: UNICEF Guinea-Bissau Support to Education for All Implementation in Guinea-Bissau Progress Report to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) February 2016 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. LIST OF ACRONYMS 3 II. SUMMARY SHEET 4 III. BACKGROUND 5 IV. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10 V. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 11 VI. RESULTS ACHIEVED 12 VII. CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED AND MEASURES TAKEN 43 VIII. LESSONS LEARNT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 43 IX. FUND UTILISATION 44 X. PARTNERSHIP 45 XI. COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY OF GPE 45 XII. 2016 WORKPLAN 48 XIII. EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE TO THE GPE 49 ANNEX 1: Results Matrix 50 ANNEX 2. Donor Report 53 ANNEX 3. ESSP Sub-strategies’ meetings with education partners 54 ANNEX 4. LEG Members 56 ANNEX 5. LEG MINUTES 03.07.2015 57 ANNEX 6. Donor Report Feedback Form 58 2 I. LIST OF ACRONYMS EMIS Education Management Information System EFA Education for All ESSP Education Strategic Sector Plan GER Gross Enrolment Rate LEG Local Education Group INDE National Institute for Development of Education (Portuguese acronym) INE National Institute of Statistics (Portuguese acronym) MDGs Millennium Development Goals MoE Ministry of Education MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey NAR Net Attendance Rate NER Net Enrolment Rate NGO Non-governmental organisation PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategic Plan RESEN Education Sector Analyses (Portuguese acronym) UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UPE Universal primary education 3 II. SUMMARY SHEET Country Guinea-Bissau Country Programme Cycle 2008-2015 Programme Component Basic Education and Gender Equality Donor Global Partnership for Education Grant Title Support to Education for All Implementation in Guinea Bissau Grant Number SC130195 Period May 2013 – March 2017 Total Grant Amount 12,840,000 USD (including recovery cost) Type of Document Annual Report (March 2015 – February 2016) Funds utilised from 8,246,227 USD (including commitments) 01.01.2013 to 21.02.2016 Geographic Focus Guinea Bissau Beneficiary Population Children and Teachers of Basic Education (1-6 grade) at national level Partners Local Education Group (EU, Portuguese Cooperation, World Bank, WFP, UNICEF, ADPP, Plan International, IPHD, FEC, Effective Intervention, ESSOR, among others) UNICEF Contacts Mr. Abubacar Sultan, UNICEF Representative: [email protected] Mr. Antero Pina, UNICEF Deputy Representative: [email protected] Ms. Cristina Brugiolo, UNICEF Chief of Education: [email protected] 4 III. BACKGROUND Guinea Bissau has a population of 1.5 million people (INE, 2009), of whom 19.1 per cent are children under five years old, and 51.5 per cent are females. Guinea Bissau covers an area of 36,125 km2, including the Bijagos archipelago, which is composed of about 80 islands. Cashew nuts are the principal source of export income with the harvest from April to June. The country, with fragile political and constitutional institutions is struggling to overcome the effects of several coups d’etat, the last of which, a military coup in April 2012, aggravated the already fragile economic development, worsened security, affected rule of law and overall provision of services to the populations, rendering the country 178th in the 2015 Human Development Index. Presidential and Legislative elections took place in April and May 2014, replacing a post-coup transition Government by democratically elected institutions (new President of Republic, National Parliament and Government). It restored constitutional order in the country, brought new hope for long term stability and the perspective of economic growth and human development. The new Government developed a long term vision (Terra Ranka - 2016-2025) for the development of the country and a donor round- table took place in March 2015 in Brussels, where donors pledged one thousand million euros. Nevertheless, political uncertainty characterised the second half of 2015 with the dismissal of the Government by the President, the nomination of a new Cabinet which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the nomination, in October, of another new Cabinet. The Government’s programme for 2016 and the national budget have not been adopted till now, due to the political situation. This protracted situation of crisis over the years has had a particular negative impact in the area of education. Pre-primary education and early learning have seen, in Guinea Bissau, a strong development in the past decade, despite the almost absent involvement of the Government and the political instability that slowed down growth and economic and social development. Latest MICS data show (below), that on average the attendance to the year of pre-school has slightly decreased from 2010, for all the wealth quintiles, except for the poorest one. The poorest one has seen a sharp increase, particularly in rural areas, bringing us to the conclusion that: a) Pro-poor interventions by development partners worked, in the last four years and; b) Communities are extremely resilient in the country and when the Government is absent, they are extremely active in service delivery. 5 Chart 1: School readiness, 2006-2014 (in percentages) 47 50 45 46 45 43 40 33 35 32 30 30 31 28 29 27 30 27 27 26 26 23 23 25 19 20 20 15 10 10 11 8 10 6 7 4 5 0 Girls Boys Urban Rural Poorest Middle Richest 20% 20% 20% 2006 2010 2014 2006 national average 2010 national average 2014 national average Source: INE/MICS (2006, 2010 and 2014). In terms of Gross Enrolment Rates (GER), Guinea Bissau has been increasing its enrolment in primary education (grade 1-6) over the years, with the latest data pointing at the rate of 123. This data however demonstrate a slow increase in enrolment despite primary education being free of charge. Chart 2: GER Primary 1999-2013 Source EMIS/RESEN Analysing the GER data, together with the percentage of children out of school, it is easy to see how difficult the situation is regarding enrolment in primary education in the country. Having a percentage of out of school children (aged 6-11) at 44.2 and with a GER at 123, Guinea Bissau is clearly not able to attract children to its schools. The system is not able to enrol children at the right age, nor is able to retain them in order to complete a full cycle of primary education. 6 Table 1: Estimation of out of school children (6-24 years old) % Never Children % never % Dropped children Age Group Population went to out of went to dropped out out of school school school out school 6 - 11 235,695 99,932 4,252 104,184 42,4% 1,8% 44,2% 12 - 14 109,963 25,263 3,556 28,819 23,0% 3,2% 26,2% 15 - 24 318,488 92,869 68,081 160,950 29,2% 21,4% 50,5% Total 664,146 218,064 75,889 293,953 32,8% 11,4% 44,3% Source: RESEN/EMIS 2015. The data showed above is even more worrying considering that for this 44.3% of children presently out of school there are no alternative opportunities for learning and, if they decide to go back to the formal school system, they are bound to drop out after the first or the second year of schooling. Presently, data for Net Enrolment Rate (NER) is not consistently collected, however surveys, like MICS, have been collecting data in order to calculate the Net Attendance Rate (NAR). Chart 3: NAR Primary 2006-2014 Source: INE/MICS (2006, 2010 and 2014). Net attendance data showed by MICS indicates a decrease of 4 points from the previous NAR of 2010, indicating a worsening situation of the education system overall. This negative trend of attendance in primary education has multifaceted root causes like the political instability that affected the country in the recent years, the series of teachers’ strikes that occurred almost every year and the slow development of the system, both in terms of increasing learning opportunities (new classrooms for increasing number of pupils) and quality of education (less and less qualified teachers are able to retain children in school). While the decrease is sharper for the urban population, it seems that rural girls have 7 not been particularly affected by the decrease: this is an interesting finding, however, considering that the attendance by rural girls is largely much lower than the one of the other categories, we can assume that it has reached a plateau that is, in general, not affected by external factors. 8 IV. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In this context, the contribution of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in Guinea-Bissau has been critical for the development of the sector. Through the project ‘Support to Education for All Implementation in Guinea Bissau’, the GPE has provided crucial support in the effort to achieve the originally set Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) goal of universal primary education1. The project, which is now starting (February 2016) its fourth and last year of implementation, has injected an important lifeline of funds and interventions to a stagnant sector that lacks investment and reforms. Out of the total pledged contribution of US$ 12,840,000, which was fully received, US$ 8,246,227 have been utilised until 21.02.2016, including commitments, which means a 69% of implementation rate. The key results achieved to date, through this project in the education sector are: Increased Availability of Adequate School Infrastructure and Facilities: The project targets to increase enrolment of girls and boys through the construction and equipment of 205 new classrooms and 75 new latrines. So far, a total of 130 new classrooms were already constructed: 55 classrooms during the first two years (in Gabu, and Oio regions) and during the present third year, another 75 new classrooms (in Quinara, Tombali and Biombo regions).