Gender equity through education (GEE) : end of project performance evaluation report

USAID established GEE on March 23, 2007 to continue, accelerate, and expand accomplishments achieved under the Gender Equity Support Program (GESP) which ran from July 2002 to September 2007. The GEE project objectives were to increase the number of girls and women attending secondary school, and teacher training institutes (TTIs) by reducing financial and infrastructure, social, and institutional barriers. Its components included: (1) stipends for secondary school and TTI students; (2) a mentoring program; (3) small school improvement grants; and (4) technical assistance to the MoGEI and State Ministries of Education (SMoEs). The objective of this final performance evaluation are: (1) to ascertain the extent to which the mid-term evaluation recommendations were implemented; (2) whether project objectives and indicator targets were met; and (3) the efficacy of the overall design. The evaluation was undertaken in May and June 2012, and included both qualitative and quantitative methods including a review of relevant documents and the GEE Education Management Information System (EMIS,) interviews with GEE staff and government officials, and field visits to three states where evaluators interviewed teachers, parents, and students. The evaluators conclude that the GEE project is a good project embedded in a very weak system, a system that makes much of the GEE components either unsustainable or their benefits short-lived. While some important aspects of the project remained unimplemented until the latter years of the project, it generally came to be well executed. By the last years of the project, disbursement of stipends to over 5,300 beneficiaries over five years became well implemented and well monitored. GEE staff relationships and collaboration with national and state ministry officials appeared to be excellent and deeply appreciated. The evaluators have made recommendations, including: (1) all parties should better coordinate responses to evaluation recommendations and enable flexibility to respond to changing conditions in project settings; (2) capacity, sustainability, and exit strategies should be established before a project begins and required in all work plans from the very beginning; (3)projects must consider the broader institution enabling mechanisms (transportation, equipment, etc.) since their absence can limit the effects of any individual or institutional capacity improvements; and (4) any subsequent projects addressing gender equity and access should draw models from the Gender Thematic Working Group (GTWG), the Wau Mentor-Teachers" Union, and the Central Equatoria SMoE carry-on of the GEE mentor training regime. An additional six recommendations are included in the report. (Excerpt, modified)