Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana Grant

End-of-year Progress Report to DFID Ghana

Accountable Grant: Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana

Grantee: Camfed

Grant period: September 2012 – December 2016

Period covered by report: October 2015 – September 2016

Component code: 202493-101

Purchase order: 40061075

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1. Summary

This is the fourth annual report to DFID Ghana on Camfed’s accountable grant ‘Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana’. The report covers the period October 2015 to September 2016 and provides information on the project’s progress towards targets, objectives and milestones.

The project aims to provide bursary support to 32,120 vulnerable girls in rural districts of Ghana. The secondary school bursary programme for girls is a core component of Camfed’s wider education programme, offering girls support to complete the full cycle of secondary education through a holistic, community-led approach that draws on existing infrastructure for delivery at scale. The total grant amount is £16,500,685 over four years. The project has three months remaining – covering the first term of the 2016/17 academic year – and is due to end in December 2016. Discussions for an additional six-months funding, to support a responsible exit from the DFID programme, are currently underway.

2. Expected Results

The project’s expected results are as follows:

Impact: Ghana achieves gender parity in secondary education.

Outcome: Disadvantaged girls supported in basic and secondary education through scholarship packages complete Junior High School and Senior High School.

The impact indicators for this grant track enrolment rates in SHS and enrolment and completion rates1 in JHS for the regions covered (Northern, Upper West, Upper East and Central). School records for the academic year 2015/16 are provided by the national Education Management Information System (EMIS) and are expected to be available by January 2017 and updates on the impact indicators for enrolment and completion are therefore expected to be included in the next and final report. Outcome indicators tracking progress on the progression, attendance and completion rates of girls supported are in the process of being compiled and verified by Teacher Mentors, who send through relevant data using mobile monitoring technology. This data will therefore also be reported with the final report in January 2017.

3. Outputs and milestones

The workplan detailing activities for Year 4 (October 2015 – September 2016) is attached at Annex A. Updated progress against activities in Year 4 Quarter 4 (July–September 2016) and planned activities for October–December 2016 is attached at Annexes D and E respectively. The section below describes in more detail the activities carried out over the past 12 months which have contributed to the project’s outputs.

Output 1: Disadvantaged girls supported in basic and secondary education through scholarship packages

Output 1 milestones to be achieved by October 2016:

 16,000 girls supported in Junior High School (cumulative)  16,120 girls supported in Senior High School (cumulative)

Output 1 score: A

Progress against expected results:

Camfed has met its targets for bursary provision at Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS). To date, Camfed has supported 32,160 girls (16,000 in JHS and 16,120 in SHS). The final 1,120 SHS students were selected between November and December 2015 as a result of savings following approval of Camfed’s proposal for needs-based responsive

1 Completion rates are based on the number of girls who have not dropped out or repeated from their first year through to their final year of Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) respectively.

bursaries. Their selection has increased Camfed’s target and reach for this grant. Bursary expenditure to date is £14,130,555.

Performance Description:

Over the final full year of this grant, Camfed has so far enabled 20,970 girls to access education and remain in school through the provision of flexible bursary packages that cover school-going costs, such as uniforms, shoes, books and pens, sanitary protection, school fees, and exam fees. Key activities have included the selection of bursary students (including training of school selection panels), monitoring and verification of continuing students, payment of fees and distribution of bursary items, and training of Teacher Mentors to provide psychosocial support to girls in school.

Selection of students

The selection process for the new SHS1 students began in September–November 2015, with the training of School Selection Panels, groups of school and community stakeholders who are responsible for selecting girls for bursary support.

Between the 29th September and the 1st October, 27 experienced stakeholders (14 women and 13 men) from across Camfed’s partner districts and Camfed staff participated in a three-day Training of Trainers Workshop. This workshop refreshed and deepened their expertise on the Camfed bursary model and prepared them to cascade this knowledge to Junior and Senior High School Selection Panels.

The trainers subsequently trained 417 school stakeholders, 417 CAMA members, 341 District Education Committee (DEC) members, and 31 District Facilitators to participate in JHS and SHS Selection Panels at two-day trainings at district level across October and November.2 Using interactive methods including group assignments, demonstrations, and presentations, the Trainers worked with the stakeholders to create bursary action plans for the 2015/16 academic year and to integrate the new processes within them. They held sessions on every element of the bursary process: disseminating information and community sensitization about the Camfed bursary programme – with some stakeholders sharing the success of using radio announcements in schools to advertise the opportunity; using the application and assessment forms; clarifying and verifying information through home visits and interviews; ranking candidates and then reporting decisions to Camfed; informing applicants of positive and negative decisions; bursary entitlements and disbursements; and the role of Teacher Mentors in supporting bursary students. The stakeholders worked with the other members of the Selection Panels to rank selection criteria for their respective districts.

The selection process itself was delayed due to a late allocation of SHS1 students to schools (see more under Challenges). Once SHS1 students began to register at schools in November, students started applying for support and the selection committees conducted interviews and meetings with parents, guardians, and students, to confirm that the girls meet the criteria for bursary support. The Camfed Ghana Education Programme team also

2 One school stakeholder from 331 JHSs and two school stakeholders from 43 SHSs.

3 supported the selection process through monitoring in all partner districts over the quarter, following up with the selection committees when they identified any queries.

School-based monitoring

At the start of each new academic year, Camfed’s Teacher Mentors confirm the status of continuing students via mobile monitoring in order to enable the release of Camfed funds for school fee payments and bursary entitlement procurements. In the previous and current academic years, the verification and fee payment processes have been supported by new data-collection and financial methods designed to improve Camfed’s efficiency, and based on past stakeholder and staff feedback.

Procurement and distribution of bursary items and fees

After successfully completing the selection of new SHS1 students by the end of December 2015, teams made up of stakeholders including CAMA members, DEC members, Teacher Mentors and District Facilitators led the distribution of bursary items for all students at community durbars in the first quarter of 2016. This began with soap and food distribution in February and was followed by the distribution of other bursary items including books, mathematical sets, sanitary wear, uniforms, and school bags in March.

This quarter, Camfed made early preparations in June and July for the procurement of bursary items for SHS2 and SHS3 students entering the new academic year, while items for continuing JHS3 students were paid for at the end of September, along with school and examination fees for continuing students. As before, the school-going items will be distributed at community durbars in October and November when all students will have returned to school.

Community durbars are held at district level and at Senior High Schools for SHS students. The involvement of parents is critical to these events. Both the supported student and her respective guardian or Teacher Mentor co-signed a document to confirm that the individual girl had received all the correct items. Camfed staff, Camfed monitoring teams, Teacher Mentors, and officials including Girl Child Officers addressed students and their parents and led discussions around the changes to Camfed’s bursaries, Camfed’s strategic plan and objectives, child protection, and the many challenges that girls face in completing their education. During the distribution durbars this year, Camfed followed up with parents and students on the revised package, and the overall feedback was that the changes were highly satisfactory.

Bursary delivery throughout this period has reinforced the principles that Camfed’s model is stakeholder-led, responsive to feedback, and inclusive of families and the wider community. Adaptations in this school year in response to feedback include:

 Camfed doubled the size of the SHS Selection Panels so that they include two District Education Committee (DEC) members, two CAMA members, and two school representatives in recognition of and responding to the wider pool of candidates that apply at SHS compared to JHS;

 Between October and December 2015, School Selection Panels were empowered to create their own district-specific selection criteria, to reflect slightly different priorities and contextual factors between districts;  School Selection Panels were trained on the changes to the new bursary packages, which provide different items for different year groups based on the results of student and stakeholder surveys.

Impact weighting: 30%

Revised since proposal submitted: Yes

Output 2: National and local initiatives that tackle obstacles to children’s enrolment and success in 30 target districts

Output 2 milestones to be achieved by October 2016:

 778 Teacher Mentors provided with new/refresher training to provide psychosocial help to bursary students (cumulative)  32 learning visits by Ghana Education Service staff from outside the districts to any of the 31 target districts (cumulative)  1,150 stakeholders, including Girls’ Education Unit officers, participating in national level fora on Girls’ Education (cumulative)  260 schools that develop a School Improvement Plan as part of the Planning for School Excellence (PSE) process (cumulative)

Output 2 score: A

Progress against expected results:

Camfed has already met or exceeded all targets under this output. Since October 2015, Camfed has led a number of initiatives to support children’s enrolment and success. These include engaging with a wide range of Camfed stakeholders: holding District and National Annual General Meetings; training new Teacher Mentors (exceeding the target of 778), as well as DEC members and SMC members; and providing ongoing support for stakeholders and their monitoring. Additionally, Camfed has engaged with the Ghana Education Service’s Girls’ Education Unit (GEU) on a number of fronts; 38 learning visits have been held since the beginning of the grant and 1,152 stakeholders have participated in national level fora such as the GEU Learning Forum. Camfed has also acted as a partner to conduct research pertaining to education and gender issues across Ghana.

Performance Description:

District and national level meetings for stakeholders

District Annual General Meetings (AGMs)

This quarter, District level AGMs (DAGMs) were held across Camfed Ghana’s 31 partner districts from 18th to 30th September 2016. These were two-day meetings bringing together a range of district-level educational stakeholders, from community leaders and district education officials, to Head Teachers and Teacher Mentors, to PSG representatives and CAMA members. Stakeholders used the meetings to reflect on successes, challenges and lessons from the previous year and share experiences and best practice from both funded and non-funded activities undertaken. This was also an opportunity to plan and budget for the year to come.

All DAGMs had different themes depending on the communities’ and districts’ needs assessments. Each district had a planning committee established to consult with all stakeholders to highlight priority issues in the districts that needed to be addressed, thus resulting in an appropriate theme. This participatory approach adopted in organising the DAGMS ensured that district stakeholders themselves felt ownership of their issues and hence came up with practical ideas, which have been included in their annual district work plans. Even though the theme differed, the majority of the themes focused on how stakeholders could mobilise resources to promote and support the education of the girl- child in their districts.

Participants noted a number of highlights from the past year, including:

 Successful implementation of the bursary programme, including the selection and orientation of new SHS bursary recipients and the disbursement of bursary items to beneficiaries.  Engagement of students in competitions to increase their learning and motivation, including inter-school quizzes, debates and essay writing competitions, as well as the strengthening of girls’ clubs to improve performance of girls at school. Work by Teacher Mentors to help students prepare for the BECE through extra classes was also recognised.  Initiatives conducted by MEC and CAMA members to support education and young people in the districts, such as visiting schools to give talks on reproductive health and teenage pregnancy. In Tamale, the MEC has introduced the ‘Adopt a school’ initiative, whereby each school is ‘adopted’ by an MEC member as a patron, who then visits the school regularly to provide support to Teacher Mentors and beneficiaries. These activities have been complemented by those which are not donor-funded, including community sensitisation on child protection and the importance of girls’ education, as well as role model outreach programmes involving CAMA.  Community contributions to support children to access quality education, including material goods such as ovens, baking sheets, computers, notice boards, benches, and drying lines, as well as the payment of school and examination fees for needy girls.

Participants also suggested a number of recommendations for future activities, including the development of community philanthropy, raising funds through official bodies such as the PTA, Church or Mosque, and through community fundraising at durbars. It was also noted that these funds could be streamlined, through PTA/SMC collaboration with religious institutions, into a fund specifically for girl-child education. Stakeholders recognised the

6 need for philanthropy to be properly documented and managed to ensure accountability and transparency, and reach the highest number of needy children. The new responsive bursary scheme was also discussed at several DAGMs, with participants identifying strategies for streamlining the bursary package, for example by retaining text books from beneficiaries when they leave school to be used by a new girl.

National AGM

Following the District AGMs, Camfed’s National AGM took place on 13th October 2016 – updates from this will be detailed in the final report in January. Last year’s AGM, in October 2015, was held on the theme: “Achieving Camfed’s Five-Year Strategic Plan: the role of Stakeholders”. Attendees included ministry representatives, local and school stakeholders, development partners, parents, and students.

Staff from each of Camfed’s teams made presentations on the achievements of 2015 and plans for 2016. Staff highlighted:

 The review of Camfed’s bursary processes and entitlements to make bursaries more responsive and reach more clients;  The integration of Camfed’s financial system into its data management system;  The joint engagement of past examiners and Junior High School teachers, School Headmasters, and circuit supervisors to identify common mistakes students made in their BECE examinations and to support students to increase their grades;  Interventions to support the quality of students’ learning through extra tuition and the increase in their self-esteem and wellbeing through initiatives including Leadership Conferences, Camps, and competitions;  The increase in engagement of district stakeholders to identify community initiatives to support vulnerable girls;  Strengthening the role and remit of Teacher Mentors across the 31 districts through DEC/ SMC support and training.

A Facilitator for Agona East District commented: “The AGM is a great platform, it demonstrates that Camfed shares its activities with its stakeholders and takes inputs from them. This will make activity implementation easy as stakeholders and Camfed jointly agree on what to do in the future”. A Junior High School bursary student also explained her opinion of the AGM: “The AGM is a very good thing and it strengthens the work of Camfed. It gives you the opportunity to talk about your views of Camfed and the work they are doing. I am now aware of Camfed’s plans for the future”.

Building the capacity of stakeholders to support children

Teacher Mentor Training and Exchange visits

In response to the transfer of Teacher Mentors from partner schools to non-partner schools, Camfed held a three-day training at District level for 168 newly selected Teacher Mentors in eight districts in the Northern, Upper East, and Central Regions. The training was held in December 2015 and was designed to enable teachers to provide psychosocial

7 support and guidance to students and to encourage students’ academic achievements. Topics included: child protection and development; guidance and counselling; leadership and financial management; networks and networking; and strengthening girls’ clubs. The training introduced Teacher Mentors to Camfed’s Child Protection Policy and provided clear practical guidelines on how to provide guidance and counselling to children. Teacher Mentors also learnt about the Teacher Mentors Network and their opportunities for development and leadership in the election of the executives of this network. An additional 30 Head Teachers and 2 District Girls Education Officers attended the training to reinforce their understanding and support of Camfed’s processes and to encourage their collaboration in ensuring that schools are safe spaces for students.

Six months later, on the 15th and 16th of June, Camfed held Teacher Mentor training for a further 51 new Teacher Mentors in Sagnarigu District, who had replaced those who had been transferred to non Camfed partner schools by the GES. The Teacher Mentors came from 6 districts (Tamale Metro, Kpandai, Nanumba North, Savelugu, Lambussie Karni and Sagnarigu). In addition to confirming their own role and responsibilities, Teacher Mentors brainstormed how to foster greater collaboration with Head Teachers and the SMC/PTA to enable them to work together effectively to support children’s needs, uphold child protection, and make improvements for their schools. They confirmed the need to hold regular meetings, to talk to parents, and to visit stakeholders and Chiefs to share learning and make plans.

Teacher Mentors also took part in exchanges across 46 of Camfed’s partner Senior High schools between 23rd and 27th May 2016 visiting other schools with Camfed staff. This experience has led to individual Teacher Mentors and Camfed making changes. Some Teacher Mentors pledged to increase the collaboration between school authorities and parents and to take more action to increase young women’s leadership at the school level after seeing the examples of other schools. There was also a commitment to promote end of year performance assessment meetings of school staff, parents and students as a strategy to improve performance in some partner schools. Camfed is also exploring the idea of designing annual evaluation forms for students to assess the performance of their Teacher Mentors. Although Camfed asks for students’ feedback on their Teacher Mentors during monitoring, this form could be used as an additional tool to share more information with Teacher Mentors to help them to improve their practices and support for students.

DEC Training

Between 30th March and 2nd April 2016, Camfed invited 41 stakeholders to Tamale for training to take up new positions in DECs (District Education Committees). Camfed staff facilitated training across a range of topics, representative of the broad remit of the DECs. After a day’s in-depth orientation on Camfed programmes, the training covered additional sessions on Camfed’s Strategic Plan; conflict management; gender and development; child protection; guidance and counselling; and group dynamics, leadership skills, and communication. The training was also an opportunity for the Head Teachers to get to know and understand the role of the DEC. This will help Head Teachers to make a well-informed

8 decision on who to nominate as a DEC member based on their in-depth understanding of a DEC’s role.

The DECs increased their knowledge of their role and Camfed’s expectations of them. The sessions covered skills they will need, for example, in monitoring Camfed’s programmes and in supporting Camfed’s financial processes. Camfed Ghana’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer talked to participants about Camfed’s Impact team and how the DECs collect data and track activities to ensure programmes are effective and to gather feedback to improve Camfed’s processes. Camfed Ghana’s Finance Officer discussed the importance of budgeting and transparency in Camfed’s finances, and the practicalities of DECs releasing funds, collecting receipts, and retiring funds. In addition to increasing their ability to provide technical support to enhance programme delivery, other objectives of the training were to increase the stakeholders’ confidence to work with Teacher Mentors, schools, and Parent Support Groups, and to support children and young women in the CAMA network. The DEC members, who represent different groups already working with children, such as local government officials, traditional leaders, and teachers, were encouraged to share their experiences of working with students and the challenges they faced or the success they had in supporting them. For example, a Girl Child Officer for Twifo Atti-Morkwa District spoke about the importance of continued counselling for girls who have experienced abuse even after they are taken out of difficult situations and are attending school. Camfed staff and the DEC members also discussed the importance of forming and strengthening Child Protection Committees within schools, which will contribute to greater awareness of the school’s Child Protection Policy within schools and in the wider community.

At the end of the training, a DEC member from Sissala East District said: “I have improved my knowledge about the activities and programmes of Camfed. I have also built my capacity on group dynamic and learned about [Camfed’s] Child Protection Policy and composition of committees for Child Protection. I have also made a lot of friends and I have learned how to cooperate and work with group members.” Another DEC member from Twifo Atti-Morkwa District explained, “The training content was well- tailored to guide us in our work as a committee”.

The success of the programme has been demonstrated in the effective facilitation of the selection process. Feedback from the DEC members on the Gender and Development training has highlighted that, “As a team, we now stress on the inclusiveness of both sexes in our activities. For instance we ensure that we solicit the views of the young CAMA members in our team. The CAMA ladies bring a lot of experience from their interactions with young girls and as a result we are able to learn from their experiences and this informs how we implement our girl-child related activities in the school as DEC.” (Karaga DEC Chairman)

The impact of the trainings, according to the Nanumba South DEC chairperson, “is so pronounced in the activities of the DEC. On guidance and counselling, the chairperson enumerated how this training has helped them. He mentioned that in the first quarter of 2016, the DEC through its interactions with the beneficiaries provided counselling to Sandra, a beneficiary in the JHS. Sandra become pregnant and was at the verge of being

9 dropped out of school; but for the timely intervention of the DEC Sandra returned to school after delivery.”

School Management Committee (SMC) Training

In May–June 2016, District Facilitators and Teacher Mentors led two-day SMC training in Camfed’s 25 partner districts. Attendees included both experienced and new SMC members, who were in some cases accompanied by PTA members. The training covered and reinforced core areas of the SMC’s role in schools and in relation to Camfed, including child protection, school management, financial management, monitoring, and reporting to Camfed. During the meeting, SMC members learnt about Camfed’s Strategic Plan and discussed how they could assist with Camfed’s commitments to support 1,000,000 girls through school and to generate new funding mechanisms in support of students.

Crucially, Camfed also used this training to gather the SMC’s self-evaluation of their work and the training they have received. Together with the other perspectives gathered as part of monitoring at schools, this information is supporting Camfed to improve its support for stakeholders and students. SMC members were pleased with the training they had received to date. Feedback on this training included that they found discussion of how to draw up School Improvement Plans with Head Teachers and around how to fundraise for their respective schools very useful. They identified a number of strengths across their different districts that they attributed to their past training:

 SMCs have had success in liaising with parents, encouraging active PTA committees, following up with parents to ensure pupils stay in school, and leading to parents donating to schools;  SMCs have worked well with authorities including strengthening school management with school leadership, liaising with the GES to ensure there are sufficient teachers posted to schools, and strengthening community child protection procedures through their work with Chiefs.  SMCs have successfully fundraised to support school developments – including renovating classrooms, building computer laboratories and toilets, and funding electricity – and for individual students’ education.  SMCs have monitored students and through their engagement with students and teachers supported students in a number of ways, with examples including arranging extra tuition sessions for struggling students and hosting talks on personal hygiene and teenage pregnancy.

Recommendations from specific SMC members included that it would be useful to have more knowledge on reproductive health and that Parent Support Groups would benefit from some of the training designed for SMCs.

Stakeholder support and monitoring

Building on the training received, District Education Committees (DECs) and School Management Committees (SMCs) have supported schools’ administration in a number of ways through their regular monitoring visits. DECs made their termly visits to support

SMCs, monitor students, and collect further information on the welfare of students and incidences of drop-out. They also visited schools and spoke to Teacher Mentors to support the planning of their activities for the 2015/16 academic year. SMCs and associated Parent Teacher Association (PTA) executives visited schools multiple times in a month and, in some districts, on a weekly basis. Their regular visits and involvement in PSE has led to strong relationships with Head Teachers, Teacher Mentors, and Camfed students. From across Camfed’s partner districts, SMCs are recording improvements in:

 The implementation of Child Protection Policies. SMCs and PTAs are sitting alongside School Administration on Child Protection Committees and following up on cases of child marriage, pregnancy cases, and school dropouts;  School management as SMCs share checklists with schools to track absenteeism of staff and pupils and monitor teachers. The PTA Chairman for Zo-Simli Girls’ Junior High School said, “Teacher availability and quality of delivery in schools has improved through regular monitoring of teachers by the PTA/SMC”.  The maintenance of furniture and school equipment. SMCs are encouraging PTAs and schools stakeholders to repair or supplement school equipment;  Support for the end of child marriage. SMCs are increasing awareness of local bye- laws that are against child, early and forced marriage, in conjunction with the national message from the Ghana Government.

Engagement and support to the Girls’ Education Unit (GEU)

GEU Exchange visits

Over the course of the grant, exchange visits have been organized for Girls’ Education Officers to visit different districts. The objectives of the exchanges were for the Girls’ Education Officers to learn from each other’s experiences and to exchange best practice, especially around topics including how to prevent early marriage and teenage pregnancy, how to improve sanitation in schools and their environments, and how to improve learning and examination practices for girls. With the organisation led by the national office of the GEU, a total of 12 Municipal and District Girls’ Education Officers have participated in the exchange programme, working together to pick up new tools and lessons to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency in their districts. The district Girls’ Education Officers have used the exchanges to talk to girls about topics including problem-solving skills, goal setting and the causes, effects and prevention of early marriage and teenage pregnancy.

Girls’ Education Unit Learning Forum

Meetings were held with officials of the GEU in preparation for the annual National Forum for Girls’ Education Officers. The forum was held on June 20th-21st at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra on the theme “Stirring up Girls’ Ambition: A Spur to Enhanced Learning Outcomes”.

GEU staff from across Ghana was invited to attend this annual conference and other attendees included the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, DFID, USAID, Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations, academics, and stakeholders

from the education sector. Key activities included agenda setting, presentations on research findings, group work and group presentations, and training in adolescent reproductive health. The occasion also provided a platform for reviewing previous activities, sharing experiences, and planning for future activities and collaboration.

The forum provided an important opportunity for presentations and discussions on some of the research findings from the GEU and Camfed studies funded by this grant.

Joint research with the GEU

Since the beginning of the grant, Camfed has collaborated with the GEU on research projects covering gender and aspirations among JHS students and the impact of girls’ clubs on the retention of girls in JHS. Over the last 12 months, Camfed and the GEU oversaw two further pieces of research conducted under this grant.

‘The Role of Parents in Their Children’s Aspirations, Life Choices and Educational Attainment from a Gendered Perspective’

The first research piece explored the extent to which the gendered upbringing by parents makes a difference to their children’s aspirations, life choices, and educational attainment, and aimed to identify gaps and make recommendations for further work with parents and communities to support high aspirations and attainment for both girls and boys.

Fieldwork for the research took place between 18th January and 1st February. Data was gathered from students and parents3 linked to 12 JHSs (half high-performing and half low- performing schools) in one urban and one rural district in three regions – Greater Accra, Eastern, and Northern Regions of Ghana. The research was designed to include representation across three different geographical zones (coastal, middle, and savannah areas), a mixture of lower and higher performing students and schools, a balanced sample of female and male students, a mixture of female and male parents, different socio- economic backgrounds, and both urban and rural communities.

Each member of the consultancy team leading the research was assigned to one region to conduct both qualitative and quantitative data collection concurrently. Methods included questionnaires, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and stakeholder interviews. Children and parents were interviewed both together and separately to allow participants to express themselves as freely as possible. The interviews were designed to explore the relationship between children’s aspirations, life choices and educational attainment levels and the relationship between parents and the children related to these areas. This approach supported the Research Team to understand the similarity between the students’ own perceptions about their attainment and aspirations, and parents’ understanding of these. The joint interviews were also an opportunity to observe the interaction between parents and children, such as the body language of the children, how

3 This study sampled from a range of adults responsible for parenting JHS students including biological parents, foster parents, and guardians, representing different family dynamics in Ghana. They are generally referred to as “parents” in this study.

12 much the children were able to say in the presence of their parents, and the communication flow between parent and child.

Key findings from the research include:

 Supportive parental attitudes play a critical role in shaping children's aspirations, life choices and educational attainment. For example, parental supervision of children's homework was found to be strongly associated with children's expectation to attain higher education among both boys and girls.  Parents' socio-economic backgrounds, especially educational and income levels had significant influences on children's educational attainment and career aspirations. For example, parents' levels of education were found to be positively associated with children's educational attainment and career aspirations. Specifically, academic performance of children whose mothers had tertiary education was markedly higher compared to children whose mothers had lower levels of education. Maternal education also seemed to have a stronger influence on the educational attainment of female children than male children.  Perceived financial difficulties seemed to constrain children's educational and career choices and lowered parents' expectations regarding what their children could achieve.  Parental perceptions of the roles and expectations for their children were not strongly gendered especially in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions, as compared to the Northern region.

‘School Governance in Public Junior High Schools in Ghana from a Gender Perspective’

The second of the research pieces conducted this year focussed on how the gender composition of SMCs contribute to effective school governance in public JHSs and influence decision-making and outcomes, particularly for female pupils. The study also sought to make recommendations for further work to support effective school governance structures to encourage the retention of male and female pupils in gender-friendly schools.

Activities this quarter involved the fieldwork for the study, which took place from 18th– 29th July 2016. The research was conducted in two regions of the country – Eastern and Northern regions – taking variations in cultural and economic characteristics into consideration. Two districts of each of the regions – one urban and one rural – whilst two public JHS were chosen from each district, making a total of four schools per region and eight schools in total. The selection of two schools per district was made in such a way that a balance of female-male SMC composition was achieved – comprising a range of schools that have high and low ratios across both urban and rural settings. Research was mainly qualitative in nature, with data gathered through focus group discussions, interviews and observations. Quantitative data was gleaned from school-level statistics as well as district level EMIS data. Participants included students, teachers, SMC members, and the District Director of Education and GEU officer in each district.

The research report is currently being finalised and is expected to be submitted by November 2016. Key findings from the research will therefore be included in the final report to be submitted in January 2017.

Establishment of the Girls’ Education Network

Camfed has also been working with the GEU and other partners to form a Girls’ Education Network (GEN), which would coordinate work between different organisations (government departments and agencies, civil society organizations, donor partners, educational/research institutions and other practitioners) supporting girls’ education in Ghana and committing to the sharing of research and best practice. It will also support the GEU to provide oversight and support to organisations working on girls’ education within the country and will help Ghana to fulfil its commitment to SDGs 4 and 5, which aim to promote inclusive and quality education, and achieve gender equality and empowerment for all girls. The network has been discussed with GES Director and the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC).

Initial planning meetings have been taking place this quarter to discuss the scope of the GEN and set an operational framework for its advisory body. One such meeting was held on 29th August 2016 in Accra, attended by representatives of Camfed Ghana, DFID, UNICEF, UNESCO, and other organisations, along with GES and GEU officials. Camfed Ghana will play a central role, acting as one of five members of the taskforce alongside UNICEF, UNESCO, T-Tel and USAID Learning, and work on this has been ongoing throughout September. Meetings were held on 7th and 29th September to develop the TOR and a third meeting is planned to finalise them and set up the advisory body.

Impact weighting: 20%

Revised since proposal submitted: Yes

Output 3: Improved data collection about partner schools and bursary girls through mobile technology to inform decision-making and share back information at school and district level

Output 3 milestones to be achieved by October 2016:

 500 people at school and district level trained in data collection through mobile technology to track partner schools and bursary girls (cumulative)  260 schools using data (including school-level data such as enrolments, retention, pupil-teacher ratios etc.) gathered through mobile technology to draw up School Improvement Plans, as part of PSE process (cumulative)  30 District Education Committees supplied with data (including data on girls) gathered through mobile technology (cumulative)

Output 3 score: A+

Progress against expected results:

Camfed has met or exceeded all of its targets under Output 3. In total, 808 people have received training in data collection through mobile technology, including Teacher Mentors CAMA members, and all 31 DECs who are using mobile monitoring and receiving this data. Across the course of this grant, 260 Planning for School Excellence committees have been empowered to share school-specific data widely within their school communities and to make school action plans to improve the education available to students.

Performance Description:

Data collection using mobile devices

Verification of continuing students

At the start of each term, Teacher Mentors verify beneficiary information as part of the verification process. This quarter, in preparation for the verification of beneficiaries in October, data collection tools were finalised and shared with Teacher Mentors to kick start the exercise. The verification will mainly focus gathering information about the status of beneficiaries’ progression, attendance, and academic performance and is expected to be complete by November.

In previous years, Teacher Mentors uploaded verification data through mobile monitoring and Camfed staff contacted individual schools where there was a delay to the receipt of data or incomplete data. Now, as part of the verification process, Camfed has created and trained District Data Verification Teams, made up of a Circuit Supervisor, former District Education Committee (DEC) member and a Teacher Mentor. These teams are responsible for liaising with school stakeholders in their districts throughout the year to ensure that data on the returning status of students, their attendance, and performance is received on time and is accurate. In the case of returning students, Teacher Mentors are still responsible for uploading the data via mobile monitoring, but the District Data Verification Team directly supports them to ensure this data is sent on time and to solve any problems they have in recording the data or uploading it on the ODK system. Once the Camfed office has received all of the data, the District Data Verification Team takes a hard copy of all the received data to the Teacher Mentors and Head Teachers, who endorse the contents with their signature or alert the team of any changes. This process also directly involves Head Teachers, keeping them engaged and aware of Camfed’s activities at their schools. In the last quarter of 2015 Camfed’s Impact team also sampled the schools to spot-check the quality of the data and to ask stakeholders about the new processes. Initial feedback found that the new District Data Verification Teams had helped Teacher Mentors to keep to their timelines and assisted them with problems.

Increased efficiency in this process was also achieved through the integration of Camfed’s financial systems into FinancialForce, which is part of Salesforce, Camfed’s secure Salesforce database through a cloud-based system. Prior to the integration of the systems, school fee payment sheets were extracted from Salesforce and had to be reformatted to be entered into the financial system. Additionally, more detailed financial information is

15 now stored on each individual girl’s Salesforce record showing a full breakdown of the school fees and entitlements that were paid, and their individual unit costs.

Refresher training for DEC Monitoring and Evaluation Resource People (MERPs) and Teacher Mentors

Between 22nd February and 4th March, Camfed held training for DEC MERPs and Teacher Mentors, reaching 640 people in total. The stakeholders received hands-on training on how to use the Open Data-Kit (ODK) application to upload monitoring information to individual girls’ records on Salesforce. Participants were taken through methods to improve data quality and the Camfed’s timelines for monitoring. The attendees included stakeholders who had experience using the system and 186 stakeholders who were being trained for the first time. Within this context, the stakeholders were asked to share their experiences of mobile monitoring, enabling Camfed to support them to overcome any challenges (including practical support for mobile phone functions) and encouraging peer-to-peer advice and facilitation from those who had the most experience. Camfed also took this opportunity to share data from specific schools with respective Teacher Mentors for their confirmation and feedback. This helped the Camfed Impact Team to update and check their records.

In line with our Strategic Plan, Camfed has developed a Philanthropy Tool, designed to quantify community philanthropy so that Camfed is able to record and share with donors the full impact and value of contributions made by our committed activist networks. The need to record and share this information is in line with Camfed’s Strategic Plan, which lays out the potential for an innovative ‘matched’ funding model based on this philanthropy, to bring new resources into the programme and maximise value for money. A new element of the training was therefore the introduction of the Philanthropy Tool, which is being piloted this year. Teacher Mentors and DEC MERPs were trained to use the draft Termly Philanthropy Tool, which aims to capture stakeholders’ personal and collective contributions to supporting marginalised students to attend school. They also gave their feedback on the tool to support its development (some of which is featured under the Key Challenges section).

Training for CAMA MERPs

Additionally, on the 28th and 29th May 2016, Camfed staff provided refresher training for 84 CAMA MERPs. One event was held in Tamale for CAMA MERPs from Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions and another training event was held in Saltpond for the CAMA MERPs from Central Region. Across the two days, the CAMA MERPs covered many aspects of mobile monitoring and the ODK programme used to collect data. Camfed staff explained some modifications to their data forms and introduced the CAMA MERPs to Camfed’s Philanthropy Tool, mentioned above. The CAMA MERPs shared their experiences of the benefits and challenges of phone monitoring and practiced mobile monitoring exercises in groups. The training was designed to build their confidence in using the technology and in training and supporting other stakeholders. This training precluded the monitoring of the receipt of bursary entitlements in June and July this year.

Planning for School Excellence (PSE)

Through the Planning for School Excellence (PSE) initiative, Camfed provides easily assessable data for specific schools, including student attendance and performance disaggregated by gender, and information on the number of teachers and about the quality of school infrastructure. This data is shared with school stakeholders, parents, and students, who identify positive and negative trends and form action plans, detailing the activities they will launch to address their respective school’s challenges and who is responsible for taking the activities forward. This grant has enabled Camfed to scale its PSE programme to 260 schools in ten districts and this year PSE Resource Team members collected tracking tools and school plans from the 27 schools who had not previously submitted their plans.

An overall assessment of PSE was conducted this year to measure the sustainability of the PSE programme. The survey was conducted with a sample of partner schools and a range of stakeholders, including Head Teachers, teachers, SBC members, Parent Support Group members, other parents, CAMA representatives and students, PSE facilitators, DEC members, and District Directors of Education. In total, eight partner schools were surveyed from six partner districts, with the survey examining the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and replicability of the PSE initiative in the sample group. Fieldwork was completed this quarter, in August 2016, and results are now being analysed, with the final report expected in November. Results will be used to recommend methods to support the longevity and increase the momentum of this initiative.

Impact weighting: 20%

Revised since proposal submitted: Yes

Complementary activities:

Wraparound support for girls at school

Under this grant, Camfed and its community activists have increased initiatives focused on the quality of education and have expanded and diversified their support for young women who have graduated from school, which is complementing the impact of this grant. Over the past 12 months:

 SHS1 students in all of Camfed’s partner schools received career guidance sessions led by a trained facilitator;  Camfed supported extra tuition in core subjects at many of Camfed’s High Schools that DFID-supported students attend to increase learning outcomes and performance in the BECE and WASSCE examinations.  There have also been district-specific activities led by community activists. In Nanumba South District, the DEC spearheaded a new initiative of reading clubs at JHS schools. In January, the DEC held consultative meetings with Teacher Mentors and Head Teachers about the reading clubs that would be run by Teacher Mentors outside

of school hours. Teacher Mentors and Head Teaches across the ten partner JHSs in the district pledged their support and a pilot was rolled out in five schools in February. DEC and CAMA members undertook monitoring visits in March and found that attendance was high and that both Teacher Mentors and students were enthusiastic to continue the programme. The DECs now plan to introduce the initiative in the other JHSs and in primary schools.  Ongoing activities to support girls who have completed secondary school have been introduced, which include the Learner Guide Programme, through which young women who have recently completed school with bursary support volunteer in schools to support the wellbeing and learning of SHS1 students. In return for their philanthropy they receive an incentive scheme and access to an interest-free loan. For more information on how the Learner Guide Programme is benefitting students, see Annex F.

Review of the impact of School Management Committees (SMCs) and Teacher Mentors

In May 2016 Camfed held interviews, focus groups, and observed bursary students, Teacher Mentors, Head Teachers, and SMC members in Camfed partner schools to gather information on the SMC’s influence on the school administration and students’ welfare, and the impact of Teacher Mentors on students’ academic achievements and pastoral wellbeing.

Camfed found that both SMCs and Teacher Mentors were well respected by all groups, who agreed that SMCs and Teacher Mentors were having a positive impact on students’ wellbeing, attendance, retention, and performance. Both groups also attested that Camfed’s training had developed their skills in these areas. Interviewees explained that SMCs had had an impact on school management, financial management, and child protection. For example, in Garu-Tempane District, SMC and PTA representatives knew that students were staying in insecure accommodation and so fundraised to construct a boarding house for 300 girls and then built a compound for staff to stay in to be able to monitor the girls staying on the school campus. In West Gonja, after training in financial management from Camfed, SMCs adopted better financial management strategies including opening bank accounts and putting in place strict guidelines for the raising and spending of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) funds according to Ghana Education Service (GES) procedures.

Students reported that Teacher Mentors provided them with advice, helped them to stay in school when they could have dropped out, and supported their learning through launching mentoring programmes, Girls’ Clubs, and extracurricular activities. One student from Bulsa District explained the impact of her Teacher Mentor: “I was always alone and quiet. I used to come to school every day but miss classes most of time. During class hours I mostly ran away and reappeared when classes were over. This went on for a while. My Teacher Mentor had observed me and knew there was something bothering me. He called me one day and had a lengthy chat with me to understand my problem. I told him that, ‘I do not feel comfortable sitting in class and I don’t know why.’ He started by first of all opening up to me, making me feel loved and at home and then gradually

18 introduced some girls to me as friends. This has worked perfectly. I am now a different girl altogether; the direct opposite of my old self.”

Teacher Mentors regularly follow up with girls at risk of dropping out of school and talk with their parents and them to find solutions to keep them in school. In Garu-Tempane District, there were examples of students who had been identified in their wider communities by Teacher Mentors and supported to return to school. One bursary student said “I dropped out of school not because of poor performance but teenage pregnancy. After delivery, I started selling macaroni in Garu Town to support myself since there was no support. One day, a Teacher Mentor talked to me about going back to school. She finally collected a transfer letter from my former school for me and admission into my new school for me as well and I went back to school. Now I am in my final year and doing well in school, especially in debate competitions. I was judged the best speaker in debating during the 2015 inter-School debate competition in the Upper East Region.”

CAMA inductions and graduation ceremonies

During May 2016, all of the 6,950 graduating SHS students supported under this grant were invited to CAMA inductions and graduation ceremonies, co-funded by CAMA contributions and another donor. These were held across four days at regional level. The events celebrated students’ successful completion of SHS, introduced them to a variety of future career and educational options, provided support for tertiary applications, sparked discussion about how they would lead change in their communities, encouraged them to network with each other and keep in contact with Camfed, and formally inducted them into the CAMA network. In their introduction to CAMA, they attended sessions led by District CAMA Chairpersons on understanding the benefits of the peer support and opportunities in CAMA, and on CAMA’s structure, values, and membership, programmes, and community service activities.

Key stakeholders – including Girls’ Education Officers, Chiefs, CAMA Chairpersons, and Camfed staff – provided advice and inspiration for the young women as they prepare for the transition to the next stage in their lives. The regional Girls’ Education Officer for Tamale Metro was at the Northern Region event. She told the young women: “My daughters, life after school is a transition from classroom learning to social learning. Make use of the opportunities in the CAMA network and never end a day without laying a block for a good future.” Professionals such as doctors, nurses, police and entrepreneurs spoke about potential careers and Camfed Ghana’s IT team led sessions on internet safety and set up email addresses and SEN accounts for each of the young women. Sakina who is just finishing SHS3 explained: “The program was interactive, educative and very interesting. When I came here I had the chance to make new friends and also meet old friends of mine that I have not seen in a while. I say ‘ayekoo’ [‘well done’] to the organisers of this induction”. Seventeen year old Yakubu explained, “I see CAMA members as a big family I can rely on. From the time I received bursary support, visitations by CAMA members made us happy and gingered to learn. I know my life as a CAMA member will indeed bring out the best in me.”

4. Progress and Results

Overall output score: A

Summary of overall progress

The project is on track at the end of its final full year with all output milestones for planned activities either met or exceeded at this stage and on track to achieve the overall project targets. In total, 32,120 girls have been supported in their education to date – 16,000 in JHS and 16,120 in SHS. They have been supported by 778 Teacher Mentors trained to provide psychosocial support, who are part of a wider network of community and district level stakeholders and committee members working to keep girls in school. The richness of learning and strong collaboration between Camfed Ghana and the GES and GEU are major outcomes of the grant and will support further programming in the future. Similarly, the project has enabled Camfed to evolve some of the core elements of its programme – training, procurement, and community advocacy – so that these work effectively at scale and are led locally by active and engaged government and community partners.

The project has supported the existing education system in Ghana with the aim of strengthening school management and building up community-school cohesion. Camfed will continue as one among many stakeholders working for the rights of vulnerable children in rural Ghana. The experience and knowledge developed in partnership with these stakeholder networks through the delivery of this grant has been central to Camfed’s development over the past four years, and is key to Camfed’s vision of sustainable partnerships. The DECs are providing strong leadership and coordination of the stakeholder groups involved at a district level. Each stakeholder group has made a significant contribution to the social capital that is building up in the target districts, and Camfed envisages this as a positive trend that will continue in the long term.

Changes in the project design (logframe, budget, workplan) or operating context (including risks):

The final evaluation of this project has been postponed until the third quarter of 2017, per agreement with DFID, in order to encompass activities occurring under the proposed extension grant, should this be successful.

Key challenges and lessons

Challenges

In the last quarter of 2015, challenges were experienced with the postponed release of BECE results and subsequent late allocation of students to Senior High Schools. This delayed the selection of 1,120 SHS1 students under this grant at the start of the previous academic year. Camfed responded to address this issue and made as many arrangements as it could, continuing training selection committees and making arrangements for bursary items to be supplied, with all students selected by December.

Camfed chose to prepare for the distribution of bursary items for SHS students entering the current academic year during the previous quarter, in anticipation of the potential disruption to procurement of items which may have been caused by the General Election, due to be held on 7th November 2016 but which was later rejected by Parliament and now scheduled for 7th December 2016. Camfed met with suppliers, signed contracts, and procured bursary items in June which were then delivered by suppliers in July. Delays in receiving payment for this quarter meant that bursary items were unable to be procured early for returning JHS3 students, but nonetheless payments were completed by the end of September.

At the National AGM in November, other specific challenges were also identified. These included the late submission of bills from some schools for fee payments and the late return of financial retirements from some districts. As a result, Camfed has created an award system for the best performing DECs to recognise those whose systems are working best and incentivise others to follow their example. Stakeholders also raised the challenge of recording the contribution of community volunteer activists. As described earlier in this report, Camfed has been working to meet this challenge by creating a Philanthropy Tool, a system of classifying and costing community contributions so that we are able to record and share with donors the full impact and value of the work of our dedicated stakeholder networks.

Over the year, monitoring and stakeholder feedback has revealed a number of other challenges that girls and community members face. For example, Camfed has responded to feedback from stakeholders around the demands on selection and monitoring at SHS level with the large numbers of applicants and students receiving support. As described under Output 1, Camfed has doubled the number of people sitting on selection panels for SHSs. Furthermore, Teacher Mentors at SHSs have expressed concerns about having large number of students to monitor at each school. The training of the additional Teacher Mentors has helped to ensure the continuous and effective monitoring within these schools that have a particularly high number of girls receiving bursaries.

Additionally, a challenge emerging from the internal stakeholder review detailed in the Lessons Learned section was that in some schools increased enrolment had resulted in overcrowded classrooms, higher student to teacher ratios, and not enough furniture for all of the students. Camfed reviewed and recognised the contribution of SMCs/PTAs to problem-solving within schools. Camfed and stakeholders recommended that SMCs/PTAs and those involved with PSE have a vital role to play in addressing these issues by fundraising for more resources and contributing towards the development of their schools in order that they may be better equipped to cater for all of their pupils. For example, in June 2016 the Tamale Metro DEC members provided 50 desks and chairs to Bulpela A.G. Junior High School.

Lessons Learnt

Lessons that were recorded at the AGM in October 2015 included the important role that is being played by Parents and Parent Support Groups through working to support

21 students academically, both at home and at school through their work in Parent Teacher Associations, working with SMCs, and as part of PSE. Participants also raised the need to sustain extra tuition and classes beyond the standard school curriculum. Successful extra classes and tuition as a result of grants or Planning for School Excellence will need further support to be sustained. Stakeholders suggested sustainability strategies including encouraging partner schools and PTAs to fund extra classes, while others suggested encouraging CAMA members to provide extra tuition to students.

In late June 2016, Camfed staff and stakeholders visited 93 partner schools across the 31 partner districts to conduct financial and programmatic monitoring. In addition to regular monitoring, Camfed issued questionnaires and conducted a series of focus groups and one-on-one interviews to assess progress against each of Camfed’s objectives under this grant and inform management decisions. The two-member monitoring teams were made up of a staff member and a DEC or CAMA member. The team spoke to DEC members, Girls’ Education Officers, Parent Support Groups, School Management Committees (SMCs), Head Teachers, Teacher Mentors, and students.

Camfed found that:

 Selection: The bursary programme was successfully targeting the neediest girls in their communities and schools and was a transparent process. Head Teachers had Camfed bursary manuals, which they felt they could use to check that processes were working according to protocol.  Bursary Package: The quantity and quality of most of the bursary items were found to be well-suited to the needs of students. Stakeholders also commented that they were happy that previous feedback on the bursaries was taken on board and integrated into the new package each year. Stakeholders listed a range of bursary items as the “most valuable” source of support from Camfed including school fees, textbooks, and sanitary protection. They also emphasised the value of Teacher Mentors’ guidance and support, which for some students lasted beyond their time in school.  Enrolment, progression, retention, and completion: Stakeholders felt that improvements were being made against these outputs. Some school staff explained that they now have gender parity in enrolment or more girls than boys because of Camfed’s support.  Support outside of school: Interviewees emphasised that Parent Support Groups were contributing a lot to the development of students within and beyond schools. Stakeholders felt that the best opportunity for bursary students provided by Camfed after school was Camfed’s Learner Guide and Financial Literacy Training Programmes for CAMA members.  Training: Stakeholders believed that Camfed’s workshops and training had given them many new skills including public speaking, leadership skills, financial management, and knowledge of areas such as career guidance and child protection, which they had used in their roles in schools. Mobile monitoring had made monitoring more efficient and less time-consuming for Teacher Mentors’ schedules.  Working with the GEU: Girls’ Education Officers sitting on DECs have taken learning from their experiences working with Camfed and used it on the GPASS project:

examples include that Girls’ Education Officers are encouraging staff in GPASS schools to provide services similar to those provided by Camfed Teacher Mentors in Camfed partner schools; Girls’ Education Officers’ are using skills from the financial management training they received as members of DECs; and Girls’ Education Officers have improved reporting and relationships with school based facilitators from their experiences in the DECs. Girls’ Education Officer exchanges have also encouraged the sharing of best practice.  Planning for School Excellence (PSE): PSE has supported increased collaboration between school personnel and parents and encouraged the activism of parents. Stakeholders believe that PSE action plans are focusing resources in the right places and helping to improve students’ academic performance. For example, at the Methodist A & B Junior High Schools in the Central region students’ studies had improved and last year the school had a 100% pass rate.

Recommendations

None at this time.

6. Direct feedback from Beneficiaries

Feedback from girls receiving bursary support is attached at Annex C.

7. Value for Money

The project is meeting or exceeding its targets within budget, and is addressing issues of access to and gender equity in secondary education. Camfed has consistently delivered good value for money through this project. The activities and inputs remain relevant, and the support delivered is shown to be achieving good results across all outputs, with positive change emerging at outcome level.

Economy

In late 2015, Camfed Ghana reviewed the bursary package provided to JHS and SHS students, taking into account priorities identified by stakeholders, including 929 bursary students at the time. The resulting ‘new generation’ bursary package offers a reduced average unit cost without compromising effective support to bursary students and has resulted in an overall saving on the budgeted bursary costs for the 2015/16 academic year, meaning an additional 1,120 marginalised girls have been able to be supported in the previous and current academic years.

Efficiency

Camfed has met or exceeded its output milestones to date under this grant and regularly reviews project inputs and systems in support of this. Two major areas in which Camfed has sought to increase efficiency are:

Data collection and management: Across the Ghana programme Camfed has fully rolled out mobile data collection, with Teacher Mentors and DECs in all schools and districts using phones to collect termly data on students’ progress and wellbeing. This has been a major component of this grant and has introduced efficiencies in the collection and submission of data. Camfed has continued to refine and improve on its monitoring function and the introduction of the newly constituted Data Resource Teams for each district is an example of this.

The transition from paper to mobile monitoring has been critical for managing the scale up in bursary support under this grant, enabling Camfed to maintain efficiency in data collection. Whereas in 2011 Camfed was collecting data on 5,695 bursary students across its whole programme in Ghana, by 2015 this had increased to 30,226 students supported by DFID Ghana and other donors. The management of paper data collection forms at this scale across 31 districts would have incurred multiple logistical issues and a considerable need for human resources to input data from paper forms into a central database for analysis. Teacher Mentors and DEC members using the phones reported that they saved time and money because the need to travel to post paper forms had been removed. The use of mobile technology has cut out the need to transport forms from the districts and for large-scale data entry, and enabled Camfed to focus its resources on building capacity within the districts among M&E Resource People, and to build up one of the few mobile monitoring systems being used in the education sector globally.

Financial systems: By the end of 2015, Camfed had completed the roll-out of the FinancialForce finance system which has unlocked major efficiencies in the financial and monitoring functions which support the bursary programme. This initiative has also been introduced to meet the needs of bursary delivery at scale to thousands of students. FinancialForce was selected as the financial operating system for Camfed based on its potential to offer improved value for money through significant efficiencies, by automating several processes which were previously done manually by Camfed staff in Ghana and in the UK. This has reduced significant pressure on the teams which have supported the scale- up in the Ghana bursary programme. FinancialForce has now replaced the previous SUN Systems operating system, and is fully integrated with Salesforce and all bursary payments for the previous and current academic years have been processed through this integrated database/finance system.

Effectiveness

Good results at outcome level to date indicate that project outputs are successfully supporting outcomes, and that Camfed’s community led model is realising improvements in girls’ progression and attendance. The wide range of activities and innovations being implemented by stakeholders demonstrate how the model is working in practice. These include the diverse activities of Teacher Mentors, as documented during the review of Teacher Mentor training. Teacher Mentor training has proved to be effective not only in equipping Teacher Mentors with the confidence and skills to give good psychosocial support, but also in bringing them together in a community of practice facilitated by mobile and internet technology.

The project’s in-built research component is also supporting effectiveness, enabling a cycle of learning which feeds into planning and practice. This is helping to refine strengths, like the emphasis on female role models and the inclusion of parents and wider support networks, as well as helping to identify and address challenges, like the need to strengthen girls’ clubs. This cycle of learning is complemented well by the broad range of platforms for dissemination that also exist within the project, including the GEU annual forum, the Camfed AGM, and the district AGMs and training sessions which support localised dissemination of research findings and related strategies.

In terms of long-term sustainability, the effectiveness of the project can also be seen in the activism of CAMA members. Over the period of the project to date CAMA membership in Ghana has risen from 3,050 members in 2012 to 10,099 members in 2015, and currently stands at 17,650 as we near the end of 2016. In line with this, another key indicator which Camfed tracks has also increased – local philanthropy. The number of students being supported to go to primary and secondary school by CAMA members is increasing exponentially, with CAMA members supporting an estimated 4500 students to attend secondary school in 2015, and another 5,500 to primary school.4 Community initiatives, such as school feeding by Parent Support Groups, are also increasingly supporting vulnerable children to remain in school. DFID Ghana’s investment is allowing Camfed to move towards what it envisages as a tipping point in women’s economic empowerment. Across Camfed’s programmes CAMA is projected to grow to a minimum of 130,000 members as a result of investment in girls’ secondary education. Camfed’s new strategic plan highlights a focus on enabling these young women to make the transition from school to economic independence as the vital step to future choices.

Equity

Over the course of the project Camfed has established new systems and initiatives designed to ensure that the most marginalised girls are reached and supported by the bursary programme. The introduction of selection committees is one example, where representation on the committees includes a member of the DEC, a member of CAMA, a School PTA/SMC member, head teacher and Teacher Mentor. Decision making follows set guidelines and a transparent process including home visits, interviews, and meetings with parents and guardians to confirm which girls fit the bursary criteria. The mobilisation of CAMA members in their communities has aimed to spread the word about the bursary programme using radio broadcasts, local durbars and other forms of outreach to reach the most remote households with details of who is eligible for support. At the national level Camfed has also been in a position to advise on the Ghanaian government’s Secondary Education Improvement Project, supporting the development of the framework for this project’s delivery, in recognition of the Camfed model of bursary support as best practice. This range of activities has promoted one overall message that all children have an entitlement to education and that those most hard to reach should be sought out and supported to secure that entitlement.

4 Camfed International Key Performance Indicators Report, 2015

8. Conditionality

There are no conditions for this grant.

9. Case Study:

A case study is shared at Annex B that describes the impact of the bursary programme from the perspective of a range of stakeholders.

10. Financial summary:

A total of £1,209,310 has been spent during the fourth quarter of Year 4 from a forecast of £1,226,969. The underspend relates to a delay in the final project evaluation, which has been postponed until July 2017, per agreement with DFID. Spend to date is £4,579,409 from a total Year 4 budget of £4,637,713.

11. Upcoming project activities for the next quarter:

A summary of activities carried out in Quarter 4 of Year 4 are presented in Annex D. Activities planned for the period October to December 2016 (Year 5 Quarter 1) are described in Annex E. The workplan for Year 5 Quarter 1 is also attached at Annex A.

12. Conclusion

The project is on track with all output targets either met or exceeded at the end of Year 4. Outcome level data on progression, attendance and completion will be available with the final report in January 2017.