Network cabling); TCP/IP, IPv4, OSI reference Model and IPv4 address configuration and troubleshooting; Explanation and practice of wireless networks, types and topologies of Wireless Networks, wireless network standards and technologies; Installation and configuration of active directory domain services as well as Additional domain controller; Explanation, installation and configuration of DNS, DHCP, FTP and distributed file Inauguration of ICT technician’s capacity system; Configuration of MicroTiK router ( setting up IP development workshop, HEDP, September, Address, DHCP, and access control list (ACL); Explanation of cisco switches’ hardware components and IOS and etc. Theme1.3: Improving the Qualification and Skills of Academic and Technical Staff Members Theme 1.3.1: Scholarships for Masters Degrees in Priority Disciplines During the year 2018, the program has increased the number of awarded scholarships from 209 in 2017 into 336 in 2018. Furthermore, the number of scholars returned back after the completion of their courses has been increased from 0 in 2017 into 70 in 2018. The program has achieved the 2018 intermediate outcome indicator’s target which is to award 300 scholarships into the faculty’s academic staff in priority degree programs. The current status stands at 336, out of this 35% scholarships have been awarded to female. From the 127 scholarships awarded in 2018, the total number of 111 scholars have been placed in their respective universities. For this theme, the PDO level indicator of the program is to Increase the numbers of full time academic staff with at least a Master’s degree in priority degree programs to 12,00 by 2018. The information on this indicator by end of December 2018 stands at 1952 academic staff in priority disciplines with 1692 male and 260 female. During the year 2018 the program has extended the number of MoUs into 17 in 2018, while six more MoUs have been in progress to be signed soon. The MoUs are with various universities for placing master and PH.d students pursuing their intended courses in different disciplines. Going forward, analysis of the aggregate data on scholars who are pursuing their master degree at different disciplines at the moment, shows that some scholarships have been distributed in none priority disciplines such as law, journalism, sharia, education and literature. Scholarship is 2020 DLI indicator, which states that at least 275 scholarships should be completed in priority disciplines, having said this, the program should cautiously move forward to meet the target in priority disciplines. From one hand, the duration of some scholarships goes beyond two years, while from the other hands, if we have scholarships in none priority programs, it will as well make a drawback reaching to the 275 target. During the last two reporting

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 8 periods, the payment of scholarship was a big challenge for the program. Students aboard the country were not paid with their stipends for last four months, which created a problem. Theme 1.3.2. Short-term Technical and Maintenance Courses for Technical Staff in Universities

Lovely Professional University which have been selected for conducting the training to 20 master trainers on technical and maintenance for technical staff of universities, is recently informed about the postponing of the training; the training content has to be revised so that it can fit the needs of the technicians on how to maintain and make use of the available machines in the current labs at 23 universities. The program has trained 96 technicians till now. 75 technicians were trained in 2017, while 21 ICT technician trained in 2018. The program is on track to achieving the targets on this theme.

According the project documents, HEDP should train 200 technical staff of public universities by 2018. To achieve this target, HEDP hired a consultancy to assess the current situation of technicians and laboratories at the universities. Although, the timing period of this assignment has already ended, the consultancy still hasn’t provided a complete and responsive product. The assessment report of consultancy shows that there are 163 technicians and 264 admin staff across all the public universities in Afghanistan. If we consider this as a correct figures, then the target on indicator #6 (Number of technical staff completing short-term technical and maintenance courses) which is 400 for 2022, is not a realistic target. The program needs to ensure if the above figures are correct, then amend this target accordingly. However, the program is behind the plan for this task, the target of 2016, 2017 and 2018 which is 100, 200 and 200 respectively, have not been achieved so far. Theme 1.4: Strengthening Governance, Quality Assurance and Accreditation Theme 1.4.1: Strategic Institutional Development Plans (SIDPs)

According to HEDP’s plan, ten universities must develop, implement and monitor their five-year strategic development plans consistent with the National Higher Education Strategic Plan by 2018. To achieve this target, the program had started working with 13universities (10 public and 3 private) to prepare the strategic plans. The public universities included Kabul Polytechnic University, , Afghanistan National Agriculture Science and Technology University (ANASTU), Sheikh Zaid University, Balkh University, , and Nangarhar Unviversity while the private universities included Bakhtar University, Kardan University and American University of Afghanistan (AUAF). These ten universities have developed their SIDPs and presented to the MoHE. The SIDPs were endorsed, but so far not publically published on their website, it’s expected that by end of December 2018 they SIDPs Presentation Workshop, HEDP, September, 2018 will publish the SIDPs. The program however achieved the target, they will monitor how these universities implement their SIDPs.

Furthermore, the Strategic Institutional Development Plans of universities is overseen by a committee of experts, the SPIC committee, at MoHE. This committee previously included only 5 members, but lately a couple of these members withdrew due to a change in their other professional priorities. In addition, the committee seemed to be too small in number to meet the work load and at some point the committee members would not find it a priority to complete the assigned tasks compared to their other responsibilities. Therefore, after a series of discussions with the Planning and Policy Director of MoHE, it was decided to enroll more members and re-announce the committee based on a newly well-developed and well-defined ToR. Thereon, the newly developed ToR was attached to an official letter and sent to all central universities

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(Kabul, Kabul Medical, Kabul Education and Kabul Polytechnic) to introduce their qualified lecturers/professors. Currently, the restructuring and recruitment of new members for the SPIC committee of MoHE is in progress, and soon a new committee will be established and introduced. Annual Progress Reports (APR’s)

During the year 2018, 6 universities have issued their annual progress reports on the SIDPs. These six universities who presented on their APR’s were selected based on the target set for 2018 in the PIM. The program has achieved the target set for this theme (6 APRs to be issued). Once the universities get their SIDP’s approved by the MoHE, they have to report annually on the progress they have made towards the strategic objectives set in their SIDP’s. This report is called Annual Progress Report (APR’s).

During the period under review, HEDP organized an event where university representatives including vice chancellors and SPIC members were invited to present on their Annual Progress. Participants from six universities (Kabul, Kabul Education, Kabul Medical Sciences, Kandahar, Herat and Nangarhar) actively participated and delivered on their annual progress towards achieving the strategic objectives set out in their SIDP’s.

Quality Assurance and Accreditation In Afghanistan the quality assurance and accreditation is still new and needs further improvement and development. HEDP has undertaken and supported various initiatives in order to develop and improve capacity and systems of internal and external quality assurance. The institutional home for quality assurance and accreditation in Afghanistan is the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Directorate (QAAD) of MoHE. The purpose of this theme is to institutionalize the quality assurance culture at public universities. HEDP supports establishment of Internal Quality Assurance Units (IQAU) at public universities, which includes establishment of an office space for this unit and selection of a qualified IQAU Leads, who would then undertake and publicize the quality assurance activities at their universities. Establishment of IQAUs is DLI target and its functionality should be verified according to the agreed scorecard.

In order to support this process, HEDP has developed a website for QAAD, where all quality assurance and accreditation related documents and news will be accessible for all higher education institutions and stakeholders. The website is yet to be launched after resolving some technical errors. A link of the demo version of the website is here http://qaad.demo.af.

Since its establishment, QAAD had never been assessed by an external qualified agency to outline its strengths and weaknesses for improvement of its operations and systems. HEDP has planned and developed a ToR for institutional assessment of QAAD. Multiple agencies have been contacted for this assessment. In these negotiations process, UNESCO was identified as the most suitable organization for this activity. UNESCO is the only UN organization mandated for higher education and have a commitment for alignment and harmonization of the quality assurance agencies and systems throughout the Asia Pacific region. UNESCO has submitted its agreement and initial proposal for undertaking this activity and the HEDP steering committee has approved Single Source Selection of UNESCO for this task. HEDP will further process procurement of UNESCO upon receipt of UNESCO’s detailed budget breakdown for this activity. Achievements and progress under this theme will be further explained below under the sub-themes of Internal Quality Assurance and External Quality Assurance (Accreditation).

Theme 1.4.2: Internal Quality Assurance IQAUs have been the DLI indicator for 2017 and 2018 with respective targets of 4 universities and 6 universities to establish IQAUs with their functionality. During the period under review, HEDP successfully

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 10 established IQAUs at nine universities, including , Kabul Medical University, Kandahar University, Kabul Education University, , Alberoni University, Shiekh Zayed (Khost) University, Heart University and Balkh University. A Third Party Verification (TPV) agency, the Emerging Leaders Consulting Services (ELCS) was hired to verify functionality of the established IQAUs at eight universities, except IQAU at Balkh University which was not completed at the time of TPV procurement. The TPV reported all assessed IQAUs as functional except IQAU at Heart University. Table 1 details scoring of the assessed IQAUs.

Table 2 IQAUs scoring by ELCS (IQAUs have been called functional if have obtained minimum 75 score)

University Verification Score Documents Presented Website Grading # YES NO 1 Kabul Medical University 95% A

2 Kabul University 92% A

3 Kandahar University 91% A

4 Kabul Education University 90% A

5 Nangarhar University 87% A

6 Alberoni University 80.1% A

7 Khost/Sheikh Zayed 76.5% B

University 8 Herat University 15.6% D

To achieve the target of establishing IQAUs at other public universities, HEDP is in the process of establishing nine additional IQAUs at Kunduz, Bamyan, Paktia, Takhar, KPU, Badakhshan, Parwan, Faryab and Jawzjan universities

Technical requirements and procurement documents were finalized for procurement of establishing IQAUs at the listed universities. A substantial number of bidders have applied and the procurement department is in the process of evaluating the bidding documents to select qualified bidders to establish office space for IQAUs at the selected universities. The IQAU Leads for all the nine planned IQAUs have already been selected.

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Theme 1.4.3: External Quality Assurance External Review of the universities is one of the main tasks of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation (QAA) sub-component. Up to date, the program has externally reviewed 10 public universities and 13 private. Under this theme, the HEDP is supporting QAAD to conduct external peer reviews of the universities and higher education institutes for accreditation. In order to conduct external peer reviews, a pool of qualified and certified External Peer Reviewers (EPRs) are required. HEDP has supported selection and capacity building of EPRs. In this reporting period, 15 peer reviewers have been selected through a national competitive process and then introduced for the quality assurance internship program offered by Malaysian Qualifications Agency. This batch of peer reviewers successfully completed a week long internship program. Among them, only two of the peer reviewers were not granted entry by the Malaysian immigration office and had to return back without participating in the internship External Peer reviewer, Malaysian Qualifications program. The Total number of qualified EPRs now reach Agency, 2018 34. With the increasing demand for accreditation of universities, QAAD needs to increase the number of EPRs. HEDP is planning to select and train a new batch of EPRs in 2019.

The external quality assurance (accreditation) process was first started at 2017 and eight universities were reviewed for accreditation. In 2018, on different occasions, fifteen additional universities reviewed for accreditation. Currently the total universities reviewed reaches 23, including 13 private universities and 10 public universities. The EPRs with assistance of HEDP has also conducted multiple focused reviews of universities who have not been granted the proposed grade of accreditation on the first peer review. Currently five universities have been granted Grade A Peer review team during review of Ghalib Private accreditation, while six other universities have been University, 2018 granted Grade B accreditation, as detailed in table 3. For 2019, HEDP is planning to conduct external peer review in additional 33 universities and conduct focused review in the 12 universities who have not been accredited in the peer reviews conducted in 2017 and 2018.

Table 3 List of Accredited Universities

Grade A Accredited universities Grade B accredited universities

Kabul University RANA University

Kandahar University Ibne Sina University

American University of Afghanistan Cheragh Medical Higher Education Institution

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Kardan University Ghalib University (Heart Branch)

Kabul Medical University Ghalib University (Kabul Branch)

Salam University

Theme 1.4.4: Leadership and Management Courses for Senior Managerial and Administrative Staff The last update on this theme is that AIT has been replaced with NIEPA, as the AIT budget estimation was too high. The training has been postponed due to the fact that either NIEPA has to consider the number of days allocated for the rigorous training or AIT has provide us another budget breakdown for a 10-12 day training instead of the 21 day training.

Considering the last year achievement of AULIA, the program scope was to identify 30 qualified NRPs through a systematic process and assessment done by the AIT examined from five different requirements. The selection of process of the thirty NRPs has finally come to an end, the selection was done in the presence of deputy minister, and HEDP colleagues while taking into consideration the suggested candidates based on the selection criteria they had set. NIEPA or AIT will conduct the training for 30 NRPs in early 2019. Upon the return of these 30 NRPs, they will conduct the similar trainings in their respective universities as a group or individual in late early 2019. They will train up to 125 academic leaders in different priority disciplines.

Theme 1.5: Stimulating Development Oriented Research (DLI) The number of awarded research projects have been increased from 60 in 2017 into 98 in 2018. The same there has been increase in the completed research projects in 2018, which stands at 53, while this was 35 in 2017. HEDP has awarded 97 research projects to different public and private university’s professors since 2016, which out of the total projects awarded, 34 research projects have been completed. In 2018, a total number of 39 research projects were awarded. These research projects include 15 2018 Research Projects group researches and 24 individual 200 149 researches. Contracts for 38 researchers were prepared and signed by the 100 38 researchers, HEDP responsible persons, and 23 15 the MoHE leadership. Currently, the 0 research contracts are with the HEDP 1 finance unit for preparing allotment for the # Proposals Received # Research Projects Awarded first installment payment. During the period Individual Group under review, all researchers, who were awarded the research grants, were invited from across the country to participate in a workshop. The program delivered a comprehensive presentation on the responsibilities of the researchers during the course of their research and explained all the requirements and activities that the researchers need to be careful about. The research manager insisted on regular monthly report from the researchers and urged them to communicate any problem or challenge they may encounter during their research work.

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During the research proposal review process, the research review panel tried to make sure that the research projects are from a variety of disciplines and that academicians from many universities across Afghanistan have Distribution of Research Per Discipline submitted their proposals for grant in 10 9 9 order to make the process inclusive. 8 Additionally, to highlight the gender 7 6 5 aspect of the research projects, it is 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 noteworthy that a few female researchers 3 2 are also either part of a research team or 2 1 1 1 1 1 lead a research projects. The low ratio of 0 female researchers is a reflection of low female faculty available at universities. The Following charts provide details on number of research projects per discipline and per university as well as share of female researchers: Contribution of Female Researchers in the 2018 Research Projects:

Individual Research Projects Group Research Projects

5 4

18 15

Female Researchers Ratio Male Female Group Research Project Total Projects Female Participants

In the above two pie charts, it can be noticed that out of 23 individual researchers, 5 are female and the rest 18 are male researchers, while in the 15 group research projects only four female researchers are participants either as lead or member of the team. Although the figures about female researchers are not significant and convincing, but it can at least give a clue that female academicians are interested in research work and can increase if the research grants are promoted well and effectively with more encouragement.

C) Component Two: Program Operations and Technical Support Social and Environmental Safeguard During the year 2018, environment and social safeguards has included the Environment and Social Management Plan (ESMP) into the projects contract for the first time. However, the contractors of the ongoing and completed projects stamped accepted implementation of the ESMP but still it was not part of the projects BoQ. The program had close follow up on deed preparation for Bamyan projects affected families. However, preparation of land transfer documents is a time consuming process, 11 affected families have confirmed receipt of the lands. The location selected for Badghis project was a major concern for HEDP and MoHE, however, the contract was awarded in 2016 but the physical startup of the construction delayed for two years. Finally, HEDP, in coordination with MoHE submitted the environmental assessment

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of the project for NEPA approval and clearance, NEPA provided HEDP with a licensee and work permission for implementation of the mentioned project. In addition, during the reporting period, HEDP safeguard team has done the following tasks:  Monthly safeguards report of all ongoing construction projects have been submitted to the WB.  Draft environment and social management plan for Herat University planned construction projects has been shared with both the Bank’s safeguard team and MoHE to be included into the project’s contract.  Coordination made with ARTF, MSI with regards to the physical and financial progress of the construction projects data collection  Revised safeguard training manual and training plan submitted to the Bank.  Follow up made on deed preparation for Bamyan project’s 11PAFs.  Follow up made with MoHE on inclusion of Herat ESMP into the bidding documents.  Development of Badghis project progress and trip reports. Physical Infrastructure Projects HEDP supports various infrastructure projects such as lecture block, research centers, girl’s dormitory, ICT, and etc. during the reporting period, the program worked with MoHE’s engineering team on collecting the information regarding the accurate physical progress. The previous report showed that some of the infrastructure projects are delayed. The report was therefore shared with the relevant departments at MoHE and the reasons were asked on why the projects are delayed. Following are some of the reasons presented by engineering team of MoHE for the delay happened in some projects:

 Delay In the payments due to the new financial system of MoF and change of fiscal year  Modification in the basement design of some projects  Low coordination among the key stakeholders of the projects (local provincial governance, line Ministries)  Security problems in provinces  Lack of standard companies. The bidders provide low price to win the project, but in the implementation phase, they make procrastinations, and challenge the program with their irrational claims. Table 3: they physical progress of infrastructure projects

Physical Remarks Signe Physical Completion # Project Type Province Progress Duration Date Start Up Date (%) Girl's Dorm + 96% 01/ 10/ Kunar 17/09/1395 30/ 09/ 1395 2 years 1 KD 1397 Girl's Dorm + 90% 21/ 06/ Bamyan 10/06/1395 20/ 06/ 1395 2 years 2 KD 1397 Girl's Dorm + 80% 15 02/ 07/ Takhar 17/04/1396 01/ 05/ 1396 3 KD months 1397 Girl's Dorm + 48.38 % 15 30/ 06/ Helmand 15/03/1396 29/ 03/ 1396 4 KD months 1397 The construction of the research center completed, Girl's Dorm + Badghis 10/06/1395 2 years currently the KD team is working on civil works of 5 this project

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93% 06/ 07/ Lecture Block Ghazni 29/06/1395 05/ 07/ 1396 2 years 6 1398 55% 15 03/ 01/ Lecture Block Wardak 08/06/1396 02/ 07/ 1396 7 months 1398 18 05/ 06/ Lecture Block Logar 86% 09/10/1395 04/ 12/ 1395 8 months 1398 18 17/ 05/ Lecture Block Sar-e-Pul 70% 25/09/1395 16/ 12/ 1395 9 months 1397 15 21/ 06/ Lecture Block Parwan 98% 30/03/1396 20/ 04/ 1396 10 months 1397 15 15/ 07/ Lecture Block Laghman 100% 01/05/1396 14/ 05/ 1396 11 months 1397 90% The contractor has 9months for the project completion, however the firm Research Deadline missed the Kabul 14/09/1395 28/ 09/ 1395 9 months Center Missed deadline and the issue is now with MoHE's audit Department for further 12 proceeding Research 13/ 08/ Kandahar 95% 12/11/1395 02/ 12/ 1395 9 months 13 Center 1396 Civil works of Research 22/ 01/ Herat 100% 27/04/1396 21/ 05/ 1396 9 months this sub-project is Center 1397 14 ongoing

Communication During the reporting period, the program worked to develop tools and products that communicate internal change and deliver messaging related to program initiatives. HEDP initiated the creation and design of program new brochure, HEDP branding clocks, notebooks, pens, and file folders. The printed and created tools and products were distributed to all public universities personals, MoHE directorates, and beneficiaries to motivate the program beneficiaries and generate confidence and good will about the program. The program distributed HEDP branding clocks to the MoHE directorates, public universities and some private universities during this reporting period. The HEDP Facebook page and website have been updated with the activities reports and pictures. The Facebook page has been boosted and currently has almost 32,000 followers, while the website http://www.hedp.af/ is updated with all the ongoing HEDP initiatives, announcements and reports.

In addition, the program reviewed short list of video production vendors and selected Afghan Trust Association. Working with the vendor, the program produced short video clips on HEDP initiatives and achievements. The videos will be shared with publics through social media means. The program will further start to collect success stories of the program and will begin sharing in the next reporting period. In order to increase awareness on Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) in the universities, special posters have been printed on the subject matter. Moreover, the program have designed and purchased complaint boxes to easily collect the complaints. The boxes have been placed in all targeted universities. In addition, GRM database and emails are checked daily and the received complaints are shared with the relevant departments,

HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2018) Page 16 at the same time, the GRM annual report is furnished and a list containing the contact details of 16 public universities has been developed.

Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring and evaluation team continued to collect data on the progress of program indicators, and provide an insight to the program management for the informed decision making. During the reporting period, the M&E team collected data on enrollment in higher education and master academic staff of public universities for the year 2018. The enrollment report has been developed and shared. In addition, the M&E team started data collection on all program themes in using the data collection tools developed already for this purpose. During the reporting period, the M&E team followed with the consultancy conducting TPV of disbursed linked indicators. Three DLIs of 2018 (female enrollment, establishment of 4 Quality assurance units and establishment of 2 ICT centers) are verified by the consultancy. The consultancy has submitted the final report covering all three DLI indicators. The report shows all DLI targets have been achieved. The M&E team has developed the ToR for the 2019 DLIs verification. The RFI has been announced and it’s supposed to procure the TPV agency by February, 2019. The bi monthly reports are regularly furnished and follow up is conducted with the program colleagues on meeting the targets, agreed actions and addressing the challenges highlighted by the reports. As a lessons learned from this round TPV, the program should hire the consultancy by January 2019, brief them before going to the physical work of the TPV, and involve the MoHE relevant authorities in the process of TPV. In addition, the TPV firm should use a standard reporting template which can be concise, brief, straightforward and due to the point.

Internal Audit The internal auditing team of the program was engaged in variety of interventions during the 2018. They conducted the payroll audits of Balkh University, Kabul University, and Kabul Medical University, along with conducting the payroll audit of MoHE Headquarter. They have provided their inputs and contributed to the SAO and ARTF audit team. In addition, the team has contributed to the development of the MoHE Internal Audit Directorate’s annual plan and a number of concept notes to H/E Minister of Higher Education. The team designed and implement an Internal Audit National Capacity Building Program for all Afghan Ministries and General Directorates through a 12 day training for 130 internal auditors of all government ministries and independent authorities. The objectives of this capacity building program was to enhance the capacity of the internal auditors on better understanding their roles, right procedure of reviewing the contracts, inventory management, procurement management, income tax law, risk assessment, audit evidence, audit methodology and the report writing skills of the internal audit departments Inauguration of internal auditors training, Kabul, July 2018 within the ministries and other relevant public organizations across the country. The post training assessment shows that 99% of the workshop participants have felt the workshop has met their expectation. Financial Management: The following table shows the up to date budget execution rate as of December 2018.

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Table 4: 2018 Budget Execution Overview Type of Approved Planned Actual Execution Actual Expenditure Remarks Component Budget 2018 Rate Component 1 $ 13,536,142 $ 12,726,474 95.0%

Component 2 $ 2,446,327 $ 2,239,276 91.5%

Grand Total $ 15,836,143 $ 14,965,749 94.5%

Table 5: Overall HED Budget Execution Overview HEDP Total Budget Actual Expenditures Actual Execution Rate $ 55,000,000 $ 27,343,308 49.7%

D) Challenges and Recommendations

 The program was challenged by the delay happened in the procuring TPV agency to conduct the verification of 2018 DLIs. According to the program documents, the TPV must present its report by end of February each year, while in 2018, the TPV conducted their verification during July and September 2018, while their final report was submitted during the very end of fiscal year 2018. This delay in TPV report, in consequence made the program run out of the budget. The release of fund from the World Bank happened where only few days of the fiscal year remained. The program needs to procure the TPV agency early 2019. If it happens to be procured later than the planned timing, the release of DLI budget planned for 2019 will in consequence be proceed later, where the program will suffer the shortage of budget accordingly.  There was a huge delay in the payments of HEDP scholars who are pursuing their master courses abroad the country. The scholars repeatedly sent emails and complains to the MoHE and HEDP, where some of them have posted the complaints in the social media too. The program should make a mitigating plan for the next year to have on time payments for the scholars.  The 2019 scholarships must be announced in the start of 2019, so that they are completed within the remaining life spam of the program. The program must cautiously award the scholarships in priority degree programs so that they can achieve the 2020 DLI target. (275 scholarships completed). If there is any internal agreement with the Wold Bank for awarding some scholarships in none priority disciplines, this agreement should be reflected in the PIM.  The program however is behind the plan for conducting technical short term trainings, administrative and leadership trainings, the program strives to achieve those targets simultaneously with the targets of 2019 either. The program needs to discuss with the World Bank on the modality, nature and specification of short term technical trainings.  On the construction project, the MSI monitoring report shows some challenges and problems at the ground. The physical work of some projects have been stopped, while there are some other environmental finding too. The program can take corrective informed actions soon.  A potential challenge for the program can be predicted if all the NRPs will spread the gained knowledge and conduct the required trainings at their respective universities upon their return from the training they attend abroad. The program should make sure they sign a commitment letters verified by their respective universities to mitigate this challenge.  The 30 NRPs selected from a group of 169 candidates who participated in AULiA are from 21 university, which can’t represent all the public universities, it is recommended that the program has at least one trained NRP at each public university or higher education institution.  The medical discipline students’ placement had been a dilemma for the program during the 2018. They still haven’t been placed. The list of those students have been shared with the UNESCO to

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help the program in finding a university which offers all the required medical field programs where they can be placed. The program needs to have a close follow up with UNESCO and seek other possible alternatives.  The PhD disciplines have not been identified by the MoHE, which may result in awarding the scholarships and placing the PhD candidates in the universities based on the priority disciplines. The impact will also yield in the candidates’ inability to successfully complete their PhDs within the timeframe of the program. The program needs to announce the PhD scholarships soon and start placing these students so that they can finish their degrees by the closing of the program in 2022.  The current inadequate number of HEDP master graduates (70) hugely differs from the DLI 2020 which is (275), this however is optimistic to be met, the program needs to have a realistic estimation plan for the graduate’s students. If the program fails meeting the target, the program can revise the target to a lowering number, it can applied during the PIM revision for the coming $ 10 million USAID fund (if possible).  The OBE-SCL practices, implementation and institutionalization at the universities need support from within the written policies and bylaws at MoHE. There had been several efforts to revise the bylaws and policies in order to align them with OBE-SCL approach and to ensure that the bylaws fully support the OBE-SCL practice and implementation. However, they were not approved by the policy makers at MoHE. Hence, MoHE should take serious and continuous efforts to ensure that the bylaws do not stand against OBE-SCL implementation and instead they are supportive of these new approaches. In long run, it is recommended to establish an OBE-SCL committee/Department at MoHE to closely work with the General Directorate of Academic Affairs Coordination and Academic Programs Development Directorate in OBE-SCL related activities and matters. The program can bring this issue into the leadership agenda of MoHE and facilitate establishing the committee/department.  Poor commitment of the Balkh University in support of champions to conduct the OBE-SCL workshops. Although, OMST tried different ways to convince the leadership at Balkh University to support the OBE-SCL workshop, it didn’t work.

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Annex A: Intermediate Outcome Indicators Status for 2018 based on the revised PIM Indicator 2018 Current Status as Nov Target 2018

A. Project Development Indicators

1. Student enrollment in universities in Total: 78,500 Total: 81984 priority degree programs for economic Males: 64,000 Males: 65049 development Females: 14,500 Females: 16935 2. Number of universities developing, 10 universities issue Strategic 13 universities issued implementing and monitoring strategic Institutional Development Strategic Institutional five year rolling institutional development Plans according to the template Development Plans plans consistent with the National Higher according to the Education Strategic Plan template 3. Increased numbers of full time 1952 with 260 female academic staff with at least a Master’s and 1692 male by degree in priority degree programs 1,200.00 December 2018 A. Intermediate Outcome Indicators

Female enrollment in priority degree 5,000 by end of December 5,348 as of Dec 2018. programs in the 1st year of public 2018 This indicators is universities subjected to the [DLI 1] TPV_2019

Number of female students with access to 3,700 4,405 as of December adequate residential facilities for women 2018. MoHE data on university campuses Number of full time academic staff trained 500 academic staff trained in 1,246 academic staff in, and practicing, outcome-based and practicing outcome-based have been trained and education and student centered learning education and student centered verified. While 1,200 [DLI 2] learning academic staff practice OBE and SCL by the end of 2018. Number of public universities with 2 universities with new and 2 universities reported functional ICT centers for ICT based functional ICT centers functional. Gazni and higher education Faryab universities [DLI 3] Number of scholarships awarded to full 300 336 scholarships time faculty staff for Masters Degrees in scholarships awarded awarded; priority disciplines [DLI 4] 70 scholarships completed and returned Number of technical staff completing 200 The training nature yet short-term technical and maintenance staff trained To be discussed. courses Number of universities with Internal 4 universities with 7 IQAUs are functional. Quality Assurance Units (IQAUs) (b) IQAUs functioning to 8 IQAUs have been functioning to international standards international standards established. [DLI 5]

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Number of public and private universities External institutional quality 10 public and 13 private which complete a new regionally assurance reviews completed universities externally benchmarked quality assurance cycle for 11 public and 11 private reviewed. universities and reports disseminated by the MoHE Number of university senior managerial 200 Planning for the second and administrative staff completing short- staff trained phase. term leadership and management courses in the context of greater authority and accountability Development oriented research Projects, 10 new group research Projects 15 group researches mainly in the priority disciplines commenced awarded. [DLI # 6] 24 individual researches 20 new individual research awarded. Projects in progress commenced 18 Group research At least 15 group research projects of Projects completed 2017completed At least 25 individual research 35 Individual research Projects completed projects completed

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