GLEE-Request_for_Comments.pdf

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ACI 2000 Tel: (223) 2070-23-00 Bamako Place – AAO Rue 243 Porte 297 Fax: (223) 2022-39-33 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue P.O. Box 34 Bamako, Mali http://mali.usaid.gov Washington, D.C. 20523-2050

REQUEST FOR COMMENTS ON A STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

The U.S. Government, represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mali is requesting comments on the attached Statement of Objectives for implementing the Mali Girls Leadership and Empowerment through Education (GLEE) activity. The Mali GLEE activity will contribute to the USAID “Let Girls Learn” initiative. The contract that may result from this Statement of Objectives will be a full and open competition for a three-year contract with an estimated total funding ceiling of $15 million.

Thru the implementation of this activity, USAID Mali aims to empower Malian adolescent girls in conflict affected target areas to obtain greater educational attainment and to become stronger leaders in their communities. The selected contractor, if any, will implement activities that will contribute to increase enrollment and educational attainment of adolescent girls (10- 18 years). The Mali GLEE implementing partner will accomplish this goal through achieving three objectives: (1) decrease key barriers to access quality education, (2) improve safety of adolescent girls in schools and their communities, and (3) increase knowledge and adoption of positive health behaviors of adolescent girls.

Proposed activities should target individuals, institutional structures, and community level structures, link to existing USAID programs, and work with the government of Mali to ensure alignment with national education and health strategies and policies. It is expected that the proposed activities will respond to demonstrated needs based on both quantitative and qualitative data and be implemented in a manner that will allow for greater scale up of activities. It is also expected that proposed activities will vary based on indicated needs of selected geographic areas.

USAID/Mali Acquisition and Assistance Office (AAO) invites all interested and qualified organizations to submit their questions and or comments to bamakoaao@usaid.gov no later than January 11, 2017, 5:30pm Eastern Standard Time.

Sincerely, Courtney J. Magill Contracting Officer

Attachment: Draft Statement of Objectives

ATTACHMENT A – DRAFT STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

Activity Title: Girls Leadership Empowerment through Education

1. Purpose

USAID/Mali’s Girls Leadership and Empowerment through Education (GLEE) aims to empower Malian adolescent girls to obtain greater educational attainment and to become stronger more empowered women and leaders in their communities. The purpose of the GLEE activity is to increase enrollment and educational attainment of adolescent girls (10-18 years) in conflict-affected target areas.

USAID/Mali posits that: If key barriers to adolescent girls’ educational enrollment are reduced, the safety of adolescent girls is increased in the school and community environments, and girls have the knowledge and services needed to adopt healthy behaviors and social norms, then enrollment and educational attainment of adolescent girls will increase.

Furthermore, if equitable access to education is increased for girls and adolescents are empowered to make healthy choices, then the foundation for democratic transition will be strengthened and stabilization of conflict-affected areas will be reinforced.

2. Scope

USAID/Mali’s GLEE activity will accomplish this goal through achieving three objectives: (1) decrease key barriers to access quality education, (2) improve safety of adolescent girls in schools and their communities, (3) increase knowledge and adoption of positive health behaviors of adolescent girls.

The GLEE activity is a three-year project with an estimated total funding of $15 million cofounded by the USAID Office of Education and the Office of Health. Activities will target individuals, institutional structures, and community level structures, link to existing USAID programs, and work with the government of Mali to ensure alignment with national education and health strategies and policies. It is expected that the activities implemented will respond to demonstrated needs based on both quantitative and qualitative data and implemented in manner to plan for scale up. It is also expected that proposed activities will vary based on indicated needs of selected geographic areas.

It is expected that GLEE will target both in and out-of-school adolescent girls between the ages of 10-18 years. Understanding that barriers to educational access, safety and healthy behavior change for adolescent girls are age-specific, Offerors may propose interventions that target specific age groups within this age range.

The GLEE activity is expected to further lay the foundation for the socio-economic and health benefits that research has demonstrated accrue from girls staying in school through adolescence. These benefits include higher earnings; improved health status; delayed sexual debut/motherhood; reduced risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and increased civic participation. The GLEE activity explicitly recognizes the interdependence among educational attainment, health outcomes, equitable gender norms, and resilience and the need to program across these areas to achieve meaningful positive change.

It is expected that the GLEE activity will contribute to the evidence regarding effective post-primary education programming for girls in Mali and that findings from evaluation of the activity will inform government of Mali (GOM) policies and donor investments.

With changes in GOM policies and programs, the security situation and implementation of the Algiers Accords (peace agreement in Mali between Tuaregs and the government of Mali), uncertainty on emerging education and health priorities, and evolving USAID development interests, it is anticipated that USAID requirements will evolve over the life of the contract. The contractor must be able to rapidly incorporate changes in policy and emerging innovative programming to ensure that the activities are responsive to the reality of adolescent girls needs to achieve results.

3. Place of Performance

GLEE activities will be implemented in the regions of Mopti, Kayes, and select peri-urban districts of Bamako. Districts/cercles will be chosen based on: 1) demonstrated greatest need based on education and health indicators, e.g. enrollment and transition from primary school to lower secondary school among adolescent girls, rates of early marriage, rates of adolescent pregnancy; 2) demonstrated need based on existing qualitative data on girls’ education, health, and status; 3) alignment with current USAID education and health programming to leverage and link to existing programming; 4) USAID/Mali development interests and strategies based on the Country Cooperation Development Strategy (CDCS) and USAID strategies; and 5) Government of Mali strategies and activities.

4. Background

In March 2015, the White House with the Department of State, the USAID, the Peace Corps, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation launched the “Let Girls Learn” initiative to address the range of challenges preventing adolescent girls from attaining a quality education that empowers them to reach their full potential. The Girls’ Leadership and Empowerment through Education (GLEE) activity was developed in response to this initiative, and to address the challenges adolescent girls face in Mali.

Investments that promote keeping girls in school, particularly in secondary school, have far-reaching and long-term development benefits for individuals, families, and communities. On an individual level education offers opportunities and an environment that are necessary for successful transitions to adulthood. The transition from primary school to lower secondary school is a critical transition period in a young woman’s life that is beset by challenges including increased direct and opportunity costs to stay in school, the need to contribute to family livelihood, sexual debut, heightened risk of engaging in transactional/survival sex, and cultural pressures to marry and begin a family.

GLEE will address challenges head on, reducing barriers to accessing quality education as girls’ transition from primary school to lower secondary school, empowering girls to stay in school, ensuring the learning environment is responsive to the needs of adolescent girls, and providing knowledge and services so girls can adopt healthy behaviors. When girls are empowered they become positive agents for change within their families, schools, and communities.

The following outlines key contextual factors that have informed the identified GLEE activity objectives.

Country Context

Mali continues to experience conflict and instability following the signing of the Peace Accords in June 2015. The impacts are evident across the country. Mali ranks 179 out of 187 according to the 2014 United Nation’s Human Development Index and has an average life expectancy of 55 years. Nearly 50% of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day1 and half of the Malian population is under age of 15. The Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2012–17 GPRSP) considers the limited integration of youth into Malian society as a threat to social stability as 300,000 new youth enter the job market each year, most with little to any basic life skills and vocational skills. The literacy rate among women 15-24 years is 34.9%.

Education System Mali has a 6-3-3 education system. The basic education system is composed of six years of primary education (fondamental 1), three years of lower secondary (fondamental 2), and three years of secondary school. Children start in the primary school at the age of seven and are expected to begin lower secondary at the age of 13, completing basic education by age

15. The education system provides a variety of options to complete basic education including public, private, community, and medersa schools. In addition the non-formal education system accords children the opportunity to acquire basic education skills needed to re-enter the formal education system or seek employment.

Over the past two decades, Mali has made significant progress in expanding access to basic education for children. However, girls still struggle to enroll and attain the same level of education as boys. According to the Ministry of Education of Mali, the primary school gross enrollment rate for girls was 63.8% compared to 75% for boys in 20142. The rate of completion for both boys and girls is less than 52% with only four out of every ten girls who begin primary school completing it3. There are even greater gender disparities in primary school enrollment and completion at the regional level with Kayes, Koulikoro, and Segou having the worst parity between boys and girls in primary school completion while Segou, Mopti and Timbuktu have the worst enrollment rates for girls (note: no data on Kidal). In 2013, 41% of children ages 7 to 12 were estimated to be out of school (43% of girls and 39.3% of boys). This is more than half a million girls of primary school age who have either never been to school or have dropped out.

Once enrolled, girls often have higher rates of repetition and dropout than boys. Repetition and dropout has been associated with large number of overage children, especially girls and children living in rural areas, in primary and lower secondary school. As girls reach adolescence the social and cultural pressures to leave school increase, especially if she is still in primary school. Only 33% of students passed the 2015 national lower secondary education exam.

The Ministry of Education data for lower secondary shows a large gender disparity in enrollment (gross enrollment 56.8% boys/44% girls)4. Over the course of the past four years, the gender parity index for secondary school admission has fallen from 0.86 to 0.785.

However if a girl is able to complete primary education, she is more likely to transition to lower secondary school. USAID/Mali Rapid Education Risk Analysis (RERA) for Gao Region found that “all things being equal, young women who had access to school are half as likely as boys to have had access to [lower secondary school].”6 Less than 25% of girls who enter

UNDP (2015). Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/MLI Ministry of Education/CPS. Annual Statistics for Basic Education 2013-2014

UNICEF Mali Girls Education Report. Forthcoming

Ministry of Education/CPS. Annual Statistics for Basic Education 2013-2014

CPS/Secteur Education. Suivi des Indicateurs de l’Enseignement Fondamentale Presentation April 2016

USAID/Mali. Rapid Education Risk Analysis in the Gao Region. Bamako: 2016.

secondary school complete the three years of education7. According to the UNDP, only 7.7% of females (aged 25+) had at least a secondary education in 2015 as compared to 15.1% of males.8

Education and Conflict in Mali The 2012 coup d’état and the subsequent invasions of northern regions by Al Qaeda-backed groups have negatively impacted education service delivery. In the northern regions of Gao, Kidal, Mopti, and Timbuktu, where extreme, protracted poverty is widespread, many schools were destroyed, closed, and/or occupied by either the army or the invading jihadists fighters.

In addition social support systems were damaged and dysfunctional, and societal, institutional, and individual resiliency were adversely impacted. According to the Mali Education Cluster, as of October 2016 an estimated 375 schools are closed due to insecurity in Kidal, Timbuktu, Gao, Menaka, Segou, and Mopti. Mopti region continues to have the most schools closed (127) while Kidal region has the largest percentage of their total schools closed (83%). Since 2011, primary school gross enrollment for boys has decreased from 82.3% to 76.8% in 2015 while for girls gross enrollment decreased from 77% to 71.1% in 2015.

In addition, a new Islamist extremist terrorist group, “Macina Liberation Movement”, which currently is operating in the central and northern regions of Mali, discourages girls’ attendance at formal schools and is closing many school sites. Conversely, the enrollment in schools in the country’s central and southern regions rose beyond schools’ capacity, as communities, families, and students fled the fighting in the north. It is estimated that there were nearly 120,000 displaced students in primary and lower secondary education of which around 50,000 moved to the south. The insecurity and violence has decreased educational opportunities, increased protection risks, particularly gender-based violence, and hindered community ability to protect and ensure their children's’ well-being9.

Gender in Mali Gender inequalities are reflected in the country’s human development ranking; Mali ranks 179 of 188 countries in the 2014 Gender-related Development Index with 0.776.10 Gender inequality and harmful gender norms exist in Mali, compounding the challenges of protracted poverty, poor health outcomes and low educational attainment experienced by women and girls. The 2012-2013 DHS found that 13% of women who are currently or have ever been partnered or married have experienced some form of intimate partner violence at least once in the past year. Among married women aged 15-49 years, 44% had experienced domestic violence. Overall, 38% of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15 years old, and 24% had experienced it in the past year.

5. Performance Objectives

In Mopti, Kayes, and select peri-urban districts of Bamako, GLEE will increase enrollment and educational attainment of adolescent girls (10-18 years). The contractor will provide services to achieve the following objectives:

1) Decrease key barriers of adolescent girls to access quality education;

2) Improve safety of adolescent girls in schools and their communities;

3) Increase knowledge and adoption of positive health behaviors among adolescent girls.

Ministry of Education/CPS. Annual Statistics for Basic Education 2013-2014 http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_Table4.pdf

Mali Education Cluster : Presentation November 2016.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GDI

Objective 1: Decrease barriers to access quality education Adolescent girls ages 10 to 18 face a range of barriers to accessing a quality education in Mali. Financial barriers, education quality barriers and socio-cultural barriers prevent parents from enrolling girls in school and encourage girls to dropout prior to completing the basic education cycle.

Financial Barriers Despite the fact that Mali has officially had no school fees since 1991, the forthcoming Out of School Children Survey (OOSC Survey) found that financial barriers is one of the main barriers to education for Malian children, with girls being disproportionately impacted11.

Families pay both direct fees and indirect costs, including fees for books, learning materials, and local school management committee levies. Reports indicate that the average household spends between $3.00 and $7.00 per child per year12. In total approximately 20% of education expenditures is contributed by families13. With approximately 78% of the population living on less than $2/day14, this financial burden leaves parents having to decide which children to enroll in school or pushing children to drop out, particularly for girls.

With an average household having approximately 6.2 children, the cost of education has the biggest impact on children from Mali’s poorest families. “In Mali, 75 out of 100 children from the richest quintile of households enter school, compared with 26 out of 100 from the poorest households15.

Girls’ education can represent an opportunity cost for the family who prioritize girls’ role as a caretaker or performer of other household duties. According to the National Survey on Child Labor, nearly 70% of children ages 5 to 17 are economically active. The vast majority of children are engaged in work that is considered family help. As children get older their economic engagement increases and girls’ engagement in economic activities surpasses that of boys. 16 According to a recent household survey in Mali, 15.2% of males and 9.7% of females between the ages of 6-14 years of age are working full time, mostly in the informal sector.

Educational Quality Barriers In Mali, formal education is often perceived as irrelevant or lacking quality, especially in rural areas. According to a recent household survey, outside of financial barriers, the primary reasons for school dropout among students enrolled in the primary school or lower secondary is the lack of interest of their parents and students which accounts for 26.5% and 33.3% of stated reasons for leaving school. This was reinforced by qualitative data from the UNICEF OOSC Study where families often stated that schools lacked a “visible and financial value added”17. As a result, families are wary to expend their limited financial resources on poor quality and irrelevant education.

The conflict in the north has further exacerbated education quality barriers. Education authorities in the north report that although children are still coming to school, they are no

UNICEF. Les Enfants Non-Scolarises et Descolarises au Mali. Forthcoming.

Oxfam International. Delivering Education for All in Mali. June 2009.

UNICEF. The Investment Case for Education and Equity. New York: UNCIEF. January 2015.

UNDP (2015). Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/MLI

Thomas M. and Burnett N.. Exclusion from Education: The Economic Cost of out of School Children in 20 Countries. Doha:Educate a Child. http://educateachild.org/sites/default/files/attachments/R4D_EAC_smallres.pdf

ILO. Rapport d’Enquete National sur le Travail des Enfants au Mali. Mali, Bureau International du Travail; 2007.

http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/download.do?type=document&id=9650

UNICEF. Les Enfants Non-Scolarises et Descolarises au Mali. Forthcoming.

longer learning because teachers have fled to safer areas, school administrators are no longer present, and some schools have closed altogether.

Deficiencies in the quality of education can be further exacerbated for girls in the education system in Mali due to lack of gender equitable teaching practices. According to a recent study by UNICEF Mali examining the impediments to girls’ education, sex-specific discrimination against female students, including teaching practices which favor male students in a classroom setting, is a critical impediment to girls’ educational attainment.

Gender inequitable teaching practices prevent girls from participating as effectively as boys, leading to poor learning outcomes, repetition and withdraw from school.18

Research indicates that the presence of female teachers, school administrators and role models can have a positive impact on girls’ attendance and, in some cases, learning outcomes.19 In Mali, the gender gap is visible among educators, including teachers and administrators. At the primary school level only 28.6% of teachers are women while at the lower secondary level only 15.6 % teachers are women. From over one hundred regional education authorities, only five are women. It is evident that teachers’ views of boys, girls, and gender relations play a key part in girls’ participation and learning outcomes. The lack of women in the teaching corps discourages girls’ participation, limits the level of female resources and role models and diminishes the protective environment for girls at school.

In order for communities and students to value and benefit from education, it is necessary that schools provide relevant and quality learning opportunities. Quality of education refers to both the quality and relevance of teaching as well as quality of the learning environment.

Teachers should be sufficiently trained. Teaching and learning material should be relevant, promote gender transformative messages, and support positive community norms about equitable access to education.

Socio-cultural Barriers Beyond financial and educational quality barriers, significant social and cultural barriers deter parents from sending girls to school and push girls out of school. In particular girls face enormous social and cultural pressure to marry early, to have children immediately after marriage, and to leave school for household duties. Mali has one of the highest rate of early marriage in the world -- 55% of young women are married before the age of 1820 and between 16.1%21-20%22 are married before the age of 15. Among adolescent girls, 42% have more than 10 years age difference between themselves and their partner. Early marriage is most prevalent for girls living in rural areas and girls with the least amount of education. For poor families in Mali, marriage of girls represents a possible supplemental source of revenue. And as a result, the rate of early marriage surpasses that of enrollment in early secondary school or late secondary school.

Prevailing community beliefs can devalue girls’ education. In a study of seven African countries nearly half of all parents surveyed believed there are certain disadvantages to schooling girls.23 In Mali, adolescent girls play an important role in household responsibilities

Les Freins institutionnel et politiques affectant La Scolarisation des Filles Au Mali. UNICEF.Juillet 2015

Unterhalter E, North A, Arnot M, Lloyd C, Moletsane L, Murphy-Graham E, et al. Interventions to enhance girls’ education and gender equality. Education rigorous literature review. London: Department for International Development; 2014. Available from: http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/pdf/

CARE. Vows of Poverty: 25 countries Where Child Marriage Eclipses Girls’ Education.

http://vowsofpoverty.care.org/

Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Mali, UNICEF 2015.

Demographic Health Survey, Mali 2012.

Fancy K, Unterhalter E, Vaughan RP, Nussey C. Because I am a girl: the state of the world‘s girls 2012.

Learning for life. Brussels: Plan; 2012. Available from: http://plan-international.org/girls/pdfs/2012-report/The- State-of-the-World-s-Girls-Learning-for-Life-Plan-International-2012.pdf and contribute to household incomes through small commerce activities. In Mali, 55.8% of children ages 5-17 are involved in some degree of child labor. In addition, religious and cultural beliefs discourage girls’ education. “Certain parents express a preference for koranic education because they estimate that children - especially girls - don’t have a need for a “French” education,” reported UNICEF’s OOSC Study. This has become especially apparent since 2012 in the north where girls were only allowed to attend girl-only schools or where girls and boys had separate seating and recreation times.

Often adolescent girls do not know that they have rights or are unable to give voice to those rights and make a claim on them. They do not know where to turn for help when they need it, and they have few opportunities to be able to build healthy relationships with their peers, parents and teachers.

Overcoming a range of financial, education quality, and socio-cultural barriers to girls’ education will require an approach that targets specific barriers and has appropriate feedback mechanisms to know if those approaches are being effective. If this objective is achieved key barriers to access quality education will be reduced girls in upper primary and/or lower secondary school will have increased learning support opportunities, teaching and learning will be responsive and relevant to adolescent girls, and communities and families will shift socio-cultural practices to support girls’ education. When these are achieved families will be able to enroll girls in school at higher rates, out-of-school girls will return to formal schooling or non-formal equivalents, and adolescent girls will be able to stay in school and complete both primary and lower secondary school cycles.

Objective 2: Increase safety for adolescent girls In many countries, children do not attend school because they fear an environment of abuse or sexual exploitation. Violence can take place in the school, on school grounds, going to and from school, or in school dormitories and may be perpetuated by teachers, students, or community members. It is also common to see increases in violence and insecurity in the community reflected in the learning environment. Students experience harsher forms of corporal punishment and girls are more often victim to gender-based violence. The acceptance and tolerance of violence against women and children is high across Mali.21 Domestic violence and gender-based violence in the home, against children or in the presence of children contributes to the creation of a violent environment in the school and the community and to the normalization of violence. According to UNICEF’s Multi Indicator Cluster Survey in 2015, more than 72% of children ages 1-14 had experienced some form of psychological aggression or corporal punishment within the last month. The UNICEF OOSC Study also found that girls often fall victim to sexual harassment, abuse, and exploitation at the hands of teachers and tutors. Furthermore, more than 72% of women ages 15-49 believe that it is justified in some instances for husbands to beat their wives.

In Northern Mali, the ongoing level of insecurity and violence often prevents schools from functioning and discourages parents from sending girls to school when they are open. Real and perceived security risks by parents, students and teachers persist. While 277 schools remain closed due to insecurity, in areas where schools are officially open they struggle to ensure education services are safe, especially for girls24.

Two different assessments conducted by USAID/Mali, one conducted in the Gao region and another conducted in Gao, Timbuktu, Kidal, Segou and Mopti, found that the conflict in the north has negatively impacted the safety of women, girls and children. In Gao women, young women, and young men regularly spoke about insecurity of girls and women being a particular problem contributing to the on-going conflict in the north. Rape/physical

OCHA. Mali: Humanitarian Dashboard (as of July 2016).

aggression was mentioned as one of the top three risks young women face because of the conflict. In addition, there is an increased sense of fear, especially by women. As a result women, more often than men, changed their habits. Across all geographic areas, many informants cited insecurity as leading to “massive school dropout by girls”.25

The RERA in Gao region found divergent perspectives on the unsafe locations for children -in the school and in the communities. While community leaders felt children were safe at school due to the presence of the army, vigilance of communities and presence of teachers;

women, youth, and teachers felt children were not safe at school due to the risk of attacks by armed groups, in particular jihadists. Some teachers and communities also spoke about the children being vulnerable to attacks and girls becoming victim to rape on the way to and from school.

If this objective is achieved, perceptions of safety in communities and schools will improve, schools and communities will adopt strategies and policies to safeguard adolescent girls, and reporting and referral mechanisms for school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) will be in place. When girls can access and learn in a safe and secure learning environment, this will lead to increased willingness of communities to enroll their girls to school and greater educational attainment among adolescent girls.

Objective 3: Increase knowledge and adoption of positive health behaviors among adolescent girls The relationship between educational attainment and adolescent health, in particular sexual and reproductive health behaviors, is complex and bidirectional. Data consistently demonstrate a strong positive relationship between increased formal education attainment among girls and healthier sexual and reproductive behaviors, including contraceptive use.

Women’s education is associated with a wide range of positive child health outcomes.26 Likewise, access to health services and information plays a key role in increasing girls’ educational attainment and participation. Major health barriers for adolescent girls in Mali include: early sexual debut and subsequent early pregnancy, primarily as a result of early marriage and strong desire and pressure for a large family size. The decision to marry early influences whether families decide to continue the education of their female children and early pregnancy can prevent adolescent girls from transitioning to secondary school.

According to the 2012 DHS, approximately 39% of adolescent girls aged 15-19 years old have already given birth. Early pregnancy is even higher, 49%, among less educated adolescent girls compared to 22% among adolescent girls with a secondary or higher level of education.

Knowledge and utilization of contraception is consistently low across all regions of Mali. Only 11.3% of women use a modern method of contraception. There are large variances in contraceptive use (CPR) between regions with the CPR in Bamako as high as 23.5% and as low as 3.1% in Mopti. While modern contraceptive use is generally low among women, the level of use increases with the level of education. CPR is 8%, 13%, and 27% among women with no, primary, or secondary level of education respectively. The primary reasons supplied for not using contraception include, currently breastfeeding, opposition of partners, infrequent sex, and side effects, as well as lack of access to contraceptive methods and services. Among women 15-24 years, only 20.4% report utilizing a condom with their partner in Mali, there is a lack of age-appropriate reproductive health information and knowledge, a lack of agency among adolescent girls to make reproductive health decisions, and absence

USAID/Mali. Rapid Education Risk Analysis in the Gao Region. Bamako: January 2016.; USAID/Mali Analyse sur les risques relatifs a l’education dans les regions de Gao, Tomboctou, Kidal, Segou et Mopti. Bamako:

September 2016.

https://www.fphighimpactpractices.org/resources/educating-girls-creating-foundation-positive-sexual-and-reproductive-health-behaviors of adolescent friendly reproductive health services. Knowledge of contraceptive methods is also varies greatly among with women with 33.5% of women in Mopti unable to identify a single form of contraception compared to 13.1% of women in Bamako.

Early marriage in Mali and strong beliefs about female sexuality are strongly associated with female genital cutting (FGC) which has severe health consequences for adolescent girls.

Immediate consequences of FGC include severe pain and bleeding, shock, difficulty in passing urine, infections, injury to nearby genital tissue, and sometimes death. Long term consequences include chronic pelvic infections and pain, decreased sexual enjoyment and psychological consequences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Infibulations include urinary and menstrual problems, infertility, and decreased sexual enjoyment. According to the DHS 2013, 91% of women in Mali have experienced FGC. The rate is a lower (69.2%) among young girls 0-14 currently as reported by their mothers, but it remains one of the highest in the world. Despite negative health consequences of FGC, 74% of women believe that FGC is required by religion and 76.1% believe that it is necessary to continue the practice. The rate of FGC is highest among those practicing Islam, but is pervasive across other religious groups rural and urban settings, across wealth quintiles, and education levels.

In seventy-three percent of girls who have experience FGC, it occurs before they reach the age of five. Hence reaching their families is important to gradually reducing the practice.

As girls transition from childhood to adolescence, it is essential that they have access to information about puberty, menstrual hygiene, fertility awareness, relationship dynamics, and contraception. There is growing body of evidence that provision of adequate Water & Sanitation (WASH) facilities promotes girls attendance and retention in secondary school, especially as they enter puberty and have menstrual hygiene management (MHM) needs.

There is little data on school based WASH facilities in Mali, but WASH access in communities remains low. The Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) 2015 reports that 44 % of the rural population, and 30% of the total population is still without access to an improved source of drinking water. An even higher percentage, 74% and 52%, respectively, remain without access to sanitation facilities.27 Data demonstrating the impact of WASH interventions globally on girls’ attendance has been mixed. A systematic review of the provision of separate toilets for girls and/or WASH facilities on primary and secondary school enrollment, attendance, and completion showed that provision of WASH had a small beneficial impact on girls’ education28. The 2013-2014 Dubai Cares evaluation of WASH in 734 schools in six regions of Mali showed no impact of WASH facilities and programs on school attendance for boys and girls29.

If this objective is achieved, adolescent girls will adopt positive health and hygiene behaviors and have support of communities and families to increase their knowledge and access to health services. Families and communities will actively work to reduce health barriers to education. When adolescent girls are empowered to lead healthy lives, they will be able to stay in school longer and transition to secondary school.

6. Required Programmatic Approaches

6.1. Policy and strategy frameworks

Mali Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation, WHO, 2015.

http://www.wssinfo.org/documents/?tx_displaycontroller%5Btype%5D=country_files&tx_displaycontroller%5Bsea rch_word%5D=Mali http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Portals/0/PDF%20reviews%20and%20summaries/Separate%20toilets%202011Birdthi stle%20report.pdf?ver=2011-07-14-134030-780 https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/DCIM_WASH_in_schools_impact_evaluation_report_-_Mali_2015- 002.pdf

The contractor must operate in line with the USG key policies, frameworks, and strategies outlined below.

Strategy or Policy Framework

Source

USAID/Mali CDCS https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1860/ USAID%20Mali%20CDCS%202016- 2020%20(FINAL%20-%20External).pdf

USAID Education Strategy http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacq946.pdf

Let Girls Learn Initiative

USG Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls https://letgirlslearn.gov/ http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/254904.pdf

USAID Health Strategies https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/ MCHVision.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/family-planning

USAID Water Strategy https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1 865/USAID_Water_Strategy_3.pdf

USG Gender Strategies

USAID Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy

U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security

Global Health Initiative’s Women, Girls, and Gender Equity (WGGE) Principle, http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACT200.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/email-files/US_National_Action_Plan_on_Women_Peace_and_ Security.pdf https://www.ghi.gov/principles/women/#.WElVB_mLT 0M

USAID Youth in Development Strategy http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/Y outh_in_Development_Policy.pdf

Inclusive Development http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDABQ631.pdf

6.2. Cross sector approach and Linkages with Other USG Programs

USAID has a strong history of supporting the GOM to improve education, health, and gender outcomes in Mali. For example, the Ambassadors Girls’ Scholarship Program (AGSP) provided comprehensive support for girls’ education in the form of scholarships, mentoring, and community awareness programs to promote and support girls’ education, and HIV/AIDS awareness activities. Currently, USAID/Mali supports the Selective Integrated Reading Activity (SIRA) that aims to improve early grade reading skills and activities that aims to increase equitable access to education including, the Equitable Access to Education in Conflict-Affected regions, The Education Recovery Support Activity (ERSA), and the Emergency Education Support Activity (EESA). Through health programs, USAID/Mali also supports the health sector to improve availability of and access to integrated high impact health services; improve the use of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) to improve demand for quality health services and improved knowledge of preventive healthy behaviors at the individual, household, and community levels; and improve health systems management and functioning to the community level. The contractor will apply a cross sector approach to achieving all objectives, link to existing USAID program where possible, and leverage other program in the region.

6.3. Conduct a Rapid Assessment

The Contractor shall conduct a rapid assessment in target districts to gather and analyze data about key aspects of the project before finalizing the specific project activities. This approach is driven by the recognition that very specific contextual nuances will determine the various approaches and may vary between regions. It is anticipated that the Rapid Assessment Phase will be completed within the first 90 days of the contract.

The Rapid Assessment should build on learning and evidence rather than repeat from the two RERAs carried out by USAID/Mali in 2016.

6.4. Relationship to Government of Mali and Other Development Partners GLEE activity supports the GOM’s Education Interim Plan and the priorities put forward in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2012–17 GPRSP). These priorities include universal access, equity, reduction of girl/boy disparities, and obstacles to education faced by vulnerable groups. The Ministry of Education is in the process of developing its next 10 year education strategy. It is expected that the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Ministry of Women, Children, and Family, and the Ministry of Health will be engaged throughout the activity design and implementation to support this strategy implementation. USAID and the GLEE implementing partner will collaborate with the GOM to identify promising practices that contribute to the activity objectives and purpose. Importantly, this activity is also aligned with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) framework, which emphasizes girls’ education and advancing education in conflict-affected and fragile states. GPE is expected to be a major funding source for the GOM’s next ten-year education plan.

6.5. Geographic Scope

The geographic scope of the program is Kayes, Mopti, and select peri-urban districts of Bamako. The selection of these districts was guided by current data on adolescent girls well-being, current USAID programming and strategies, and Government of Mali priorities. While the regions are predetermined by USAID/Mali, the contractor will propose districts/cercles based on quantitative and qualitative data indicators for adolescent girls, rapid assessment results, current on the ground operating realities, Ministry of Education and Health priorities, and ability to link to current service delivery programming.

6.6. Collaborative, Learning, And Adapting Approach

Mali is a dynamic country with rapidly changing political, security, and operating environments as well as emerging opportunities. Appropriate responses and interventions may shift over the life of the activity. The challenge is to connect the approaches and interventions to corresponding opportunities and challenges. The contractor must incorporate flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness that will enable them to respond to opportunities and challenges that arise in a timely manner. The contractor must apply the collaborative learning and adaptive approach30 throughout the life of the project. The contractor will facilitate collaboration amongst internal USAID stakeholders and external stakeholders at the work planning phase.

Adaptability refers to an adjustment to new conditions, shocks, crisis, or stabilization and its impact on long-term decisions and corresponding programmatic adjustments. In order to build adaptability into the implementation of the GLEE, the contractor will be expected to act on Rapid Assessment findings and to conduct on-going rolling assessments. Conducted quarterly, rolling assessments will gather information and monitor trends on a critical set of data and inform the applicant’s ability to adapt to northern Mali’s fluid and dynamic context.

At a minimum the process will focus on critical events that significantly affect project implementation and informal information gathered through implementation. Questions to be addressed may include: what are the emerging issues in the selected areas of project implementation? What are the critical events planned in the next three months? Do activities or approaches need to be adjusted? If so, how? The findings from these assessments and any course corrections taken will be incorporated into GLEE’s quarterly reports.

The contractor will iteratively feed new learning (including learning and data from external development partners), innovations, and performance information back into the strategy to inform funding allocations, management, and problem solving. The contractor must continuously assess the causal pathways with regards to the objectives and purpose of the activity and adjust approaches as necessary to lead to the most effective results.

6.5. Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

The risk of a sudden upheaval or other emergency in Mali has grown in the years since the 2012 coup d’état. In the event of an emergency, entities operating in Mali must be prepared to be self –sufficient. To facilitate this, USAID/Mali requires contractors to develop sound Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans (EPRP) and incorporated disaster risk reduction into their activities.

6.6 Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

The monitoring framework will be an important component in the overall quality assurance and evaluation plan for the GLEE project. It is envisioned that monitoring activities will provide continual project quality assurance through the regular collection of data against defined indicators. Additionally, monitoring data will be utilized for the planned performance evaluation and applied research activities, both of which will be designed and conducted by an independent organization. The Contractor will be expected to develop and maintain a performance monitoring system to track tangible, measurable progress toward roject results and the attainment of USAID/Mali’s Basic Education Program Objective. A draft Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP) shall be submitted, and shall include performance indicators, planned data sources, collection and calculation methods, baseline data, and annual targets directly linked to proposed activities. This PMP must include a combination of Agency-mandated performance indicators and customized performance indicators selected in order to track progress toward improving Mali’s basic education system and meeting the management needs of the USAID/Mali program. All performance indicators and targets must https://usaidlearninglab.org/library/collaborating-learning-and-adapting-resources-and-contacts be sex disaggregated by Male (M) /Female (F)/ Total (T) and age disaggregated (ages 10-14 and 15-19). Offerors must use all relevant Agency-mandated performance indicators from the Foreign Assistance Framework. Proposed indicators and targets will be finalized as part of a USAID/Mali’s PMP that will require a Data Quality Assessment for each indicator and semi-annual reporting of data.

6.7 Performance Evaluation

The Contractor will only be responsible for collecting baseline data in accordance with the performance evaluation design. Mid-term and end-line data gathering and analysis will be conducted by an independent evaluation team. The Contractor will be required to have consultations with USAID/Mali and the independent evaluation team to review mid-term findings and determine if any adjustments are necessary.

7. Reporting

7.1 Guidance for Reporting Under Foreign Assistance Objectives The Contractor will be required where applicable to collect the following standard Foreign Assistance Framework (FAF) indicators. Indicators must be disaggregated by sex and age group (ages 10-14 and 15-19) where appropriate:

Basic Education

Learning Outcomes

● ES.1-1 - Percent of learners who demonstrate reading fluency and comprehension of grade level text at the end of grade 2 with USG assistance

● ES.1-2 - Percent of learners who demonstrate reading fluency and comprehension of grade level text at the end of primary school (or grade 6, whichever comes sooner) with USG assistance

Learners and Students Reached

● ES.1-3 - Number of learners in primary schools and/or equivalent non-school based settings reached with USG education assistance

● ES.1-4 - Number of learners in secondary schools or equivalent non-school based settings reached with USG education assistance

● ES.1-5 - Number of learners reached in reading programs/interventions at the primary level

Teachers

● ES.1-6 - Number of primary or secondary educators who complete professional development activities with USG support

● ES.1-7 - Number of primary school educators who complete professional development activities on implementing evidence-based reading instruction with USG assistance

● ES.1-8 - Number of primary or secondary school educators who complete professional development activities on teaching students with special educational needs with USG assistance

● ES.1-9 - Number of primary or secondary school educators who complete professional development activities on peace education, conflict sensitivity, or conflict transformation with USG assistance

Teaching and Learning Materials

● ES.1-10 - Number of primary or secondary textbooks and other teaching and learning materials (TLM) provided with USG assistance

● ES.1-11 - Number of primary school classrooms that receive a complete set of essential reading instructional materials with USG assistance

Management & Administration

● ES.1-12 - Number of education administrators/officials who complete professional development activities with USG support

Parent and Community Engagement

● ES.1-13 - Number of parent teacher associations (PTAs) or community governance structures engaged in primary or secondary education supported with USG assistance

Infrastructure

● ES.1-14 - Number of primary or secondary classrooms built or repaired with USG assistance

7.2 Project Evaluation

USAID/Mali will be using an “evaluation contract” awarded to a third party organization to evaluate this project. This evaluation contract will collaborate closely with the Contractor, the GOM Ministry of Education, and USAID to develop and agree upon a rigorous evaluation design at the outset of the project. By the end of the second quarter of Year 3 of this contract, the evaluation contract will conduct a mid-term performance evaluation. A final performance evaluation will be conducted and disseminated prior to the end of the five-year award. If the Contractor conducts any evaluation(s) in addition to those being done by USAID, electronic copies must be submitted to USAID/Mali’s Agreement Officer, Contracting Officer’s Representative, and to the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse.