Project profile — Teaching and Learning in Fragile Contexts

• Liberia (45.00%)
• Sierra Leone (45.00%)

• South of Sahara, regional (10.00%)

• Education policy and administrative management:
Education policy and administrative management (11110) (10.00%)
Teacher training (11130) (70.00%)
Educational research (11182) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to achieve inclusive, quality and gender-responsive education for primary students in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It also supports the growth of locally-driven evidence-based research on education, exploring its relation to gender equality, equity and inclusion in refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) settings in fragile African contexts. Project activities include: (1) training teacher educators on active teaching and gender equality practices; (2) training pre-service and in-service teachers at Teacher Training Institutes (colleges) on active learning, gender-responsive teaching strategies; (3) developing and distributing gender-responsive children’s books in print and digital format to colleges and practicum schools to be used as a companion to learning teaching strategies for the classroom; (4) supporting research by African researchers in African refugee and IDP settings; and (5) disseminating research to inform education policies and practices. This project aims to reach 9,000 primary students (of whom 50% are girls), 2,000 pre-service teachers, 360 in-service teachers, 120 teacher educators, national and district Ministry of Education officials and at least 20 African researchers.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased use of active learning, gender-responsive and quality teaching strategies by pre-and in-service teachers for literacy instruction in schools, especially for girls and vulnerable populations; (2) increased effectiveness among education decision-makers in using active learning, gender-responsive teaching strategies and promoting gender equality in education programming; and (3) increased practice of using evidence-based research on gender equality, equity and inclusion in educational programming for refugee and internally displaced people in fragile Sub-Saharan African contexts.

Results achieved as of March 2024 include: (1) increased active-learning teaching practices by teachers to 57.1% from the baseline of 17.9%, and 73.21% adopted gender-responsive pedagogy; (2) advocated positively in favour of using active learning, gender-responsive teaching strategies through an exchange visit organized in Liberia involving 22 key education leaders from ministries, Teacher Training Institutions, and local partners; and (3) established the Africa Research Network, received 35 proposals through its first call for proposals, and funded 10 research proposals from 7 African countries focused on quality education, trauma-informed teaching, multilingual literacy, mobile technology, and artificial intelligence in training.

• Proactive disclosure