Year 4 Annual Work Plan for USAID Let’s Read Project

The project aims to improve reading outcomes for approximately 1.4 million children attending pre-primary through to Grades 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 is designed 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: Objective 1: Reading Package Intervention, Objective 2: Meet the Metrics, Objective 3: Performance Tracking System, and Objective 4: Increase Parent, Community, and Private Sector Engagement. The project operations section includes activities such as staffing, office space, procurement, and communications plans. Staffing recruitment for EDC was affected by remote work and limits to face-to-face meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In FY 2022, Q1, Let's Read will aim to complete the hiring, on-boarding, and orienting of remaining staff. The project will continue to maintain office spaces in Lusaka and in the target provinces and explore the feasibility of finding new office space to accommodate an increased number of staff. An annual procurement plan will be developed in FY 2022 Q1 to guide timely procurements for technical and operational activities during the year. This plan will include and prioritize delayed procurements from Year 3 and will be updated quarterly as needed. USAID Let's Read will continue to use various channels to disseminate information about the project, including submitting quarterly success stories with project reports and maintaining a database of pictures for the project. The project will begin to develop the proposed Year 5 work plan in Year 4, Quarters 3 and 4. This will be a consultative process involving the project team, implementing partners, and stakeholders. The Year 5 work plan will build on the progress made in Year 4 and outline the activities and strategies for the next year. The project's geographic focus is on the five target provinces in Zambia, with a specific emphasis on improving reading outcomes for children attending pre-primary through to Grades 3. The project's implementation details include staffing, office space, procurement, and communications plans, as well as the development of a proposed Year 5 work plan. The project's timeframes are outlined in the Year 4 work plan, which covers the period January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022. The project's recommendations include the development of an annual procurement plan, the exploration of new office space, and the continuation of various communications channels.