Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 PROPOSAL TO THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION FOR A CATALYTIC CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF YEMEN’S EDUCATION SECTOR PLAN 2013-2015 Government of Yemen and UNICEF document PROGRAMME DOCUMENT 1 Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 FOREWORD Yemen is experiencing a complex humanitarian crisis occasioned by long-standing internal armed conflicts, decades of chronic underdevelopment, and an eight-month long political crisis in 2011 that has resulted in rapid disruption of basic social services and drastically increased the levels of vulnerability of the population. If Yemen is to overcome the economic, social and political challenges it is facing now, education is a principle vehicle for doing so. About 27 per cent of 6-14 year old children in Yemen are out of school. In addition, the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in school is of concern; according to JAR 2010, at primary level, girls constitute less than 40 per cent of the total students, while the low enrolment of girls is even greater in rural areas and disadvantaged communities. Although girls’ enrolment rates have been on the rise since 1990, they still remain well below those of boys, with girls’ ratio in basic education increasing from 45 per cent in 1990 to 73 per cent in 2009 (JAR 2010). The issue of girls’ education in Yemen is a multi-dimensional challenge needing multi-faceted solutions. Explanations for the disparity include the dominance of traditions that prevent girls from pursuing education; a prevalence of early marriage and child labour; a shortage of female teachers; a reluctance for girls to be taught by male teachers or with male students, especially at higher grades; and poor school facilities (including sanitation), particularly in rural areas. Another major factor is the teachers’ practices that promote boys’ participation and achievements in the classroom over girls’. The absence of a policy favouring the poor and marginalized (especially girls), political instability, lack of flexibility due to a history of centralized decision-making, lack of gender policy, weak planning, monitoring and evaluation all contribute to the problem. In 2011, Yemen was pushed to breaking point by multiple emergencies, prompted partly by a protracted political crisis that developed in connection with the broader regional ‘Arab Spring’ protests. Civil unrest occurred against a backdrop of chronic underdevelopment, with Yemen posting some of the worst development indicators both regionally and globally. The unrest exacerbated pre-existing political and tribal tensions, which sparked heightened levels of violence in a number of urban centres throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis were displaced during this time, either due to continued conflict in the north, tribal-related violence throughout the country, or fighting between government forces and militant groups in the South. Many of the displaced were temporarily housed in schools; so in addition to those children affected by conflict, education has also been disrupted for children in the host communities. Limited resource allocation, unattractive school environments, poor management and unskilled teachers, together with the protracted conflict have resulted in major challenges for children’s education in Yemen: both access to and the quality of education are suffering. These challenges affect children throughout Yemen, but there are significant geographical and gender differences among the south, the centre and the north. In addition to these challenges, there are some structural problems in the overall education system; a decline in the quality of education has been attributed to an increase in the numbers of untrained teachers and an absence of programmes for their 2 Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 professional development. Besides this, women have few roles either in the leadership, planning and supervision of education; or in the management of schools at central, governorate or school level, which denies young girls a role model to look up to. This proposal, which is the fourth phase of the GPE (previously called FTI) aims to mitigate major challenges faced in the sector by leveraging good practices in education programs and by covering some of the resource gaps. It is based on the programmes outlined in the Government of Yemen’s Medium Term Results Framework (MTRF) 2013-2015. The MTRF is a joint initiative between the Government and the development partners in education, developed through a results-based planning exercise with the goal of improving educational services that contribute to the overall goal of the Education For All initiative. The development of this proposal followed a range of participatory methods to involve different levels of the Ministry of Education (MoE) both at central and provincial levels. The Local Education Group (LEG) has actively participated and contributed to the proposal through the period of its development. Full stakeholder endorsement of the GPE Program was confirmed at a final consultation held on 23 February 2013. H.E. Abdul Razzak Al-Ashwal Mr. Jeremy Hopkins Minister, Officer-In-Charge Ministry of Education of Yemen UNICEF Yemen 3 Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Preparation of this document involved a great deal of collaborative work between the Ministry of Education, the Local Education Group coordinated by the GIZ Office in Yemen, and the UNICEF office in Sana’a as the Supervising Entity for the fourth phase of the GPE in Yemen. Ministry of Education (MoE): The Minister of Education, H.E. AbdulRazzaq Yahya Al-Ashwal, led MoE’s contribution to the preparation of the document. The MoE team included representatives for each sector and level of education Mansour Ali Muqbel (Head of the Technical Office); Hamoud Naji (Deputy Head of the Technical Office); Abdulrahman Assamawi (General Director (GD) for Planning and Statistics); Muhammad Annagashi (GD for Training); Abdullah Sultan (GD for Curricula); Radiyah Al-Najar (GD for Community Participation); Anan Al-Hajj (GD for Teacher Affairs); Mohammed Asharafi (GD for Projects, Implementation and Designing); Abdullah Ali Ismail (GD for Education Supervision); Faisal Al-Adib (GD of Planning- LEAO); Abdulrahman Al-Jabiri (FTI Coordinator), Khalil Al-Hussaini (Donor Coordinator, Head of Coordination Unit); Mr. Abdullah Uthman (Director of Planning); Hamoud Al-Seyani (MoE Consultant) ), Dr. Belqis Alshar’I, Abubakr Wahshan, Jubran Al-Murish from Project Administration Unit; Jalila Shujaaldeen, Sultana Al-Maswari (SFD); and Abdusalam Kasem and Gamil Hizam (PWP). Local Donor Group (LDG): GIZ (Gudrun Orth, Abdulmawla Muhyaddin); KfW (Assia Aldhabbi, Adnan Qatina), World Bank (Wael Zakout, Kamel Braham, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Sharjabi, Tomomi Miyaijima); USAID (Abdul Hamid Al-Ajami), USAID/CLP (Joy du Plessis); CARE International (Jeff Jowa, Samira Handal); CHF International (Roberta Contin, Mahyoub Al-Umari); Save the Children (Jerry Farrell, Aisha Saed, Hossam Kaseb, Casey Harrity, Therese Cregan) UNESCO (Fryal Khan, Omar Awn); UNICEF: Yemen Country Office: Geert Cappelaere, Jeremy Hopkins, Mohamed Bile, Afkar Al- Shami, Abdullah Modhesh, Brian Wall, William Fellows, Kate Rose, Gentjana Sula (consultant), Eduardo Velez (consultant), Ed. Lamot (consultant). Middle East and North Africa Regional Office: Maria Calivis, Hannan Sulieman, Dina Craissati. HQ: Nick Alipui, Christian Salazar, Jordan Naidoo, Mathieu Brossard, Peter Mason, Margarita Melikjanian, Jonathan Cauldwell, Barry Wentworth. GPE Secretariat: Joris Van Bommel and Douglas Chester Lehman. 4 Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AWP Annual Work Plan ALP Accelerated Learning Programmes B2S Back to School (campaign) BEDP Basic Education Development Project BEDS Basic Education Development Strategy CA Coordinating Agency CBE Community-based Education CLP Community Livelihoods Project COCA Central Organization for Control and Auditing DEO District Education Office DFID Department for International Development (United Kingdom) DPs Development Partners ECD Early Childhood Development EDRC Educational Development Research Centre EFA Education for All EKN Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands EMP Environment Management Plan FTI Fast Track Initiative (recently renamed GPE) GBP Great Britain Pound GCC Gulf Cooperation Council GDP Gross Domestic Product GEO Governorate Education Office GER Gross Enrolment Rate GIZ Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Development Agency) GPE Global Partnership for Education (previously FTI) GPI Gender Parity Index GOY Government of Yemen HDI Human Development Index KfW KfW (German Development Bank) IDA International Development Association IDP Internally Displaced Person IMSC Inter-ministerial Steering Committee JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency JAR Joint Annual Review JSEA Joint Social and Economic Assessment LAEO Literacy and Adult Education Organization LDG Local Donor Group MDG Millennium Development Goal MoCS Ministry of Civil Service MoE Ministry of Education MoF Ministry of Finance MoLA Ministry of Local Administration MoPIC Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation MoHESR Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research MTBP Medium Term Budget Plan 5 Final Programme Document for GPE grant application – 4th March 2013 MTRF Medium Term Results