Country Briefing, Malawi, 2022, Girls Education Challenge

NOVEMBER 2022

COUNTRY BRIEFING: MALAWI The GEC has one project in Malawi, the Transformational Empowerment for Adolescent Marginalised Girls in Malawi (TEAM Girl Malawi) project. It is a five-year project, funded through the Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB) funding window and implemented by Link Education International (Link) and its consortium. TEAM Girl Malawi aims to improve learning and life opportunities for girls aged from 10 to 19 who have never been to school or who dropped out of school without gaining functional literacy and numeracy skills. The project is implementing activities in four key areas of intervention: (1) community-based Complementary Basic Education centres (CBEs); (2) Girls’ Clubs located in the same space as CBEs, (3) support for transition into primary school, vocational training and business training supported by micro-loans; and (4) support for families, community members and government staff.

A second project, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by Cambridge Education is the National Numeracy Programme (NNP). This is a Government of Malawi programme led by the Ministry of Education with the goal to improve student learning outcomes in mathematics in standards 1 to 4, so that girls and boys have a solid foundation in basic skills to finish schooling and to fulfil their potential. The NNP is a national programme that will ultimately reach all primary schools in Malawi.

LEAD PARTNER

START DATE

END DATE

Link Education Team Girl International Malawi LNGB Project

16 Aug 2018

31 Oct 2023

£7,803,407

Cambridge Education – Mott MacDonald Limited (MML)

31 Mar 2020

28 Feb 2024

£16,262,486 Northern, Central and Southern Malawi

PROJECT

National Numeracy Programme (NNP)

VALUE

DISTRICTS/ REGIONS

Dedza, Mchinji, and Lilongwe in Malawi’s Central region

PARTNERS

Link Community Development Malawi, Theatre for a Change, CGA Technologies, Supreme Sanitary Pads, CUMO Microfinance Ltd GIZ, Blue Tree Group, School to School International, Development Media International

© Link Education International

The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) was launched by FCDO in 2012 as a 12-year commitment to reach the most marginalised girls globally and is the largest global fund dedicated to girls’ education.

GEC COUNTRY BRIEFING NOVEMBER 2022 / MALAWI

1

LEAD PARTNER*

GIRLS TARGETED

GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES TARGETED

MEN AND BOYS TARGETED

SCHOOLS REACHED

TEACHERS TRAINED

LEARNING MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED

SANITARY AND WASH KITS DISTRIBUTED

Link Education International

5,000

1,946

1,050

24

1,062

6,700

2,000

*Project reported data is from the start of this phase of the project in 2018 to November 2022.

Highlights

Improving learning and life opportunities for the most marginalised in Malawi TEAM Girl Malawi is delivering literacy and numeracy and life skills education through 105 CBEs, employing trained community volunteers. Interventions that reduce travel time to school by setting up schools within communities have been classified as a ‘Good Buy’ by the GEEAP report on Cost Effective Approaches to support Global Learning.1 The project is reaching 6,000 direct beneficiaries in three cohorts who will transition into one of four pathways; (i) re-enroll in primary school, (ii) enroll in vocational training (iii) safe/paid employment and (iv) return to current situation with essential life skills for better quality of life.

A Midline Evaluation was conducted in August 2022. Analysis of the midline data shows that Cohort 1 girls demonstrated an overall improvement in literacy, as measured by the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and an overall improvement in numeracy, as measured by the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA). Overall, most Cohort 12 girls indicated that they would pursue skills or vocational training (45.2 per cent) or self-employment (42.9 per cent) at the end of the project. The majority (80 per cent or higher) of Cohort 1 girls reported improved life skills.3 Cohort characteristics analysis found that in many ways Cohort 3 are more marginalised than Cohort 1, suggesting that the project has done a good job in embedding in repeat communities and supporting positive attitudes to girls’ education which is giving us access to young people who were not previously put forward for participation in learning centres.4 Revising curriculum and creating quality resources for children and teachers The NNP team has revised the mathematics curriculum for Standards 1 to 4 and is developing new teaching and learning materials. In alignment with the Global Proficiency Framework and research evidence on teaching and learning mathematics, the NNP team have developed Learner Workbooks, Teacher Guides, a Syllabus and a wide range of training materials.

Twelve Learner Workbooks (one per term for each of Standards 1 to 4) were developed and over 600,000 of these workbooks were printed and distributed. A comprehensive Teacher Guide, teacher training facilitator manuals and participant workbooks printed and distributed to over 9,000 teachers. In addition, 45 instructional videos were developed and distributed for use during school-based teacher training. Feedback from teachers and other stakeholders on the materials and training has been very positive. Evaluations from two independent external reviewers praised the quality of the learning materials.

Steady progress is being made in embedding and institutionalising NNP reforms in Ministry of Education systems. The national syllabus for Standards 1 to 4 mathematics has been revised to reflect NNP methodology. The Ministry is preparing to host NNP products such as coaching App and training videos. A process has been agreed for formal adoption of the Learner Workbooks.

Work will commence shortly to revise the pre-service education curriculum to reflect the new mathematics curriculum.

World Bank, “Cost Effective Approaches to support Global Learning – What does recent evidence tell us are “Smart Buys”for improving learning in low- and middle-income countries?”

October 2020 2 The project expects to reach 6,000 direct beneficiaries in three cohorts, with 2,000 direct beneficiaries each, who will transition into one of 4 pathways 3 TEAM Girl Malawi, Midline Evaluation August 2022 4 LNGB Year 4 TEAM Malawi Annual Report 5 Midline Evaluation August 2022 TEAM Girl Malawi 1

TEAM Girl Malawi is developing and delivering a full sexual reproductive health and rights curriculum through Girls’ Clubs (safe spaces for girls to interact and learn informally) to improve girls’ knowledge and understanding of these issues.

Removing financial and socio-economic barriers to attendance TEAM Girl Malawi is offering financial literacy, vocational and micro-business training to girls who are also supported to join village savings and loan associations to access loans for business ventures. The Midline Evaluation found that ‘not having money for school’ and ‘needing to work’ were the top two barriers to regular attendance. According to caregivers, the main project activities contributing to reducing these barriers include: provision of childcare at CBEs (39.4 per cent); flexibility of location (32.1 per cent) and timing (32.6 per cent); teachers accommodating learners needing extra support (29.0 per cent); and take-home work (23.8 per cent). Of the Cohort 1 girls, 96.3 per cent reported that the household and community level barriers had been removed.5 GEC COUNTRY BRIEFING NOVEMBER 2022 / MALAWI

2

TEAM Girl Malawi’s Vocational Training (Supreme) programme aims at preparing learners for using their skills to earn. Supreme trains girls in sewing and producing sewing products. Once a product has been completed, the learners are encouraged to sell this product and put the savings into their group, as practice for running their business in the future. Feedback surveys from the groups have repeatedly indicated over 95 per cent of respondents believe that the skills they are learning/have learned can help increase their levels of income. However, there remains evidence that learners lack confidence that they can make a business from their skills. This can be because they do not have sewing machines and the project is taking this finding forward into the proposal to supply two machines per group.6 Promoting girls’ education and wellbeing Development Media International (DMI) was contracted to work with the NNP to design a campaign to help overcome negative attitudes, beliefs and perceptions that can affect the learning of mathematics by some groups of children. Useful development work was done, including conducting formative research to understand aspirations and attitudes related to studying mathematics. Based on the findings of this study, key messages and prototypes to promote the messages among the target audiences were developed. Seven audio spots and two motivational songs were developed and uploaded on media cards and were pre-tested amongst the target audience.

TEAM Girl Malawi’s Midline Evaluation found that all learners felt safe or very safe at learning centres.

There was also an increase in learners who felt safe or very safe in their community too, from an average of 71 per cent at baseline to 91 per cent at midline, suggesting that the project’s wider interventions to keep girls safe and support their wellbeing are having an impact. The model has an inclusive education approach, where Facilitators are expected to make adaptations to learning environments and pedagogy to support all learners individually, depending on the barriers they face.

This can include flexible timing of lessons, take-home activities and individual education plans.

Some Facilitators were finding being an adaptive and inclusive teacher demanding, so the project has significantly increased support through Continuous Professional Development and mentoring from mainstream primary teachers.

© Link Education International

The project takes a holistic approach and is also focused on safeguarding and strengthening families’ skills to earn, as well as delivering teaching and learning. Though there have been improvements in attendance, the more complicated intersecting challenges of social norms and poverty, for example around child marriage, are not likely to be resolved in the short term. In all centres, key community stakeholders, such as Learning Centre Management Committees and Mothers’ Groups, have effectively continued to support beneficiaries during CBE and Girls’ Clubs, and after their transition.

They help to supply learning resources, monitor Facilitators’ timekeeping, provide informal childcare during lessons, follow up on learner absenteeism, and provide encouragement to learners.7 Providing structured lesson plans, materials and ongoing teacher monitoring and training has been identified as a ‘Good Buy’ in GEAAP’s paper on Cost-effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning Levels.8

LNGB Year Annual Review Report TEAM Girl Malawi 7 GEC’s Thematic Review of Community-Based Structures 8 World Bank, GEEAP, ‘Cost-effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning Levels’ October 2020 6

GEC COUNTRY BRIEFING NOVEMBER 2022 / MALAWI

3

Progress and learning

LEAD PARTNER

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS*

Link Education International

Midline Evaluation showed that the percentage of Cohort 1 girls who improved their aggregated EGRA score between baseline and midline is 88%. Cohort 1 girls also demonstrated an overall improvement in numeracy, as measured by the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), 85.9% of girls improved their aggregate numeracy score from baseline to the midline. The majority (80% or higher) of Cohort 1 girls reported improved life skills. The project seems to have had a marked impact on facilitators’ capacity to practise gender-responsive pedagogy and inclusive and child-centred teaching methodologies

Cambridge Education – Mott MacDonald Limited

Twelve Learner Workbooks were developed and over 600,000 of these distributed.

A comprehensive Teacher Guide, teacher training facilitator manuals and participant workbooks distributed to over 9,000 teachers. Around 9,000 teachers have been trained to use a new approach to teaching and learning primary mathematics. Around 45 instructional videos developed and distributed for use during school-based teacher trainings. Steady progress is being made in embedding and institutionalising NNP reforms in Ministry of Education systems

*Evidence in the table is from an evaluation point, baseline and preliminary endline findings carried out by an external evaluator.

Additional resources: Thematic Review: ‘Using community-based structures in education programming’ is on the GEC website. This contains an initial value for money review of community-based structures used in two GEC projects being implemented in Ethiopia and Malawi (October 2021).

Blog: All means all: What happens when you include girls with disabilities? 13% of learners enrolled in the TEAM Girl Malawi project have a disability. Kate Skyes from Link Education International shares the learning journey of how Link and their partners were able to include children with disabilities in their work.

Blog: Seeing the whole person: Madalitso’s journey and our shared responsibility to support her Madalitso’s journey throughout her time with TEAM Girl Malawi is portrayed vividly through the words of Harold Kuombolo (Link Community Development, Malawi), Umba Zalira (Theatre for a Change, Malawi), and Rose Woods (Supreme).

Evaluation: Transformational Empowerment of Adolescent Marginalised Girls in Malawi – Midline Evaluation Report conducted by School-to-School International on TEAM Girl Malawi implemented by Link Education International (August 2020).

Malawi Country Briefing 2021 – Previous Country Briefing on Malawi, covering TEAM Girl Malawi progress up to March 2021.

Spotlight on the GEC and COVID-19 in Malawi: This brief focuses on Malawi and summarises emerging findings on the impact of COVID-19 on learning, wellbeing and return to school from GEC projects in Central Africa – Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda.

It is one of a series of five regional Emerging Findings briefs from March 2020 to June 2021. It is primarily aimed at Central African national governments, INGOs and NGOs working in the region who are interested in understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on learning, wellbeing and return to school.

Contact: www.girlseducationchallenge.org | learningteam@girlseducationchallenge.org The Girls’ Education Challenge is a project funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (“FCDO”), formerly the Department for International Development (“DFID”), and is led and administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Mott MacDonald (trading as Cambridge Education), working with organisations including Nathan Associates London Ltd. and Social Development Direct Ltd. This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the other entities managing the Girls’ Education Challenge (as listed above) do not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.