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SENEGAL
Activity Data Sheet
>> AFR Regional Overview >> Senegal Overview PROGRAM: SENEGAL
TITLE AND NUMBER: Special Objective Grant - Increased Girls' Access and Retention in Targeted Primary and Vocational Schools: The Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI/Senegal), 685-008
STATUS: Continuing
PLANNED FY 2001 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $0
PROPOSED FY 2002 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $0
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1999 ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2005Summary: In Senegal, the majority of girls leave school before third grade, only 23% of all middle-school aged children are in school, and a large majority of the women are illiterate. The country's education system is ill-prepared to provide the majority of its citizens with basic skills and develop a workforce that is competitive in the 21st century. In this context, USAID created a Special Objective (SpO) to get girls into school, keep them there, and teach them useful life skills. The SpO is part of the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) that aims to improve the level and quality of education in Africa, and to assist Africa to integrate into the world community of free-market democracies. In Senegal, EDDI focuses on girls and young women in primary, secondary and vocational schools.
This inter-agency initiative (USAID, Peace Corps, and the State Department) marks an important commitment by the United States to invest in the girls and young women of Senegal. To address factors that keep girls out of school, the activity includes provision of school supplies, construction/rehabilitation of school facilities and latrines, and vocational and life skills training. The training is designed to help students better assess and prepare themselves for the realities of the local labor market and to improve the quality of their lives. Skills acquired will range from household budgeting to computer literacy. The activity contributes to the Mission Performance Plan's Economic Development goal and to the Agency's goal of building human capacity through education and training.
Using basic education funds from the Child Survival and Diseases account allocated from EDDI, the activity will facilitate girls' access and retention in 30 targeted primary schools through increased parental and local government support to primary schools and an improved school environment. With Development Assistance funds the activity will provide relevant skills for girls and young women through improved formal and informal vocational training in four vocational schools.
Key Results: In the year since inception of the activity, USAID has developed close working relationships with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and key donors to ensure GOS commitment to the program and complementarity with the 10-year MOE education program. Building this level of collaboration among partners, while time-consuming, has set the stage for greater participation of MOE staff in all of the USAID activities and ensures more sustainable results.
- The EDDI team and MOE officials identified the target population, refined results and performance measures, collected baseline data, and visited over 50 schools in four regions to select target schools.
- A visionary Girls Scholarship Program was set up under the Ambassador's sponsorship and in collaboration with Peace Corps to help girls complete high school. The fund will apply to all 10 regions in Senegal.
- Close working relationships were developed with the NGO/PVO community in the education sector, and the Embassy Self-help fund program.
Performance and Prospects: Representatives from the MOE, other donors and members of target communities (parent-teacher groups, students, and local officials) have hailed this activity as a model for cooperation in design and planning and for its holistic approach to the constraints to girls education. The 30 primary schools and 4 vocational schools selected cover four intervention zones (suburban Dakar, Fatick, Diourbel and Louga). Specific activities consist of:
- Publicity and public awareness campaigns about the access to, and retention of, girls in school;
- Provision of textbooks, school supplies, and reading materials;
- Construction of latrines and rehabilitation of classrooms;
- Provision of equipment to develop marketable skills in vocational schools;
- Introduction of life skills modules in primary and vocational schools; and
- Collection of data on the number of school-aged children in targeted villages and urban neighborhoods and other base line data.
The Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program, aimed at keeping the brightest and most needy girls in high school for their final three years (10th-12th grades), is nationwide. Mentoring is a key aspect of this program. Professional Senegalese women will be recruited as volunteers to mentor scholars while, at the same time, scholars will be expected to become mentors for younger girls to transmit the value of dedication to their own education.
USAID is funding a new information technology pilot with the Front de Terre primary school that will make computer and Internet services available to more than 1,000 students at Front de Terre and surrounding schools. If this pilot endeavor is successful, it will demonstrate that modern information technology can be an important tool in all schools - not just those with private funds. This new technology will improve the pedagogical quality of the teaching, enlarge the horizon of the students as well as the teachers and offer a better management tool for the school administration.
If additional resources are available, USAID will support the extension of the program to primary and vocational schools in the Casamance in southern Senegal, where education has been disrupted by armed conflict. Urban areas have established schools for children displaced from villages that are destroyed or mined. These schools, housed in courtyards of dilapidated regular schools, are made of bamboo mats, making classes during the rainy season next to impossible. USAID's focus on girls' education and vocational training is pertinent in a post-conflict situation: women have been shown to have a critical role in promoting peace, and vocational training provides valuable income generating skills in an economically depressed area.
Possible Adjustments to Plans: No adjustments to this program are foreseen at present.
Host Country and Other Donors: The World Bank, France, Japan, and the Canada currently contribute to the girls and women's education sector in Senegal and are providing the bulk of external resources for the GOS's 10-year education and training plan.
Principal Contractors, Grantees or Agencies: NGO partners will help GOS and USAID obtain the key results. Creative Associates International Inc and an international NGO, TOSTAN, provide textbooks, school supplies and reading materials, construct latrines and rehabilitate classrooms and to introduce "life skills" modules. Additional implementing partners will be selected in FY2001 to conduct public awareness campaigns on the benefits of educating girls and upgrade the quality of vocational training.
FY 2002 Performance Tables
Performance Measures:
Indicator FY97 (Actual) FY98 (Actual) FY99 (Actual) FY00 (Actual) FY00 (Plan) FY01 (Plan) FY02 (Plan) Indicator 1: Number of vocational centers meeting minimum quality standards NA NA NA 0 NA 2 4 Indicator 2: % of all 7 year-old girls newly enrolled in the first grade of (rural) primary school NA NA NA Girls=49.8 NA Girls=51 Girls=53 Indicator Information:
Indicator Level (S) or (IR) Unit of Measure Source Indicator Description Indicator 1: IR Number of centers Baseline survey in March 2001 by the Cabinet d'Appui en Education et en Formation(CAPEF), a private consulting firm specialized in the education sector. Implementing partners and USAID. "Index for minimum quality standards include: (1)functional toilets available to students; (2) working refridgerator; and (3) ratio of functional sewing machines per trainee. This indicator will be measured as follows:
- in Year 2: number of centers that satisfy at least 2 indices
- in Year 3: number of centers that satisfy all 3 indices."Indicator 2: IR Percent of children Baseline survey in March 2001 by the Cabinet d'Appui en Education et en Formation(CAPEF), a private consulting firm specialized in the education sector. Implementing partners and USAID. Senegalese children are eligible for primary school enrollment, by law, at 7 years of age.
U.S. Financing
(In thousands of dollars)
Obligations Expenditures Unliquidated Through September 30, 1999 0 DA 0 DA 0 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA Fiscal Year 2000 1,000 DA 0 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA Through September 30, 2000 1,000 DA 0 DA 1,000 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA Prior Year Unobligated Funds 0 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Planned Fiscal Year 2001 NOA 0 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Total Planned Fiscal Year 2001 0 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Future Obligations Est. Total Cost Proposed Fiscal Year 2002 NOA 0 DA 0 DA 1,000 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA
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Last Updated on: May 29, 2002 |
