Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) Operations and Monitoring Support Team (OMST) Annual Progress Monitoring Report Reporting Period: January-December 2020 Reporting Date: 10 January 2021 Submitted by: Operation and Monitoring Support Team HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2020) Page i Contents Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................................... iii Program Overview ....................................................................................................................................... iv Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Component One Activities: ........................................................................................................................... 3 Theme1.1: Increasing Access to Priority Degree Program for Economic Development ...................... 3 Theme1.2: Modernizing and Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning .................................. 6 Theme 1.2.2: Information and Communications Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning ........ 7 Theme1.3: Improving the Qualification and Skills of Academic and Technical Staff Members ......... 8 Theme 1.4: Strengthening Governance, Quality Assurance and Accreditation .................................. 10 Theme 1.5: Stimulating Development Oriented Research (DLI) ....................................................... 15 C) Component Two: Program Operations and Technical Support ............................................................. 15 Social and Environmental Safeguard .................................................................................................. 15 Physical Infrastructure Projects .......................................................................................................... 16 Communication ................................................................................................................................... 17 Monitoring and Evaluation ................................................................................................................. 17 Financial Management: ....................................................................................................................... 18 D) Challenges and Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 19 Annex I: Intermediate Outcome Indicators Status updated as of December 2020 ..................................... 20 Annex II: List of universities externally peer reviewed with grading details ............................................. 22 HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2020) Page ii Acronyms ANASTU Afghanistan National Agriculture Science and Technology University ARTF Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund DLI Disbursement Linked Indicator ESMF Environmental and Social Management Framework HEDP Higher Education Development Project ICT Information and Communication Technology IQA Internal Quality Assurance IQAU Internal Quality Assurance Unit IT Information Technology KMU’s Kabul Medical University QAA Quality Assurance and Accreditation KPU Kabul Polytechnic University M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MoHE Ministry of Higher Education MoU Memorandum of Understanding NEPA National Environmental Protection Agency OBE Outcome Based Education OMST Operation Monitoring and Support Team QAAD Quality Assurance and Accreditation Directorate SAO Supreme Audit Office SCL Student-Centered Learning SIDP Strategic Institutional Development Plan SZU Shaikh Zayed University (Khost) WB World Bank HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2020) Page iii Program Overview Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) is a national multi-donor funded, government-led Program supported by World Bank through IDA and ARTF. The overall objective of the program is to “increase access to, and improve the quality and relevance of, higher education in Afghanistan”. The HEDP supports the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (NHESP-II) 2015-2020, which aims to develop the higher education sector by expanding enrollment, improving quality, and orienting higher education to promote the future economic and social development of Afghanistan. Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) has successfully implemented several key initiatives under the Higher Education Development Project (HEDP) since 2016. These initiatives include introduction of outcome based education and student centered learning (OBE-SCL), with more than 2,000 academic members of public and private universities trained and practicing OBE-SCL; the establishment of Quality Assurance and Accreditation system to ensure quality at all higher education institutions both public and private - so far a big number of universities have completed different phases of quality assurance and accreditations, and about 6 universities have been accredited nationally-; promotion of development oriented research among Afghan lecturers by awarding over 160 research projects both individual and groups; and several other initiatives such as the establishment of ICT’s, Research Centers, several lecture blocks and female dormitories, and capacity building programs for administrative and academic staff of public universities, including the award of over 400 master and 50 PhD scholarships. HEDP has two components which includes the program component (Higher Education Development Program) coming under component one and also Operations, Monitoring and Support Team (OMST), coming under component two of the program. HEDP Annual Progress Monitoring Report (January-December 2020) Page iv Executive Summary Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) has made a substantial progress during its life span. This annual report indicates that the program has achieved or/and exceeded all three PDO indicators for December 2020. Similarly, out of 10 intermediate level indicator’s targets, the program has either achieved or/and exceeded the targets of eight indicators, with scholarships and IQAUs indicators partially achieved. The project is on track to complete 250 scholarships by April 2021 and will work with the non-functional IQUAs to obtain functionality status soon. It should be noted that the program has established a big number of IQAUs, which out of the total 18, only eight are reported functional, two IQUAs behind the 2020 target. The program, however, was disrupted by the covid-19 throughout the year by delaying or/and stopping the planned activities, including the trainings, peer reviews of universities, infrastructure projects, placement of master and Ph.D. scholars etc. The program recovered expeditiously at the end of the year and completed most of the planned activities. The agreed actions of the last mission are on-track to be completed. The program is following with the relevant stakeholders to implement and complete those actions in its due time. The agreed actions tracker is attached to the report. With realization the fact that the program has passed through more than 60% of its lifespan, the OMST has reinforced the monitoring and evaluation activities over the implemented and/or being implemented interventions. Therefore, during the course of 2020, the program designed and conducted four assessments covering the gender-specific interventions, PDCs, IQAUs functionality and ICTs functionality assessments. The program has also conducted DLIs assessment study. The reports of the assessments have been shared with the World Bank, MoHE and other respective stakeholders, including the universities. The main purpose of these studies are to assess the relevance, effectiveness, outcomes/impacts and sustainability of the initiatives implemented over the last five years and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the program interventions and identify the gaps in the project activities. Based on the assessments, the program has provided evidence-based recommendations for the enhancement and development of higher education in Afghanistan. The program received the enrollment data of 2020 at the end of December. The data indicates a strong increase in both first year female students and total students in priority disciplines. The total enrollment in priority disciplines has increased from 86,215 in 2019 into 88,624 in 2020, indicating 2.71 % increase. Likewise, in 2020 the female enrollment in priority disciplines has increased from 5,558 in 2019 to 6,746 in 2020 which indicates 21% increase. This confirms the achievements of 2020 targets for first year female enrollment and total enrolment in priority disciplines. The program hired a TPV firm to validate the enrollment data of 2019. The firm has started their field work and expected to share their draft report by mid-February 2021. The program has made a vigorous progress in introducing the OBE-SCL approach into the higher education system of Afghanistan. During the course of 2020, the program continued conducting the OBE-SCL training workshops at 21 universities and higher education institutes. In these trainings, the program trained more than 500 new academic members in OBE-SCL, which brings up the total number of trained academic members to 2,345, including 246 females and 2099 males. The program also conducted self-assessment review on the verification of 2345 faculty