Quarterly Performance Report: Fiscal Year FY 2019 Quarter 2 – January 7, 2019 to March 31, 2019

The project aims to improve reading outcomes for approximately 1.4 million children attending pre-primary (kindergarten) through Grade 3 and provide professional development for teachers to support reading interventions in Zambian public and community schools. The project is managed by the Education Development Center (EDC) in partnership with VVOB, Resonance, and Kentalis. The project's primary focus is to achieve two major results: IR 1 Public and Community Schools Performance Improved and IR 2 Ministry of Education Systems Strengthened. To achieve these results, the project has four key objectives: Reading Package Intervention, Meet the Metrics, Performance Tracking System, and Increase Parent, Community, and Private Sector Engagement. The project targets 935 government and community schools and has a planned budget of $48,995,538. During the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2019, the project made significant progress in ensuring a smooth start-up to project activities. The EDC and partners were able to achieve a number of critical successes, including the recruitment of staff, identification of the Lusaka head office space, and undertaking initial planning for teacher training and procurement of the basic reading package for Grade 1. The project also secured an office space and hired some key staff. The project's implementation status table indicates that some staffing is in place, including the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Finance and Admin Director. However, recruitment activities are ongoing, and some positions remain to be posted and filled. The project has also made progress in developing job descriptions, posting job descriptions in multiple locations, and scheduling and conducting interviews. The project's performance tracking system is also being developed, with a completed and fully functional dashboard. The project has also submitted several deliverables, including draft reading intervention packages, a parent, community, and private sector engagement plan, and a completed performance tracking system. The project's Year 1 work plan was approved on March 22, 2019, and several other deliverables were submitted during the period. The project's geographic coverage includes five provinces in Zambia, and the target beneficiaries are government and community schools. The project's reporting period is from January 7 to March 31, 2019, and the planned budget for the project is $48,995,538. The project's average monthly expenditures are $184,000, and the accrued expenditures are $0. The project's pipeline includes $2,814,000, and the pipeline months are from April to June 2019.