USAID girls' education initiatives in Guatemala, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, and Peru : a performance review

The programs worked at the national level and in selected rural areas, except in Mali, where work focused on developing life skills curriculum for girls in local schools. Achievements at the strategic objective level included: (1) greater annual increases in female gross enrollment ratios than in previous years in the countries (Guatemala, Guinea, and Morocco) for which comparative data were available, as well as a reduced gap in national enrollment ratios favoring boys by 3%, 8%, and 8%, respectively, in those countries; (2) increases in national rural female completion rates of 8.1%, 5.6%, and 7.9% in Guinea, Guatemala, and Peru, respectively, and higher rural completion rates for girls than boys in Morocco; (3) increases in national urban female completion rates of 1.3%, 4.5%, 8.2%, and 14.1% in Morocco, Guatemala, Guinea, and Peru, respectively; and (4) increases in local female completion rates of 26.7% and 25.9% in the two countries, Guinea and Peru, that had intensive efforts supported by local networks or alliances in target areas. Nonetheless, low rural female completion rates were found in all countries. Even with the increases, less than half of the rural girls who enroll in school attain fifth grade of primary school in 5 years. In Guatemala and Guinea, only about one-fourth of enrolled rural girls attain fifth grade. Also, low primary completion rates were also found among rural boys: one-third or less of the male rural primary school population attain fifth grade in 5 years in Guatemala, Guinea, Morocco, and Peru. Findings in terms of intermediate results are as follows. (1) In each country, one or more partnerships -- generally comprising 20-40 core organizations -- were formed between NGO, private sector, and public sector entities to promote girls education. (2) Social awareness efforts were the largest percentage of the work by civil society organizations in Guatemala (38%), Peru (63%), and Guinea (59%). In Morocco, actions focused on a scholarship program (66%), followed by social awareness actions (23%). (3) NGOs carried out the majority of actions related to girls' persistence in school. NGOs in Guatemala, Peru, Morocco, and Guinea carried out 46%, 56%, 58%, and 88% of the identified actions promoting girls' education. However, they generally did not contribute a large percentage of local resources generated. In Guatemala, Peru, and Morocco, where participation by the private sector was actively pursued, that sector provided 80%, 55%, and 61% of the resources generated. (4) As members of national partnerships, government agencies in all countries supported actions carried out by civil society entities. However, except for Guatemala, national budgets did not have special funding for girls' education, and only in Guinea was there a relative increase in the budget for primary education. (5) Non-USAID funding to support girls' education was generated without reliance on other donors. Small teams of local professionals acted as catalysts for constituency building in the emphasis countries. However, members in each country felt the project was understaffed to meet the demands of national and local involvement. Another demand on staff was the need to provide administrative support to the national partnerships during their formation. Nonetheless, by project end organizations were in place to carry on the work. Lessons learned are as follows: (1) In countries with low female completion rates, long-term investment will be needed to achieve high completion rates, especially in rural areas. It is difficult to achieve dramatic change in female completion on a national level without direct efforts to improve school efficiency. (2) International conferences can be important in providing leaders from different sectors an opportunity to learn from relevant experience in other countries and to identify areas of mutual interest. In this connection, the 1998 Conference "Educating Girls: A Development Imperative" was given high marks by participants from all countries. (3) Civil society participation in girls' education is not likely to grow exponentially. Rather it will be the responsibility of a "core" group of organizations that generally have the promotion of education in their mission statement. Implications of these findings and lessons are detailed.