Measuring for sustainable education in fragile environments – lessons from conducting baselines in Afghanistan and Somalia

Through the UKAid-funded Girls Education Challenge Fund, several INGOs have carried out extensive baseline research in Afghanistan and Somalia to obtain comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data around learning,... [ view full abstract ]

Through the UKAid-funded Girls Education Challenge Fund, several INGOs have carried out extensive baseline research in Afghanistan and Somalia to obtain comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data around learning, attendance and retention to inform programming and increase opportunities for sustainability. Over 12,000 girls at primary school level participated in learning assessments as part of one of the largest education research initiatives ever conducted across these countries. Conducting timely baseline studies in fragile states can help programmes understand contexts, enable design of appropriate responses, track their effectiveness and provide evidence-based analysis to help strengthen Education Ministries’ information base for strategic decision-making and add to Ministries’ own findings from learning assessments. Having encountered several challenges, projects have gathered a wealth of learning that could help inform future similar initiatives as well as the projects’ own research as they move to midline and endline. Considerable time and effort is required to develop appropriate learning tests for baselines in these fragile contexts. Greater coordination and minimising the number of assessment tools would facilitate improved test administration and data analysis. Capacity building is needed for project staff, external evaluators and enumerators for evaluation design, administration and subsequent data handling and analysis. Additional time and flexibility is crucial in highly insecure areas to gain access. This paper will share process learnings to influence current and future initiatives and encourage further research for education programming in fragile states. To support sustainability, the next challenge is for projects to influence MoE ownership of research to inform policy and planning.