World Education, Inc.

UNICEF Basic and Equitable Education Program - Phase II
In agreement with the Government of Mali, UNICEF initiated a program to entrust to local CBOs and NGOs the implementation of activities for which the Malian Department for Education has limited skills and resources. These activities include support for community participation in the development of basic education, community activities to support girls' education and gender equity, and capacity building of members of community-based educational organizations - namely school management committees and father's and mother's associations - in the development and implementation of school projects. It is in this context that World Education was chosen by the Malian Ministry of Education and UNICEF to implement activities around the following three components in the Koulikoro and Ségou regions: Subcomponent E01 (Enlightenment and Development of Young Children), sub-component E02 (Basic Education), and subcomponent EO3 (Nonformal Education). World Education is integrating these three components within and across villages, in a methodology which has come to be known as the "village trilogy."

World Education, leveraging its expertise in community involvement, knowledge of the implementation regions, and experience in working with state officials, local authorities and other partners involved in the education community, is implementing activities around the following services:

• Provision of financial and material assistance (funds to conduct IGAS and provision of teaching materials and school supplies) to reduce the financial burden of families in the education of girls and boys in school and the skills development of adolescents and out of school teens;
  
• Educational support for remedial training and monitoring of student attendance; and
  
• Support for improved educational environments through community organization and mobilization, as well as sensitization of parents and communities to critical issues such as: STDs, HIV&AIDS, child rights, girls' education, capacity development of AMEs, creation village libraries, literacy and linkages between communities.

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Batonga   (2007 - 2010)
World Education partnered with Batonga Foundation, founded by Angelique Kidjo, the West African singer, songwriter, and UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador. The program helped girls in Mali and Benin continue their education through middle school and beyond. Batonga education packages covered school fees, uniforms, and school supplies; after-school tutorials that helped girls improve their academic skills; and mentor programs that connected girls to volunteers in their communities who encouraged their successes and taught them about important personal health topics including how to prevent HIV. Batonga girls were graduates of the Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program in Benin and Mali. The program was implemented locally in partnership with nongovernmental organizations, parent groups (mothers in particular), as well as school administrators.

Watch a slide show that shows how Batonga helped girls in Mali and Benin improve their lives.
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Northern Mali Secondary Scholarship Program   (2005 - 2008)
The Northern Mali Secondary Scholarship Program supported girls who had successfully completed primary school to continue their education. The program provided scholarship support, linked girls with mentors, and worked with local mothers' associations to highlight the importance of girls' education across the greater community, including support from fathers, community and religious leaders, and government officials. The mothers' associations also played an important role in fostering a supportive environment for girls and encouraging their attendance. The World Ed Mali team aimed to root local support and ownership through strong networks of parents, local NGOs, and local businesses who helped to support girls' education in the community. World Education scholarships supported 620 secondary school girls in Northern Mali.

World Education successfully implemented the Northern Mali Secondary Scholarship Program from 2005 to 2008. For further information about this project's activities, please contact wei@worlded.org

Read the following success story about the program: Girls' Secondary Scholarship Program
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Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP)   (2004 - 2011)
Through schooling, children are equipped with skills that improve the quality of their lives. Skills such as reading and working with numbers as well as accurate information on health and science, provide opportunities to students that would otherwise not exist. Unfortunately, due to social, cultural, and financial constraints, access to primary and secondary schools for young girls in many African communities is restricted.

A program of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the President's Africa Education Initiative/Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AEI/AGSP) was implemented throughout Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 - 2011. World Education managed the program in 13 West African countries in collaboration with local NGOs. The AEI/AGSP provided more then 188,000 scholarships to cover educational costs for 73,000 girls and boys who are economically disadvantaged, disabled, orphaned, and/or affected by HIV and AIDS. Many of the beneficiaries would otherwise be out of school, or at risk of dropping out.

In addition, each girl enrolled in the scholarship program was mentored and encouraged in her educational pursuits, while participating in activities that focused on HIV mitigation and prevention, and community participation and democracy.

World Education's AGSP programming represents a notable example of our well-known and recognized expertise in building the capacity of local community counterparts. Because grants to community organizations and NGOs play a significant role in World Education programs, in addition to our own strong internal systems for providing and monitoring sub-grants, World Ed trains local organizations in how to meet reporting requirements, draft and manage agreements, and monitor sub-grants. Via our NGO partners, we train sub-grant recipients in how to account for funds, ensuring transparency and accuracy in accounting. AGSP was an excellent example of this since it is implemented through sub-grants to over 41 local NGO partners in 13 countries in West Africa. World Ed worked with these 42 NGOs partners to provide scholarship and mentorship support, such that the NGOs not only delivered their technical services, but also maintained records and reports that meet USAID standards. Sagefox Consulting Group, LLC, the M&E subcontractor on AGSP, maintained the program database, FieldLink.


Read the following success stories about the project:
Educating and Inspiring Girls in Africa
On the Frontlines of Girls' Education
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Decreasing Gender and Geographic Disparities in Education in Mali   (2004 - 2005)
In Mali, as in many other African contexts, there exist many cultural and social constraints that significantly hinder girls' advancement and success in school. One major barrier is finding the financial means to pay for girls' continued schooling. Another barrier is providing girls the scholastic support and role models necessary to help them cope with challenges they face in their communities and at school.

Targeting girls in the northern regions of Gao, Kidal, and Tombouctou, the project Decreasing Gender and Geographic Disparities in Education in Mali provided 5,000 scholarships to primary school girls in grades 4, 5, and 6. Scholarships covered school supplies and fees, in addition to financing study groups and remedial courses. Other project-sponsored activities included mentoring activities for the girls with positive female role models from their communities, and gender equity awareness-building activities with School Management Committees, Parents' Associations, and Mothers' Associations.

This one-year project was funded by the US Agency for International Development and ran from September 2004 to September 2005. After that time, the activities were rolled-up into the larger Ambassador Girls' Scholarship Program, a program funded by USAID and managed by World Education in 15 West African countries.
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Global Alliance for Illumination in Education in Mali   (2004 - 2007)
Across Mali, adult literacy classes have formed at the request of parents mobilized to advocate schooling for their children. Due to lack of electricity, these adults meet at night in dark classrooms, huddled around a few oil lamps and flashlights. They struggle to see the textbooks and learning materials provided for them. In this exciting initiative, Global Alliance for Illumination for Education, World Education partnered with Design that Matters (DtM) to develop a program focusing on a low-cost, battery-powered projector to be used in dark classrooms. The projector was designed by a team from DtM and named Kinkajou after a nocturnal animal with exceptional nighttime vision. It combines cutting edge light emitting diode (LED) technology with durable microfilm. Literacy lesson material provided by World Education was converted to microfilm stored on reels and inserted in the sturdy projector. The project, funded by USAID, had three main objectives. The first was to increase access to adult literacy by increasing the capacity of educators to teach at night. A secondary objective was to enhance motivation and learning via the use of new educational technology appropriate to developing countries. Thirdly, the project modeled a process that shifts the manufacture of new technologies to local manufacturers.

World Education successfully implemented the Global Alliance for Illumination in Education in Mali project for USAID from 2004 to 2007. For further information about this project's activities, please contact wei@worlded.org
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Improved Quality of Education in Mali
In 1999, the Malian Ministry of Education began an ambitious endeavor to reform and decentralize the national education system and to improve the quality of basic education for girls and boys in Mali. To support this reform, USAID contracted World Education in 2003 to implement an Improved Quality of Education Activity (IQEA). This project supported the Ministry's ten-year plan for development within the education sector. World Education was the prime contractor for IQEA, in partnership with seven Malian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). During the course of the five-year program, World Education and the Ministry worked with at least 800 schools in 105 communes in the regions of Kidal, Gao, Tomboucotu, Sikasso, Koulikoro, Ségou, and the district of Bamako. IQEA initiatives focused on three major components: improving teacher performance by creating communities of learning; curriculum development and testing for grades 3 - 6; and improving quality and equity in education through increased community participation. The project administered grants and provided technical assistance and capacity building to parents' associations (APE), APE federations, school management committees, mothers' associations, and local NGOs. Important issues such as gender equity and AIDS awareness in education were addressed in each of the three project components.
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Mali Girls' and Women's Literacy Pilot
World Education's past experience demonstrates that female-only literacy classes ensure greater participation of women, especially when taught by women using materials and methods specifically targeted for their use. Women teaching women is a successful strategy: women feel more at ease with teachers of their own gender, especially when discussing sensitive issues like reproductive health, female genital cutting, and domestic violence. Furthermore, husbands and fathers, particularly in conservative Muslim countries, are more likely to permit their wives and daughters to participate in women-only classes. Unfortunately with few literate women in rural communities, and the disinclination of husbands and fathers to allow their wives and daughters to teach, providing classes and recruiting women teachers is difficult.

In Mali, World Education developed mother/daughter classes taught by women. Appropriate measures were taken in the community to address the concerns of husbands and fathers with the hope that this pilot would pave the way for better recruitment and retention of women teachers. The idea of linking girls and their mothers encouraged older women to share local knowledge with young women in their communities. The target result was an integrated literacy program in which women teach other women and adolescent girls to read, write, and do math while learning about good health and nutrition, and promoting an exchange between mothers and girls. Working in partnership with a local NGO, World Education tested the project in 12 classrooms of 30, reaching a total of 360 women/girls. This project was made possible through the generosity of a private donor.
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