Uzbekistan – All Children Succeeding

Program

1 min read

Uzbekistan’s education system has historically followed a teacher-centered, textbook-driven model where all students are expected to learn the same material at the same pace.

The USAID-funded All Children Succeeding (ACS) activity worked closely with the Government of Uzbekistan to increase learning and enhance educational access for all students, including those with disabilities.

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the All Children Succeeding activity supported Uzbekistan’s mandate to improve teacher training, expand access to flexible education materials, pilot new approaches and staff positions to support learning.

The program focused on improving foundational skills from kindergarten to grade 5. It worked in 1,000 schools in Uzbekistan’s Namangan and Sirdaryo regions.

All Children Succeeding was implemented by Creative Associates International, which led a consortium of local and international practitioners, including The American Councils for International Education, Syracuse University, the Nationwide Movement Yuksalish, and social enterprise Praxis Plus.

Program Achievements

Strengthened specialized teaching and learning materials to advance foundational skills

Incorporating Universal Design for Learning to support flexible learning environments, ACS supported the Government of Uzbekistan in revising and building upon teaching and learning materials. The program also supported distribution of assistive technology and devices along with training teachers and parents to help children with disabilities effectively learn.

Worked with teachers and school leadership to introduce education best practices

ACS strengthened professional development opportunities for teachers, school leadership and experts, focusing on curricula that integrated learner-centered classroom pedagogy. This training included individualized support plans and best practices so that educators could work effectively with children with disabilities.

Improved education systems at the government level to promote sustainable reform

ACS worked closely with the Government of Uzbekistan and the Local Education Group to establish policies, procedures and practices for advancing quality education. The project encouraged ongoing partnerships between the government, civil society and disabled persons organizations to generate greater understanding and support of education for children with disabilities.

Vietnam – Local Capacity Development Program

Program

1 min read

The USAID Local Capacity Development (LCD) program in Vietnam empowered local governments and stakeholders to create a shared vision of enhancing effective, inclusive and sustainable governance. This improved public service delivery (e.g. clean water, effective waste management, expedited administrative services, efficient business licensing, etc.), fostered resource mobilization and sustainability, and strengthened local economies. The project responded to the Government of Vietnam’s objective to enhance its local capacity, underpinning the country’s journey to self-reliance, and contributing to an open, prosperous, and secure Vietnam.

The USAID Vietnam Local Capacity Development Activity’s success centered on helping local governments assess and prioritize their most critical service delivery needs and then building networks of key stakeholders to iterate solutions and improve local services. This helped to empower locally led solutions to priority public service delivery issues.

The five-year technical assistance program focused on four provinces and cities in Vietnam: Vinh Phuc, Thua Thien–Hue, Can Tho and Dong Thap, and three districts in each province/city.

Program AChievements

Strengthened local governments, organizations and network capacity

The project offered tailored capacity strengthening to local governments, local organizations and the private sector to fully engage and work together to improve local public service delivery. The project also supported the Academy of Policy and Development (APD), as the government’s learning institution on public service delivery and administration, in strengthening their training administration, improving research skills and adult teaching methods, modernizing their curricula and developing and delivering short courses on local governance.

Improved the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement, systems analysis, continuous learning and adaptation

The project fostered robust and inclusive engagement of local governments, local organizations and the private sector via existing and new public-private dialogues, forums, coffee talks, and networks organized around specific and prioritized issues. This helped to empower locally led solutions for priority public service delivery issues. The project also supported the increased digitalization of administrative services delivered by local governments, a priority of the government of Vietnam.

Identified, prioritized and implemented public service solutions and initiatives

The project supported the implementation of innovative public service delivery improvement solutions developed by the local networks, as well as:
• Integrating service improvements into existing services for long-term sustainability (procurement, oversight, operations, maintenance, etc.).
• Piloting incentive funds to reward and encourage improvements in DDCI scores.
• Recognizing local governments that meet key requirements, metrics and offerings that stimulate and enable local economic development.
• Assisting local governments in mobilizing additional resources, including from the private-sector and non-traditional sources, to sustain the improvements.
• Helping APD build a national database of service improvements and improve oversight.

Sharing successes in rebuilding trust in governance in “Democracy Delivers” webinar

February 6, 2024

4 min read

Practitioners in governance face many challenges in countries where democracy is tenuous, and one of the most challenging is strengthening the social contract between citizens and government.

But forging trust is an essential step in creating a framework that can respond to citizens’ pressing needs and priorities, experts said during “Democracy Delivers,” a webinar co-hosted by Creative Associates International and VNG International, the international cooperation agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities.

“At the end of the day, people are looking for results in order to trust the local authorities and trust the system,” said panelist Karl Jean-Louis, Chief of Party for USAID-funded Inclusive Governance for Resilience program implemented by Creative in Burkina Faso.

Women riding bicycles in Yako, Burkina Faso on November 17, 2022

In political systems weakened by conflict or fragility, panelists said their experience implementing governance projects has demonstrated that building a constructive partnership between local governments and communities requires honest conversations, establishing mutual goals and a shared understanding.

A first step in the path to trust is understanding the key players in local governance, said Yeshimebet Aynie, Capacity Strengthening Manager for the USAID-funded Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity implemented by Creative.

“As a starting point, we conduct analysis of key local governance actors,” Aynie told the webinar audience on Dec. 5, 2023. “We focused on the council, elected councilors, the administration, and the citizens. The three points, and what their relations look like there, is the social accountability that we want to focus on between the citizens and the service providers.”

Accountability is critical, panelists said, since stakeholders cannot constantly monitor each other’s activities.

A Matter of Trust

Trust and accountability are even more complicated when governmental leaders are reluctant to share power and information. In countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, where military juntas are in control, panelists said every step of the journey is delicate.

“Our approach has been cautious in doing different analyses,” said Jean-Louis, head of the Burkina Faso project. “We have to navigate with all the pressure and tension, mainly the political crisis and the lack of trust between citizens and the [leaders of] these two war-torn countries.”

Practitioners said governments can regain the trust of their citizens when they demonstrate good faith in improving the provision of public services. But even if the government gains citizens’ trust, it can be undermined if it cannot make good on its promises.

“It’s very important to make sure that you don’t end up with this process with a wish list at the end set up by the population, but then nothing can be implemented,” said Eva Peppelman, who directs VNG’s programs in Burundi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Project Manager in VNG’s Business Unit for West and Central Africa.

In such instances, a project can support the relationship by providing incremental resources and supporting revenue generation, Peppelman said.

“In the short term, the use of small grants to be able to implement small actions from these plans – based on participative needs from the community – shows the community that participation actually pays off directly with services or improvements that they can feel,” Peppelman said.

A similar result was achieved in Burkina Faso, where the government had struggled to meet the demand for identity cards. Still, a mayor’s office provided 45,000 I.D. cards to citizens.

“We can see people coming from all over the place, being in line for 1 to 2 hours to get their card, because this card gives them access to other services,” said Jean-Louis of the Burkina Faso project.

Governance practitioners can play a valuable role in helping government officials confront how they are not meeting their citizens’ needs. In southern Ethiopia, citizens had to travel most of the day to get clean water. Having an outside party in place to bridge the gap between the citizens and the government moved leaders to confront the untenable situation and make progress.

“Once (the citizens) participated in the dialogue with service providers and the local government, they were able to influence them to allocate a budget,” said Yeshimebet.

Tools of the Trade

Outside of trust and communication, speakers in the webinar also stressed different tools they employ to empower struggling communities. One is the community scorecard, an accountability tool that helps plan, monitor, assess and evaluate public services.

“It is a very empowering tool,” said Aynie of the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity. “We bring citizens together. Those empowered people raise their issues, voice their issues, demand improvements in dialogues, and that leads to a shared understanding of the citizens’ concerns and the shared development of shared action plans and solutions to address improvement.”

Barry Reed, Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Vietnam Local Capacity Development Program implemented by Creative, stressed the interconnectedness of all the elements.

“There’s a ripple effect of each activity that you undertake. It ripples out and impacts other things. At the root of it, our teams are supporting what needs to happen to make life on the ground better. How do we really make that happen for every single person on the ground to make sure the lasting effects of our work for the long term?”

Creative Wins USAID Governance Program in Vietnam

November 30, 2023

3 min read

A new USAID-funded program in Vietnam to foster collective action for improved service delivery systems at multiple levels of government has been awarded to Creative Associates International, a social-impact organization implementing locally focused projects in nearly 30 countries.

The Local Capacity Development program is designed to engage local governments, the private sector and organizations to improve linkages with the national government on local priority issues, which will lead to more transparent and effective policymaking and implementation, as well as better delivery of services to citizens, particularly marginalized or underrepresented groups.

“Creative’s work emphasizes local ownership and direction, and combines it with the best-in-class approaches to governance,” says Leland Kruvant, President & CEO of Creative Associates International. “We are eager to engage with Vietnamese businesses, organizations and local governments to make this program a success.”

Sharon Van Pelt, Creative’s Vice President, says the program’s approach seeks to facilitate collaboration between government, private sector and local organizations to solve issues around responsive service delivery, resource mobilization, sustainability and accountability.

“This is an exciting program for Vietnam to meaningfully engage stakeholders in provincial governance using innovative solutions that are problem-driven and seek a collective impact,” Van Pelt says.

The consortium of globally recognized organizations – including The Asia Foundation, Arizona State University and Duke University – builds on evidence-based approaches drawn from our global local governance experience, in-depth knowledge of Vietnam and relationships with potential local partners.

The five-year, $19-million Local Capacity Development program will focus its efforts in four provinces and cities – Vinh Phuc, Thua Thien–Hue, Can Tho and Dong Thap. Based on the results of the Stakeholder Strategic Review during the program’s second year, USAID may add a fifth province.

Collective Action, Thinking & Working Politically as Key Tools

Creative and its partners will conduct assessments and analyses – including local systems assessments, citizen surveys, applied political economy analysis and social network mapping – to develop a comprehensive understanding of the local context, tailor entry points and engagement strategies and bring key strategic stakeholders together to take action and learn.

Susan Kemp, Director of Creative’s Governance Practice Area, says that during the start-up stage the program will lay the foundation for the project’s collective action approach that empowers local actors to develop a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities and continuous communication.

Initially, the program will serve as a catalyst for collective action and use a proven methodology called “Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation” to help local organizations and people act collectively. Led by certified professionals using the Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation methodology, local actors will apply a step-by-step, learning-by-doing process that helps them develop the skills to solve complex problems.

“We are thrilled to be supporting local actors to coalesce around addressing complex local challenges, drawing on proven tools and approaches like PDIA, collective impact, and thinking and working politically to ensure solutions are locally led and responsive to the local context,” says Kemp.

Local Capacity Development program has three primary objectives: Strengthening capacity among 17 subnational/national governments, 48 local organizations and 32 private sector entities; improve stakeholder engagement, system-analysis, continuous learning and adaptation on local issues among 48 local organizations and 32 private sector entities; and identify and prioritize public service solutions/initiatives implemented generate multiple solutions to improve priority services.

Creative one of eight implementers awarded peacebuilding IDIQ

June 13, 2023

By Ashley Williams

2 min read

Creative Associates International is one of eight implementers awarded a five-year, $800 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to improve peacebuilding and violence-prevention efforts in fragile, conflict or violence-affected countries.

“Creative has a long history of implementing peacebuilding projects in some of the most challenging environments,” says President & CEO Leland Kruvant. “We look forward to bringing our conflict and post-conflict expertise to the table to continue supporting USAID’s peace and stabilization work around the world.”

Conflict, political crises, democratic backsliding and violent extremism are among the many complex challenges that are barriers to peace. By placing communities at the center of peacebuilding efforts, Creative focuses on building local leadership, elevating diverse voices, establishing trust among residents and channeling resources as communities address underlying causes of conflict and pursue positive change.

“Peacebuilding and violence prevention are critical to achieving stable, resilient communities and regions where people can live safe, full lives,” says Sharon Van Pelt, Vice President of Creative’s Communities in Transition Division. “Centering communities and local leadership in the peacebuilding process is integral to our approach.”

USAID is eager to use the Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding mechanism in support of the Global Fragility Act to re-imagine how to develop and carryout peacebuilding initiatives in five key locations — Haiti, Mozambique, Libya, Papua New Guinea and Coastal West Africa — and then take those experiences to other at-risk and conflict areas.

“An emphasis in these regions, using systems and evidence-based approaches, has the potential to put U.S. resources to work in a more strategic way and to address the root causes of violence and instability,” says Mystelle Ruble, Creative’s Transitions Practice Area Director. “This is an exciting opportunity for implementers and USAID to build the knowledge base on what works well and how we can apply it elsewhere.”

The Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding IDIQ was awarded through the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention at USAID’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization. The IDIQ has a ceiling of $800 million during five years. Each one of the IDIQ holders compete for task orders issued by USAID.

Learn more about Creative’s extensive peacebuilding work here.

Tapping on culture to promote sustainable development

October 21, 2021

By Semere Solomon

3 min read

Culture is a broad concept and can sometimes be controversial. It embodies who we are, how we perceive our surroundings and how we interact as a society. Culture can influence the course of human progress and has a symbiotic relationship with sustainable development.

Culture has been used to both build empires and raze them to the ground. The obsession with cultural supremacy can create chaos and anarchy, like we saw in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It can also be the driving force behind military action and subjugation of races — the colonization of Africa, the rise of Nazi Germany and the annihilation of indigenous people across the Americas are cases in point.

Culture can also be liberating. For example, culture played major roles in liberating human beings from the servitude of feudal land ownership, spurred the industrial revolution, and drove the revolution to make France a republic.

An understanding of culture can help us harness it as a tool for progress.

Sustainable development depends on culture

I believe that communities who take pride in their culture, identity, history, values and norms are likely to make sustained, albeit slow, progress.

Culture is an effective instrument in building a good governance structure based on societal values and norms. In many developing economies or traditional societies in Africa, traditional governance systems, such as councils of traditional leaders, provide a cohesive connection between local communities and the central government. This link can serve as a support system for sustainable development.

Norms and values anchored in national pride, consensus building, respect for one’s identity, respect for diversity and constructive dialogue can create stable and resilient communities. Norms and values that strongly advocate representation and inclusion can be liberating and constructive. They can solidify and set progress in motion.

There can never be human progress — social, economic, political — when fellow human beings are treated unequally. We can see this with the caste system in India, the subjugation of indigenous communities and the practice of systemic racism in the United States.

Culture Action Europe maintains that the concept of sustainability should add culture as a factor on top of the normally accepted three-pillar paradigm: economic, environmental and social.

It perceives culture as an essential ingredient to create collective narratives, consolidate communities and foster diversity as an essential element in sustainability. It also recognizes it as possessing a transformative power crucial for building a sustainable future for all.

Economic and social development is unsustainable when it does not bring people to the center of the process and when it is not responsive to their social and economic needs.

Applying culture to education development

In the education development sector, it is incumbent upon us to understand that education should be responsive to local needs and culture.

The curriculum should reflect the environment and socio-cultural setting to make it relevant and appealing to pupils. For example, promoting the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the early grades helps better address children’s educational needs.

The curriculum may also need to be responsive to the skilled labor needs of their surroundings. For instance, communities living along the coastlines, where fishery is the mainstay of their economy, need to learn how to increase productivity in the fishing industry and not forestry or subsistence farming. Netmaking, boat manufacturing, fish preservation, and fish export, for example, are far more relevant.

The curriculum should also address harmful social norms such as traditional societies’ attitude towards women and other marginalized groups, the caste system, and attitudes towards science.

Programs that used religious text to combat gender inequality have been very successful in several countries. Education programs that recruit more female teachers are likely to encourage girls in traditional societies to attend school.

Making education relevant to the needs of society is one way of ensuring sustained social and economic progress.

To read the full publication, please click here.

Semere Solomon is the Senior Director of Creative’s Africa Strategy and Program Director of Northern Education Initiative Plus education program in Nigeria.

The laboratory that has been the pandemic year

May 28, 2021

5 min read

The last year has seen major setbacks in global development brought about by the pandemic. Through the year, the Creative Development Lab shared concerns in remote education, the infodemic and more. Yet, as history has shown, global crises, like COVID-19, often bring to focus challenges and spur innovation. The following are reflections from Lab members on potential lasting change to development work that the last year has brought about.

Equity

“While everyone was impacted directly or indirectly by the pandemic, the narrative that the pandemic was somehow an equalizer proved to be patently false. The pandemic laid bare vulnerabilities and put inequities into stark relief that had we not been shaken likely would have continued in the status quo. In the U.S., we saw these inequities in risk exposure, access to testing, relief, and now vaccines,” reflects Joel Masselink, the Lab’s geospatial and data services lead.

It is no surprise that we are seeing even more focus on the marginalized in international development work. In the tech industry, there is a reckoning, and Silicon Valley is growing a conscience. In the years to come, this will perhaps be reflected on as a time that led tech workers to change the industry and digital product evolution to confront race and gender bias, data privacy, internet addiction and other issues.

Digital divide

As human lives became more digitally dependent worldwide, it exposed the glaring current divide in access to digital—internet, mobile connectivity, devices, electricity, etc. Closing this gap has become a common priority and rally for governments, the private sector and the development industry. For example, programming for resilience in international education has become partly dependent on bringing connectivity for distance education.

“COVID-19 has changed spending on telecoms to embrace new infrastructure models that will make last-mile connectivity more affordable. The shift in traffic coming from business centers to households is pushing governments to revive rural household connectivity agendas. New sources of funding are being made available by governments and multilaterals to fill connectivity gaps,” says Leo Senai, the Lab’s key liaison for the Communities in Transition Division. And even where there is abundant access, the information is often incredibly unreliable.

The rapid spread of disinformation has put pressure on governments and the private sector to respond.

(Dis)information Resilience

Four to five years ago, there was an awakening about a global disinformation problem amplified like never before by social media. Over the years, there have been counter messaging activities funded and pressure on social media giants to control disinformation.

Despite the efforts, 2020 saw a dramatic rise in disinformation globally related to the pandemic, elections and other issues, insufficiently curtailed by social media companies. This has led to the realization that disinformation is here to stay, and we need to focus on preparing young people, journalists, governments, businesses and civil society around the world to be resilient to disinformation by imparting digital and media literacy.

There are examples of investments in digital literacy to limit the spread of disinformation working, such as in Taiwan, which incorporated media literacy lessons into its national curriculum from 2017 and has successfully weathered the pandemic and a national election, despite being the number one target for foreign disinformation in 2020.

Amanda Quinn, the Lab’s Data and Media Analyst and a fan of the Digital Minister of Taiwan, shares that “the increasing focus on the infodemic and how people consume information, especially on social media, makes me hopeful that there will eventually be an appropriate response from technology companies, development implementers, policy makers and others.” While social media has been rife with disinformation, it has also provided an avenue for empowering virtuous content creators.

Creator Economy

Social media use staggeringly increased worldwide during the pandemic as people sought to stay connected and entertained. The format of choice became short videos or micro-videos with services like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts growing internationally.

“Aside from saving people from boredom, this genre gave many people an opportunity to speak up about issues that were kept in the shadows for years, a chance to find a niche community, use this genre for activism and even make an income of it by becoming a micro-influencer,” says Tamara Grigoryeva, the Lab’s Media Lead. While the micro-video format might be a passing fad in social media evolution, the ability generate some income is what signals a potential change in social media or influencer media.

It has been hard to earn money via social media with social media giants seeing a majority of the profits, leaving little for content creators. There is now an emerging movement of platforms and services like Patreon and Substack, allowing content creators to have followers subscribe directly to their content by paying—nearly all of which goes to the content creators. As artists, writers and other content producers have had to find replacement income sources during the pandemic, this is where they have turned. If the medium thrives, it can have positive implications for our work, from income sources for some women to spurring independent journalism.

A Moroccan girl takes notes during an online course. — A Moroccan student engages in remote learning with resources from the Ministry of Education.

Remote Behaviors

Beyond entertainment, we’ve also been forced to adopt remote learning, remote work, telemedicine and so on. It has led to an acceleration in the evolutions of these technologies, but it still needs to be more inclusive, reduce fatigue and be effective. “While Zoom, Teams, Jitsi and other tools served us as a lifeline, the videoconferencing exhaustion soon called for developing new, more nuanced features in currently existing videoconferencing apps and new apps all together to increase and ease participation, such as breakout rooms with easier navigation, quick polls, voice chat, etc.,” explains Grigoryeva.

Further, there is a fundamental lack of understanding in online course design and delivery, including in blended learning, technology integration, best instructional practices, the different ways in which online classes need to be designed, planned and assessed.

It is fair to assume that remote technologies, training and process to appropriately use them will see much investment and evolution and will make it easier to provide development services to remote areas in education, health and other domains.

Ayan Kishore is the Director of the Creative Development Lab.

Pakistan Reading Project wins Literacy Program of the Year

September 18, 2020

By Janey Fugate

3 min read

The U.S. Library of Congress announced the Pakistan Reading Project as its 2020 recipient of the International Prize for its Literacy Program Awards.

“Receiving the 2020 Literacy Program of the Year Award is recognition of the valued impact the program had in the classroom to strengthen teaching practices, improve student reading skills and increase learning outcomes,” says Drake Warrick, Senior Project Director for Creative’s Education division.

The Library of Congress created the awards in 2013 to honor organizations working to support literacy and reading initiatives domestically and around the world. For PRP, this award recognizes its remarkable results, which will have long lasting effects both on the education system and the individual lives of children and educators.

Delivering education services at scale

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by International Rescue Committee and its partners, including Creative Associates International, World Learning and the Institute of Rural Management, PRP is a national program aimed at improving the quality of elementary level reading education in 23,000 public schools across Pakistan. Creative’s focus was to deliver high-quality teacher education, training and professional development with an explicit focus on teaching reading, as well as to improve the education system through policy support.

Reaching 1.7 million students in grades 1-5, the project provided schools with 7.3 million reading learning materials, trained over 27,000 teachers in teaching reading, set up over 15,000 classroom libraries and trained nearly 12,000 education officials and administrators. Creative served as the technical lead for policy reform and gender at the national level, and pre-service teacher education in Urdu. Creative was also responsible for implementing reading programs in Sindh province, as well as several districts of Urdu.

These efforts showed results. A USAID-commissioned independent early grade reading assessment (EGRA) showed a significant improvement in students’ reading fluency. For example, in Sindh and Urdu, students’ oral reading fluency increased from 30 correct words per minute recorded in 2014 to 57 in 2017, a significant jump.

Creative also facilitated partnerships with the private sector, forging 16 public-private alliances to provide supplies to under-resourced schools. In Sindh, the project team supported schools through training nearly 7,000 teachers and 3,000 education officials, responding to a significant lack in teachers’ knowledge of reading pedagogy.

An uphill battle

When the project launched, Pakistan was one of the few countries where illiteracy rates were increasing. A Status of Education report in 2013 showed that 49 percent of students in grade 3 could not read sentences in their language of instruction. Girls faced even steeper changes. In Pakistan, only 43.4 percent of girls make it to secondary school and only 25 percent of the total labor force is comprised of women.

Addressing gender disparities at the primary school level, Pakistan Reading Project laid the groundwork for significant advances in girls’ education. For example, the project worked to increase female representation in Urdu language textbooks from 27 to 47 percent, as well as women’s representation in provincial government committees. Making strides for girls and women’s equality in education is an important legacy for PRP.

“With girl’s education as a focus from day one, Creative’s work with the government to include gender consideration in every aspect of the early grade reading program—from textbooks to teaching methods—has all contributed to changing stereotypes,” says Karen Tietjen, Principal Technical Advisor in Creative’s Education division. “In efforts outside the classroom, over 60 percent of our grant beneficiaries were girls and women.”

As the project draws to a close after seven years working with provincial and national government entities, private sector partners and schools, PRP can now serve as a model for future education projects that deliver high quality education in challenging contexts.

“The dedicated program staff and Ministry of Education officials at the Federal and Provincial levels are what I am most proud of,” says Warrick. “They worked diligently so that the project could succeed at improving education service delivery in Pakistan.”

Towards a Comprehensive Framework for the Management of Armed Actors & Groups — An Experts Consultation

July 20, 2020

Teachers, parents, students transform early grade education in Pakistan

June 15, 2020

By Janey Fugate

6 min read

27,000 teachers trained, 7 million units of reading learning materials produced and 1.5 million students supported through the USAID Pakistan Reading Program

In 2013, Pakistan was one of the few countries in the world seeing an increase in illiteracy rates among school-aged children. Today, that trend has reversed, with the USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) playing a critical role in raising literacy rates through community level interventions and national policy reform.

After nearly seven years tackling one of the country’s steepest development challenges, the early-grade reading project is coming to its scheduled close, leaving behind a culture of reading and a deep investment in educators, parents and communities.

“The Pakistan Reading Project has shown us what a commitment to addressing learning gaps at every level of the education system, from teachers in local schools to policy reform, can do for children,” says R. Drake Warrick, Project Director for PRP at Creative Associates International. “And the results speak for themselves.”

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, PRP was implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in partnership with Creative, World Learning and IRM.

USAID’s largest reading project to date, PRP developed the reading instruction skills of 27,000 teachers and provided 1.5 million early grade students with improved reading curriculum and more.

At the local level, in some cases the project exceeded its goals. In Sindh, the country’s second largest province, PRP reached over 433,000 students in 3,852 schools, doubling its projected impact.

Promoting learning in local languages

Rooted in the understanding that early grade school children learn to read best when starting out in local languages, the Pakistan Reading Project raised literacy rates in part by creating new materials in Pakistani languages.

“When we started, people did not understand why we were working with the local languages and not in English,” says Anjum Pervaiz, Senior Head of Office in Sindh province. “So that’s a paradigm shift.”

The project developed and distributed 7 million new reading learning materials across Pakistan for teachers, students and education officials in Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Brahui languages, among others.

“If you go to the market here you will find beautiful books in English, but in even in our own national language Urdu we lacked early grade reading materials,” says Ijlal Hussain. “So, we produced reading learning materials in seven Pakistani languages and dialects… and the beautiful thing is we have done it with the help of the government, we aligned ourselves with the government’s needs and priorities.”

Pakistan Children Read results — Infographic provided by USAID’s Pakistan Reading Project.

This multipronged investment in both teacher training, policy reform and in creating textbooks better tailored for educators and students’ contexts showed results. A USAID-commissioned independent early grade reading assessment (EGRA) showed a significant improvement in students’ reading fluency in Pakistan as a result of PRP’s intervention. For example, in Sindh in Urdu the oral reading fluency increased from 30 correct words per minute recorded in 2014 to 57 in 2017, a drastic change.

“In 2013, EGRA was a strange word for the education sector here… but now I think we have built capacity in government education departments, not only to adapt EGRA, but to analyze tests and compile reports,” says Hussain. “These are some of the things we should be proud of as a team.”

Investing in teachers

A major focus of Creative’s role in USAID’s Pakistan Reading Project was supporting policy reforms to promote early grade reading. By supporting teacher training colleges and universities offering education degrees with a reading specialization, as well as developing and distributing learning materials and teacher aids, the project is leaving behind a wealth of knowledge in the hands of the those with the most impact on students’ lives.

Because teachers in the provinces did not have any formal system for in-service training prior to PRP, the province-wide establishment of a “continuous professional development” structure for teachers in Sindh and other regions is a key highlight. Across the nation, the project trained over 27,000 teachers. 6,900 of them were from Sindh, the country’s second largest province and where Creative implemented the full PRP program. In other regions, Creative was the nationwide lead for policy, gender and public-private partnerships.

“We found that the teachers became more motivated as a result of the trainings,” says Sadia Adeeb, the Teacher Training Coordinator in Sindh.

The continuous professional development trainings not only offered educators teaching strategies, but they created a network of support in the education community. This further cemented the project’s goal of fostering a culture of learning.

“We found that the teachers became more motivated as a result of the trainings,” says Sadia Adeeb, the Teacher Training Coordinator in Sindh.

Elevating girls’ education

The Pakistan Reading Project also laid the groundwork for significant advances in girls’ education in a country where only 43.4 percent of girls make it to secondary school and only 25 percent of the total labor force is comprised of women. Higher expectations around doing housework, more responsibilities than boys during the harvest season in some rural areas, and less access to women’s schools all hinder Pakistani girls’ education.

As a result, the number of images and stories representing young women in grade one Urdu language textbooks has increased overall. For example, women representation in the text of new textbooks increased from 24 percent to 47 percent in Balochistan and from 33 percent to 44 percent in the Islamabad Capital Territory.. Grade 2 textbooks have seen similar gains. These more inclusive textbooks are now used in all public schools across five of the seven regions of Pakistan.

“The power of imagination shouldn’t be underestimated,” says Dr. Eileen St. George, Vice President of Creative’s Education division. “When a young girl can see herself reflected on the pages of a book as a pilot or a doctor, she is that much closer to achieving her goals.”

girls learning to read in Pakistan — Expanding young girls’ access to education and tailoring learning materials to their context was a major priority for the project.

Sustainability

Creative’s team led the effort to develop the national and provincial Reading Improvement Strategies, which are a set of key policies that support early grade reading. Adopted by Pakistan’s government, these policies are one of the Pakistan Reading Project’s key legacies.

But the project is not only leaving behind significant policy reforms at the national and provincial level, but also successful models of public-private partnerships that furthered its vision of raising literacy rates and promoting a culture of reading.

By developing alliances with private sector partners on behalf of the Pakistani government, PRP mobilized and maintained social investment to improve reading outcomes in Pakistan’s public schools.

More than 130,000 students enrolled in schools outside PRP’s purview benefited from the public-private partnerships the Pakistan Reading Project facilitated. Through these partnerships, the private sector contributed $130,335 toward government schools in a host of ways, such as backpack donations, new books and other supplies, as well as classroom renovations.

The team’s hope is that the systems and partnerships established between the provinces’ departments of education and businesses will continue to support schools and communities now that the project has concluded. Coupled with its teacher capacity building initiatives and high quality reading materials, the project has given Pakistan a strong foundation to continue offering meaningful education to its children.

“These policies and materials will stay there beyond the project, those beautiful pictures that show gender equality will stay in the country,” says Pervaiz.

With reporting from Dr. Ijlal Hussain.

Passage to past elections: Timor-Leste chooses ballots over bullets

August 30, 2019

By Jeff Fischer

5 min read

Electoral violence persists as a tactic to influence election outcomes. In some cases, this violence emerges in such intensity that hundreds of lives are lost.

The newly independent Southeast Asian country of Timor-Leste is a case in point. During the 1999 Popular Consultant in East Timor, the vote for the territory’s independence, an estimated 1,400 people were murdered — making it one of the deadliest elections in history. Aug. 30, 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the vote.

Located in Southeastern Asia on the east part of Timor Island, the small territory of East Timor, now officially named the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, faced significant barriers for decades in achieving independence.

For 24 years, the Portuguese controlled the territory of East Timor. In 1975, Indonesia invaded and occupied the area and suppressed the independence movement of the Timorese people. During 25 years of Indonesian rule, armed and peaceful East Timorese groups struggled to overthrow the occupier.

However, a window of opportunity opened for the Timorese people to govern themselves.

Under the terms of an agreement on May 5, 1999, between the Republic of Indonesia and the Portuguese Republic, the Indonesian government agreed to allow an internationally-supervised but non-binding vote on independence from Indonesia.

But leading up to East Timor’s vote for independence from Indonesia, Indonesian military-backed militia incited violence, murder and threats to dissuade voter participation.

In August 1999, the Timorese people voted for independence from Indonesia in a popular referendum. UN administrators moved in soon after the vote and helped shepherd Timor-Leste to its eventual independence as a State in 2002.

During this important election, I served as the Chief Electoral Officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor.

The U.N. administered the electoral process and supervised the territory’s transition to independence, resulting in 99 percent voter turnout of the Timorese people.

Overcoming opposition

The Timorese freedom fighters were called the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor (Fretilin). These fighters were met by Indonesian forces on two levels: Military and police; and government-sponsored militias.

One U.N. military liaison observed that the overwhelming firepower of the Indonesians could have destroyed the Fretilin at any time. However, he speculated that the Indonesians wanted to keep Fretilin sufficiently visible to be deemed a threat and justifying the military presence on the island.

Additionally, local militia were established by the Indonesian government, which became the real anti-independence enforcers during the referendum campaign. It was speculated that members of the military donned to dress of local militia and joined in the action under those false pretenses.

While most of the deaths and displacements occurred in the post-election phase, the preparations for the vote were under constant fire from the local militia.

Despite the frequent attacks and pushback, the independence movement had fought for decades to come to this point and proceeded forwarded.

Succeeding despite conflict

Recognizing that violence would be embedded in the process forward, the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor had to make decisions looking at issues through a conflict lens.

There were four critical decisions which had to be made by our elections team.

First, voter registration had to be conducted for an electorate that was largely undocumented. The Timorese did not want to carry Indonesian identity documents, which were the only official ones available. As a result, we instituted a form of “social documentation” where Church authorities and local village chiefs called kampala desa were engaged to attest to the validity of identity claims.

The Church authorities were generally selected as witnesses by pro-independence registrants; and the kampala desa were selected by the pro-Indonesian voters. The intention was to enfranchise many eligible electors as possible and to avoid the friction that would result in widespread disenfranchisement if hard copy documents were required.

Second, while voting by prisoners was not permitted under Indonesian law, I had the regulatory authority to draft enfranchisement rules. As a result, I granted the right to vote for Timorese political prisoners held in Indonesia jails.

One of the leaders of the resistance, Xanana Gusmao, was a prisoner and I could not imagine an independence vote with his disenfranchisement. In 2002, Gusmao went on to become the first president of Timor-Leste.

Third, I banned a group of domestic observers because I believed that their sole purpose was to disrupt the vote on Election Day. These observers were recruited by militant groups in Jakarta and transported to Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste, on an Indonesian naval vessel.

Under the May 5 agreement, Indonesia and Portugal agreed to field a set of “official” observers, limited to 30 for each country. These observers were financed by the resources of their country and not United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor.

However, as these new cadre of domestic observers was subsidized by the Indonesian government through transport on a naval ship, I argued that this was tantamount to making them official observers, thus violating the May 5 agreement. They were not permitted to participate in observation.

Fourth, there was concern over vote tabulation. We did not want there to be retaliation in given areas because the result of the vote from the local polling station showed a pro-independence majority.

So, there was no accounting of votes by poll, but rather, ballots were mixed among all polling stations so that there would be no audit trail linking an outcome back to a particular polling station. The counting center itself became exposed to an attack at one critical point during the tabulation process.

Independence despite intimidation

As the outcomes were announced, the militia began their attacks on known independence supporters and United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor staff. I was not spared the violence and was shot at by a militia member while I was traveling in a U.N.-marked vehicle.

Despite this intimidation at the hands of pro-Indonesian militia and military alike, 78 percent of the Timorese electorate voted for independence from Indonesia.

The tragic aftermath was followed by a series of U.N., Timorese, joint Timorese/Indonesian investigations and court cases. A number of the organizers of the violence, both with in the military and the militia, were convicted. However, these convictions were eventually overturned by the Indonesia Supreme Court, and this violence was consequently perpetrated with impunity.

Despite this, the country of Timor-Leste stands today as one of the world’s youngest nations, established through an electoral war of independence won by ballots over bullets.

Jeff Fischer is a Senior Electoral Advisor at Creative Associates International.

Promoting gender equality in Pakistan through inclusive textbooks

March 5, 2019

By Ashley Williams

3 min read

When 8-year-old Aaliya reads her grade 2 textbook, she sees a future of opportunities ahead. Her favorite chapter is called “People Who Help Us” and, as she flips through the pages, she sees men and women working side by side in interesting professions. Aaliya dreams of taking to the skies and becoming a pilot like the woman illustrated in her book.

A girl in Pakistan pointing at picture of a female pilot in her textbook. — Aaliya points to the female pilot in her textbook.

This increased gender representation in textbooks is a recent phenomenon in Pakistan, and it may have a profound impact.

Women and girls in Pakistan face an uphill battle in and out of the classroom. A mere 43.4 percent of girls make it to secondary school and only 25 percent of the total labor force is comprised of women. Pushing these numbers upward can help make strides across the country on issues like economic development, the health of children and shifting beliefs on the role of women in society.

As part of reading reforms, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training recently revised the language textbooks that are now being used in all public schools of the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The Pakistan Reading Project provided technical assistance to the government counterparts in the revision process to ensure integration of reading skills and gender equality in the newly developed textbooks.

As a result, women’s representation in grade 1 Urdu textbooks has increased in content (from 33 to 49 percent), illustrations (from 14 to 47 percent) and in leading roles (from 27 to 44 percent). Grade 2 textbooks have seen similar gains.

“These learning materials are far more inclusive than past resources,” explains Dr. Shaheen A. Shah, the project’s Director of Gender, while evaluating the revised textbooks through a gender lens.

It has been observed that by and large textbooks in Pakistan still show gender bias in favor of men, providing greater representation to men especially in leadership positions, illustrations, sports, occupations and a majority show men and women in stereotypical roles.

Nabila Kousar – a public school assistant head mistress who mentors teachers trained by the Pakistan Reading Project – is pleased to see increased inclusivity and diversity in revised textbooks. She believes the most important messages in the book are the ones encouraging a peaceful and respectful world, especially for minorities and women. Kousar says the materials’ images of women in leading positions encourage girls to prepare themselves for leading roles in the future.

Taking inclusive textbooks to scale

The Pakistan Reading Project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, is implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in partnership with Creative Associates International, World Learning and IRM across Pakistan.

To date, Pakistan Reading Project has reached 1.38 million students and trained 25,049 teachers in reading instruction, of which 48 percent are girl learners and 40 percent are female teacher beneficiaries. It has also developed and distributed 5.3 million new reading learning materials across Pakistan for teachers, students and education officials in Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Brahui languages for early grade readers.

Dr. Ijlal Hussain, the Project’s Deputy Chief of Party, sees the changes in textbooks as a major milestone.

“Pakistan’s education policies, plans and curricula are fully committed to promote gender equality. However, it is important to make deliberate efforts, since such things are not going to happen automatically,” he says.

By integrating women and girls into all powerful spheres of social and economic development, the materials promote a future where girls like Aaliya can grow up to be pilots – or anything else men can be.

With reporting by Dr. Shaheen A. Shah