UDAAN-II” “Catching the Missed Opportunity”
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“UDAAN-II” “Catching the Missed Opportunity” Final Narrative Report Jan 2018 to Oct 2020 Table of Contents Project Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 4 A. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 5 B. Project Implementation Status of Planned Activities ..................................................................... 8 C. Results and Outputs .......................................................................................................................... 33 Result 1. 500 poor and marginalized adolescent girls who have never been to school or who dropped out are empowered through an accelerated learning course in 10 Udaan schools ............................. 33 Result 2: Local authorities and the national government have implemented improved education policies and lobby for including elements of the Udaan concept in the national curriculum .............. 35 Result 3: An enabling environment is created to reduce socio-cultural barriers for girls through awareness campaigns, community mobilization and information sharing. ......................................... 37 Result 4: Graduated Udaan girls and parents have better professional skills through vocational education training and access to improved livelihood opportunities. ................................................. 38 D. Outcome Representative Case Studies ............................................................................................ 39 E. Key Achievements of the Project ...................................................................................................... 42 F. Financial Performance....................................................................................................................... 44 G. Key Challenges, Mitigations, and Lessons Learned .......................................................................... 45 H. Future Focus ..................................................................................................................................... 46 2 Project Summary Name of the Country Nepal Name of the Project Udaan: Catching the Missed Opportunity Project (Phase II) Funding from OPEC Fund for International Development and CARE Austria Project Areas Kapilvastu District of Lumbini Province Nepal 1. Krishnanagar Municipality 2. Maharajgunj Municipality 3. Kapilvastu Municipality Date of Submission Report 05 March 2021 Project Period 1st Jan 2018 to 31 October 2020 Including the No Cost Extension Period: 1st July to 31 October 2020 Budget in USD ($) Total Approved Working Budget: USD 500,000 (USD 300,000 from OFID, and USD 200,000 from CARE Österreich) Period covered by report 1st Jan 2018 to 31 October 2020 Report Period Final Narrative Report Previous reports submitted Second Annual Report (Year 2) Date of previous report submitted March 2020 Reported Compiled by Name: Dipendra Raj Sharma (Project Team) Position: Team Leader , CARE Nepal Name: Stella Szonn Position: Program Officer- Asia, CARE Austria Report Attested by Elisabeth Schreiber, Regional Coordinator, CARE Austria (Program Staffs) Lorina Sthapit, Program Coordinator- Gender Justice and Health and Education Rights, CARE Nepal Report Package Attachments 1. Narrative Report 2. Financial Report 3. Audit Report 4. Final Evaluation Report 5. Concept Note for future project “Uchha Udaan” 3 Acronyms ASRH Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health ASER Annual Status of Education Reoort BS Bikram Sambat (Nepali year calendar) CDC Curriculum Development Center CEHRD Center for Education and Human Resource Development CSC Community Score Card CTEVT Council For Technical Education and vocational training EDCU Education Development and Coordination Unit LIP Livelihood Improvement Plan OWSN Organization of Women Scientist in Nepal PFA Psychosocial First Aid PTA Parent Teachers’ Association RM Rural Municipality SMC School Management Committee SMT Senior Management Team SSDC Siddartha Social Development Center ULC UDAAN Learning Center 4 A. Executive Summary Udaan II “Catching the Missed Opportunity” was one of the most important initiatives under the LEAD program of CARE Nepal . The LEAD program envisions education and economic prosperity as an instrument to women and girls empowerment, through transforming harmful social norms, building life skills and advocating for related policy reforms. Under the LEAD Program, the Udaan initiative provided an intensive, 11 months high-quality condensed curriculum for adolescent girls (Dalit, Muslim, marginalized) aged 9-14 of Kapilvastu District, who were unable to either start or finish primary school and helped them to successfully transition into formal public schools (“mother schools”). Having worked together with 9 formal mothers schools, local government of Krishannagar and Maharajgunj Municipalities, as well as the girls and their parents alike, the Udaan II project addressed the responsibilities of all involved actors, economic factors of the girls’ families, and harmful social norms to create an enabling and safe learning environment for girls, and opportunities for livelihood and vocational skill development. The Project was implemented over two years and 10 months (January 2018 to October 2020) by Care Nepal in Krishannagar Rural Municipality, Kapilvastu Municipality and Maharajgunj Rural Municipality of Kapilvastu district in cooperation with local partner Siddhartha Social Development Centre (SSDC). During the full project period, a total of 505 girls were enrolled in 11 different UDAAN Learning Centers (ULC), out of which 482 girls (95.4%) successfully graduated, and 442 (87.52%) transited to formal “mother” schools. As per latest tracking conducted in November 2020, 390 girls (88.24%) are continuing going to the mother schools. The project provided all the requirements such as bicycles to commute to the ULCs, books and stationaries, school uniform, daily meals, etc. One of the barriers and reasons for girls dropping out of school is the distance to mother schools. To make the schools more accessible to girls living far away, the project distributed 710 bicycles (of which 90 bicycles were funded by the local government). This intervention also broke the harmful stereotype that girls cannot ride a bicycle. The project supported the establishment of Community Score Card (CSC)1 at 9 public mother schools, where most of the Udaan girls have transited. The CSC practice monitored the schools’ accountabilities to create a child friendly environment based on the Child Friendly School Indicators (CFSI) of the government. This has increased the accountability and ownership of school management to uphold the minimum quality standards in order to create and maintain a conducive and save learning enviroment for girls, including the establishment of girls toilet facilities, improved management of drinking water, purchase of sports equipment and more books for the library. 5,727 students and teachers of the 9 mother schools benefitted from the CSC and Social Audit process. This practice increased the motivation of parents to send their girls to school and contribued to prevent girls dropping-out of school. Moreover, 37 community school teachers (21 male, 16 female) received training on Psychosocial First Aid, in order to be able to immediately support girls if they report personal problems, and to refer them to respective services if required. This training became even more relevant in the challenging context of COVID-19. The project successfully empowered the Udaan girls by developing their leadership skills with co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. An important empowerment intervention was the organization of regular Balika Shabha (Girl’s Assembly). In these Assemblies, girls demonstrated their skills through poems, 1 CARE’s Community Score Card© (CSC) is a citizen-driven accountability approach for the assessment, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of public services: https://www.care.org/our-work/health/strengthening- healthcare/community-score-card-csc/ 5 singing, drawings and speeches, covering important messages on issues relevant to the girls, to their parents, local government representatives and other community level stakeholders. At the end of the project, more than 50% girls rated themselves having high leadership skills, nearly 25% rated themselves having moderate leadership skills and around 20% stated that they improved their leadership skills. Some girls even started to fulfil the supervising responsibilities of their teachers in their absence. The project has been able to create awareness on and to reduce socio-cultural barriers through campaigns and community mobilization. In fact, education for Muslims and disadvantaged girls was inaccessible prior the Udaan program, due to socio-cultural barriers. Even if most Muslim girls did not transition into mother school, they successfully completed the Udaan course and demonstrated an increased learning level. The project has also been able to change the concept of girls’ education, and parents of disadvantaged families started to be increasingly supportive towards girls joining the program and to continuing their studies at public mother schools. Poverty was one of the main constraints