ATTACHMENT_J.10_Cost_Reporting_Guidance.pdf

Cost Reporting Guidance for USAID-Funded Education Projects

January, 2017

Pilot version

Contents

1. Purpose

2. Overview

3. Capturing Other Contributions

4. Description of Expenditure Reporting Categories

5. Selecting Reporting Categories

6. Reporting on Expenditure and Ingredients

7. Piloting the Guidance

Bibliography

Exhibit 1. Objectives of the Cost Reporting Guidance

1. Purpose USAID’s investments in education have focused on improving educational outcomes in primary grade reading, education in crisis and conflict, workforce development, and higher education. With an increased emphasis on evidence-based programming a need for better data on effects as well as costs of USAID-funded interventions in education became apparent. While the field made great strides in recent years with raising the number and the quality of impact evaluations, their results are incomplete without cost data for these interventions.

At even more fundamental level, the cost for specific components of most common USAID-funded interventions, such as teacher training or production of teaching and learning materials is poorly understood due to lack of sufficiently detailed and categorized data. Routinely collecting data on actual costs of components of education programming would allow the

Agency better understand the levels of investment needed to produce outputs and outcomes of interest and will inform strategic decisions relating to education programming. Cost analysis of USAID-funded education interventions is therefore an essential part of improving accountability, transparency and value for money. A better understanding of the cost structure of donor-funded interventions will help set realistic expectations and help maximize limited resources allocated to supporting education in developing countries. Specifically, collecting cost data will help USAID accomplish the following objectives (Exhibit 1):

1. Estimate levels of investment needed to produce desired outputs;

2. Understand differences in costs of producing the same outputs across different contexts;

3. Map out program cost structure (cost of development, implementation, scale up;

cost of management, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, etc.) and levels of host government and private sector support needed;

4. Calculate cost per attributable outcome and cost-effectiveness of comparable interventions.

The first three objectives will be achieved through routine analyses of expenditure and ingredients data reported by USAID-funded education projects1 across the world.

USAID may conduct analyses of expenditure and ingredients data and report on the findings. The result of these analyses will be used to inform Agency’s understanding of the current structure of expenditure across its education portfolio, understand regional and program-related differences, establish relationships between levels of investment and results, and understand the role of such mediating factors as the amount of government and/or non-government support for projects, among other things. The findings will be used to inform government cost estimates as well as project design.

The achievement of the fourth objective, to calculate cost per attributable outcome and cost-effectiveness of comparable interventions, will be achieved through targeted studies of select projects. Since rigorous impact evaluations are needed to enable calculations of cost per attributable outcome and cost-effectiveness comparisons of different interventions, the Agency will make a determination which activities are included in such analysis on a case-by-case basis. The application of cost-effectiveness analysis is useful when comparing two or more interventions designed to achieve the same outcome with the similar beneficiaries and in a similar context. Since costs vary dramatically across different contexts, an analysis of expenditure of interventions implemented in different contexts or with different populations is appropriate only insofar as it provides information about relative differences in expenditure and ingredients for achieving the outcomes of interest. Finally, comparisons of interventions with different scale and different conditions, even if implemented with similar beneficiaries and in the similar context will potentially result in overestimates of costs for the interventions with smaller scale.

1 “Project”, also known as “activity”, “carries out an intervention or set of interventions, typically through an implementing mechanism such as a contract, assistance program, or partnership with another U.S. Government Agency, the partner country government, other donors and development assistance agencies, NGOs, and the private sector. It may also be an intervention undertaken directly by USAID staff that contributes to achieving a Project Purpose such as policy dialogue, capacity building services, or coordination with stakeholders”. (USAID ADS 201, p.80, 2016 revision)

This document is designed to provide guidance for implementing partners of USAID-funded projects in education on how to capture and report project expenditure as well as contributions of government and non-government partners. Through this guidance, the Agency intends to standardize coding and reporting of all project-related expenditure across implementing partners as well as to inform how support from host governments and private sector actors is captured. The guidance and templates are based on extensive consultations with USAID staff, implementing partners and researchers with deep experience conducting expenditure tracking and cost analyses.

At this time, the guidance is meant to be applied to any and all USAID implementing mechanisms (e.g. contracts, grants, cooperative agreements) that include a requirement to report cost data. All implementing mechanisms in place prior to the release of the guidance should modify their cost tracking systems to comply with the guidance following its release, but not retroactively apply it to data already collected and reported. This guidance does not apply to implementing mechanisms that do not include a requirement to report cost data.

2. Overview

This section outlines the standardized approach to expenditure tracking and reporting for all USAID-funded education activities. The approach is based on Agency’s experience with implementing projects to improve primary grade reading, access to education in conflict and crisis, workforce development, and higher education under the USAID Education Strategy 2011-2015. Under this approach, all partners implementing USAID-funded education activities will routinely report data on expenditure and ingredients in categories specified by USAID. “Expenditure” data will include labor2, materials, travel and all other expenditure, as captured through partner’s accounting system for the reporting period. “Ingredients” data will include a breakdown of labor, materials, travel and other elements for which the expenditure is reported.

The expenditure and ingredient data will be collected for the general categories of USAID-funded education activities (Table 1), customized according to project objectives. While the categories of expenditure are expected to be adopted by implementing partners without modifications, most of the illustrative sub-categories

2 Standard invoice line items. Labor costs must include associated overhead recovery.

are flexible and will be established through a consultative process with the USAID Mission, the implementing partner and, if applicable, the evaluation partner. It is anticipated that very few projects will need to report on all categories; most activities will select those categories that are most closely aligned with their scope of work and report on those only. All project expenditure must be captured in the codes selected.

Details of reporting for each category are described in the next sub-section of the Guidance.

Table 1. Categories of Expenditure and Ingredient Reporting

CATEGORY ILLUSTRATIVE SUB-CATEGORIES

Category 1. General management and operations

a. General management and operations

b. Management of local subcontractors

Category 2. Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting

a. Monitoring

b. Evaluation

c. Learning assessments

Category 3. Teacher training

a. Development

b. Implementation

Category 4. Teaching and learning materials

a. Development

b. Production and distribution

Category 5. Policy/Capacity development

a. Host government capacity/policy

b. Local NGO/CBO capacity

Category 6. Private sector assessment/engagement

a. Labor market assessments

b. PPPs

c. Internships/direct placement

Category 7. Parents/Community involvement

a. Development

b. Implementation

Category 8. Safe schools

a. Development

b. Implementation

c. Construction, furniture and equipment

Category 9. Grants, scholarships and cash transfers

a. Scholarships

b. Grants to individuals

c. Conditional cash transfers

Category 10. Block grants

a. To government institutions

b. To non-government organizations

c. Payments for direct service delivery

Category 11. Other (if applicable) As appropriate

The distinction between development and implementation sub-categories is meant to capture differences in upfront investments in the development of different components of an intervention and in expenses for implementing each of them. Some activities may include a substantial development component in their scope of work, e.g., around or exceeding 5% of the overall budget. Such development work may include developing and piloting materials, developing and piloting teacher training approach, conducting an evaluation of a pilot of an intervention in a small number of schools before scaling the intervention up. In those cases, the difference between expenditure on the development and implementation should be captured through dedicated sub-codes.

This may be particularly relevant for the following categories: Category 3. Teacher training; Category 4. Teaching and learning materials; Category 7. Parents/Community involvement; Category 8. Safe schools.

It is natural that some tweaks to the model of implementation are likely to occur in response to data on implementation process; such tweaks are considered a part of the implementation process and should be coded as such. The development category will largely include costs and ingredients of developing curricula, teaching and learning materials, various training materials, websites, online platforms, etc. The implementation category includes costs and ingredients of the actual delivery of the intervention, including labor and all other expenditure to enable training, costs of printing and distribution of books and other materials, etc. Table 2 shows an example of a code structure of an early grade reading project.

Table 2. Illustrative Code Structure for an Early Grade Reading Project

COMPONENTS OF AN EGR PROJECT PROJECT CODE

(1) General management and operations XXXX.XX.01.000

(2) Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting XXXX.XX.02.000

(3) Teacher training Development: XXXX.XX.03.001 Implementation: XXXX.XX.03.002

(4) Teaching and learning materials Development: XXXX.XX.04.001 Production/distribution: XXXX.XX.04.002

(5) Policy/Capacity development XXXX.XX.05.000

(7) Parents/Community involvement Development: XXXX.XX.06.001 Implementation: XXXX.XX.06.002

A selection of additional sub-codes is warranted if the anticipated expenditure for the sub-category is likely to exceed 5% of the total project budget, or if it allows capturing expenditure associated with an implementation of distinct intervention modalities and will be used in evaluation data analysis.

In summary, the key principles of expenditure reporting include the following:

1. The ten main expenditure categories cannot be re-named or collapsed.

2. All project code systems must include the first two expenditure categories

(“General management and operations” and “Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting”) in their reporting. Other categories should be selected based on the project’s scope of work.

3. The entirety of the project expenditure must be reported; expenditure must be coded in the category nearest to its intended end result.

4. Both expenditure and ingredients must be reported. Ingredients include disaggregated labor, materials, facilities and travel.

5. For specific components of the project, associated management and technical assistance must be coded in the corresponding expenditure category, not general management.

6. The final code structure should be informed by the evaluation design or research agenda.

7. If the project has a development of an intervention as its important component, relevant expenditure must be coded in a dedicated “development” sub-category.

8. A selection of additional sub-codes is warranted if the anticipated expenditure for the sub-category is likely to exceed 5% of the total project budget.

9. The final list of codes must balance the desire for precision with the need to reduce burden of using too many different codes.

10. Contributions of the government, private actors and other donors must be captured and reported.

3. Capturing Other Contributions

In addition to routine reporting on the amount and structure of expenditure in each category selected by the project as appropriate for their scope of work, projects are required to report estimates of host government, non-governmental, and other donor contributions to project implementation, specifically:

1. Estimates of host government contributions:

a. Host government staff time;

b. Host government facilities, materials and other in-kind donations.

c. Other contributions.

2. Estimates of non-government, corporate and individual contributions:

a. Volunteer time;

b. NGO contributions (monetary or in-kind).

c. Corporate donations (monetary or in-kind).

3. Estimates of other donor contributions.

These estimates of host government, non-government and other donor contributions can be reported in non-monetary terms, such as a number of volunteers or staff (including their responsibilities and number of their labor hours donated in a time period), number of equipment (what kind and duration of use), etc. Such estimates are important to capture and report so that those inputs were appropriately accounted for.

Only substantial and project-critical contributions are to be captured and reported.

Only direct contributions that are distinctly different from the pre-project education delivery and that are directly linked to achieving project objectives need to be captured.

Recommendations on how to capture and report these contributions is provided in the annexes of this Guidance. Examples of host governments contributions include:

- Government-owned facilities donated for use by project staff for the duration of the project.

- Government staff time donated consistently and/or in significant amount without which the project component(s) could not take place. For example, teacher time outside of normal hours when teachers were trained, coaches or mentors hired by the government to support the project, government inspectors conducting learning assessments.

- Materials donated by the host government, such as vehicles, generators, etc.

Annex A provides worksheet templates for tracking and reporting host government contributions to the project, with detailed examples.

Similarly, it is important to capture and report estimates of non-government and private actors’ contributions including, but not limited to, volunteer time and NGO and corporate donations (monetary or in-kind). Similar to the guidance on capturing government contributions, only substantial and project-critical NGO, corporate and individual contributions are to be captured and reported. Examples of such contributes include:

- Volunteer time spent to support project activities. For example, volunteer community-based tutors working with children after school to help them with homework and skill practice.

- NGO or corporation-owned facilities donated for use by project staff for the duration of the project;

- NGO or corporation staff time donated consistently and/or in significant amount without which the project component(s) could not take place. For example, NGO or private company staff supporting after-school activities on a pro-bono basis, NGO supporting learning assessments without any cost to the project, community volunteers engaging with children in reading clubs, etc.

- Materials donated by the NGOs, corporations or individuals, such as books, instructional technology (including computers, tablets and mobile phones), support for school renovation, etc.

Annex B provides an example of a worksheet for tracking NGO, corporate and individual contributions to the project. Additionally, if other donors are funding projects that aim to achieve similar results among the same beneficiaries, it is important to capture and report a presence of these projects, the scope of their activities and other relevant information. Direct contributions of other donors to the USAID-funded project should be reported, as well. Annex B includes a template for reporting other donor project.

4. Description of Expenditure Reporting Categories

This section of the Guidance offers a detailed description of each of the ten expenditure/ingredient categories as well as recommendations on how to capture host government and private sector contributions to USAID-funded projects.

Category 1. General management and operations

“General management and operations” category includes labor and other expenditure relating to coordination of human and material resources to achieve overall project goals, cost of rent of in-country facilities, security costs, and other expenditure relating to the general management and operations.

EXAMPLES:

WHAT TO INCLUDE: Staff time devoted to the overall management of the project, for example: time of Chief of Party, project director, project coordinator, financial analyst, human resources manager, logistics manager, communications manager, and Deputy Chief of Party for Operations. All operations and administrative costs, such as the rent of the buildings, project vehicles, security personnel, etc. All short-term technical assistance (STTA) relating to general management and operations of the project, for example, trips of the project director, project coordinator, HR manager, security manager, etc.

WHAT TO CODE ELSEWHERE: Labor and other costs relating to management of specific components and deliverables (e.g., Technical Director, Component Manager, STTA relating to specific components) should not be included in the general management and operations code. Management of specific technical activities relating to components of the project should be coded under the relevant technical expenditure capture category.

For projects with an expected high level of management effort devoted to building capacity of local partners/sub-contractors it is recommended to establish a dedicated “Management of sub-contractors” billing code, in addition to the general management and operations code.

Standard sub-categories may include a) general management and operations; b) management of local sub-contractors. Sub-categories are not mandatory.

Category 2. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting

The monitoring, evaluation, and reporting category should include all monitoring, evaluation, assessment and reporting activities that are designed to monitor progress against specified targets, evaluate project results, and report to funders and stakeholders. Data collection, analysis and reporting activities designed to inform the general management of the project should also be included. Those data collection, analysis and reporting activities that are designed to support specific intervention components should be coded in the appropriate component category.

EXAMPLES:

WHAT TO INCLUDE: Staff time of the M&E team, M&E STTA, M&E data collection expenses, expenses for early grade learning assessments (reading, math or other subjects) such as staff time, travel expenses, technology and other materials for assessments, etc.; data quality assurance staff time, travel and materials. Data collection designed to support implementation such as fidelity of implementation tracking implemented through lot quality assurance sampling or other models, continuous conflict assessments, gender assessments, etc.

may also be included.

WHAT TO CODE ELSEWHERE: Routine data collection designed to improve instruction and local accountability (such as classroom formative assessments, school report card development and implementation) should be coded under “teacher training” category; institutional and organizational assessments not associated with any performance monitoring indicators should be captured under “policy/capacity development” category, labor market assessments to inform the development of interventions should be coded under “private sector assessment/ engagement” category. Needs assessments, such as Rapid Education Risk Analysis (RERA), should be coded under the main technical category which it is designed to inform or split across main technical categories of the project.

It is anticipated that under the adaptive management model some projects will extensively use M&E data to inform technical implementation. To avoid confusion with coding of the M&E activities, this Guidance recommends coding all data collection, analysis and reporting associated with indicators specified in the project’s monitoring and evaluation plan under the “monitoring, evaluation and reporting” category.

Standard sub-categories include a) monitoring; b) evaluations; c) learning assessments.

Category 3. Teacher training

This category of education project reporting includes costs of all labor, materials and other expenditure that have the end goal of trained teaching force, including facilitators, instructors, principals, coaches, mentors, tertiary level instructors/professors, defined in accordance with standard indicators. “Training” is understood as a transfer of knowledge in content area of instruction, assessments, pedagogical practices, capacity to provide a healing and supportive environment for students, language competency, use of instructional technology, among other areas3.

EXAMPLES:

WHAT TO INCLUDE: Examples of labor and other costs in this cost category include:

- Training master trainers in any type of education programming in a cascade model;

- Training instructors in teacher training institutions;

- Training facilitators/instructors in alternative basic education programs/alternative learning programs and workforce development projects;

- Training administrators and officials;

- Formative assessment of instructional practices, instructor beliefs and attitudes, to inform the development of teacher training approach;

- Development and implementation of instructor competency assessments if used to improve training/coaching4;

- Training coaches5 who support practice improvement through routine visits and feedback;

3 Standard indicators corresponding to this category are 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; ES.1-12 - Number of education administrators/officials who complete professional development activities with USG support. If reporting on any of these indicators, labor and expenditure for the associated activities should be coded in this category. Performance Indicator Reference Sheets for these indicators contain relevant information on a range of activities captured in this category.

4 If used for reporting purposes and has an associated performance monitoring indicator, code under “Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting”.

- Development and production of materials for coaches6 who support practice improvement through routine visits and feedback;

- Study tours.

WHAT TO CODE ELSEWHERE: Parent training should be coded under “parent/community engagement” category; training of the government officials to support policy development should be coded under “policy/capacity development”. Payments to organizations to support teacher salaries for direct service delivery should be coded under “Block grants” category.

Standard sub-categories include a) development/piloting of training approach; b) implementation of training.

Category 4. Teaching and Learning Materials

This category includes costs of all labor, materials and other costs that have the end goal of delivering teaching and learning materials into the hands of final beneficiaries for whom they are designed, including virtually7. Examples include:

EXAMPLES:

WHAT TO INCLUDE:

- Development or revision of curricula for early grade reading or other subjects8, including for alternative basic education programs;

- Development or revisions of workforce development/entrepreneurship curricula;

5 This can include head master/principal training if the content of the training is on improvement of teacher instructional practices.

6 Including materials for head masters/principals if the content of the materials is on improvement of teacher instructional practices.

7 Standard indicators corresponding to this category are 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. If reporting on any of these indicators, labor and expenditure for the associated activities should be coded in this category.

Performance Indicator Reference Sheets for these indicators contain relevant information on a range of activities captured in this component.

8 Other subjects can also be coded in this category, e.g., math or science.

- Development or revisions of conflict prevention/peace building or civics education curricula;

- Development, piloting, production and distribution of books, guides, scripted lessons, formative assessments, and other materials that are used to support instruction and learning. The intended users could be for master trainers, teachers, facilitator, mentors, coaches, students, learners, parents, local organizations and other individuals or entities.

- Development, piloting, production and distribution of books and other materials that are distributed in schools, learning centers, workforce development centers, communities, through mobile libraries, parent-teacher associations, and other means;

- Development and production of curricula, plans and materials for pre-service or in-service teacher training;

- Development, piloting and distribution of instructional software and content;

- Procurement and distribution of instructional technology (e.g., cell phones with speakers, MP3 players with speakers, tablets, e-readers, radios, solar panels or generators to power instructional technology).

WHAT TO CODE ELSWHERE: Cash grants to organizations for purchasing equipment or materials should be coded under “Block grants” category.

Standard sub-categories include a) development/piloting of teaching and learning materials, including curricular materials, online platforms, software, etc.; b) procurement and distribution of teaching and learning materials, including curricular materials, online platforms, software, and hardware.

Category 5. Policy/Capacity Development

This category of cost and ingredient capture includes costs of all labor, materials and other direct costs that have the end goal of strengthened systems and improved capacity of the host country government institutions to provide high quality education services9.

EXAMPLES:

9 Standard indicator corresponding to this category is ES.2-1 - Number of host country tertiary education institutions receiving capacity development support with USG assistance.

WHAT TO INCLUDE:

- Establishing/strengthening national reading proficiency benchmarks, grade standards for reading and other subjects, youth policy, alternative education policy or other education-related policies;

- Strengthening capacity of vocational training institutions;

- Introducing/revising instructor competency standards or evaluation criteria;

- Establishing/strengthening national assessment system;

- Introducing/revising laws, policies, regulations or guidelines on national, regional or sub-regional level that affect provision of and access to education and the process of education delivery;

- Strengthening local education management information system (EMIS);

- Developing/implementing a local education system accountability system, including school report cards and alike.

WHAT TO CODE ELSWHERE: Cash grants to schools, vocational training institutions or other organizations or government bodies for renovations, purchasing equipment or any other purpose should be coded under “Block grants” category.

Standard sub-categories include a) host government capacity building and/or policy development work; b) local NGO/CBO capacity building work.

Category 6. Private Sector Assessment/Engagement

This category includes costs of all labor, materials and other costs that have the end goal of increasing private sector involvement in support of the project objectives, including private sector assessments for tailoring intervention approach to existing private sector conditions. This category is particularly relevant for workforce development projects.

EXAMPLES:

WHAT TO INCLUDE:

- Labor market assessments;

- Development of private/public partnerships;

- Internships/placement activities;

- Job fairs;

- Development of an industry-recognized skills certification exam/system;

- Development and support for websites and online platforms for connecting private sector with education institutions and job seekers, including job match software, portal for connecting various job seekers and industries, websites for disseminating market and job-related materials for entrepreneurs, job seekers, training institutions, etc.

- Information systems to support market information dissemination.

WHAT TO CODE ELSWHERE: Development, production and distribution of curricular materials for entrepreneurship training, teaching and learning materials for vocational institutes etc are to be coded under “Teaching and learning materials” category. Activities for institutional strengthening of vocational training, such as development of an instructor evaluation system, revision of graduation criteria, development of an internship/job placement program, etc., should be coded under “Policy/capacity development” category.

Standard sub-categories include a) local labor market assessments to inform the development of an intervention and/or facilitate job matching, job placements; b) development of and support for public-private partnerships that aim to improve public sector involvement in and linkages with the education sector; c) internships and direct placement of young people in employment.

Category 7. Parent and Community Involvement

This category includes costs of all labor, materials and other costs that have the end goal of involving families and communities in support of the project objectives. For example, in youth development projects this would mean raising community awareness of youth issues or creating opportunities for youth to meaningfully participate in community affairs. In Education in Crisis and Conflict, this could mean back to school and on-time enrollment campaigns. In early grade reading projects this would mean increasing parental support for reading, community involvement in school governance, and improvement in accountability of local education system to communities and families. Training of volunteers in after-school tutoring and other activities designed to support learning is also included in this category10.

EXAMPLES:

- Behavior change communication campaigns to contribute to education outcomes (such as promoting on-time enrollment), change of livelihoods practices relating to climate change, youth-led community activities, etc.;

- Training school-based management committees, parent-teacher association members, and alike;

- Training community-based organizations;

- Training community volunteers.

Standard sub-categories include a) development/piloting of an intervention to improve parental/community engagement; b) implementation of interventions to improve parental/community engagement.

Category 8. Safe schools

This category includes costs of all labor, materials and other costs that have the end goal of improving safety of schools for all children and teaching staff. Examples include school safety/infrastructure surveys, revisions of school policies relating to safety, updating school infrastructure, activities designed to prevent school-based and gender-based violence, etc.

It is recommended that this reporting category be selected if it constitutes a distinct component of project’s scope. In those cases where safety topics are integrated in the general teacher training or policy work, it is not necessary to create a separate code to capture these activities.

Expenditure associated with construction of new schools or refurbishing of existing classrooms/buildings should be coded in this category11.

10 Standard indicator corresponding to this category is ES.1-13 - Number of parent teacher associations (PTAs) or community governance structures engaged in primary or secondary education supported with USG assistance.

11 Standard indicator corresponding to this cost category is ES.1-14 - Number of primary or secondary classrooms built or repaired with USG assistance.

Standard sub-categories include a) development/piloting of an intervention to improve school safety for all students or subgroups of students and/or staff; b) implementation of interventions to improve school safety for all students or subgroups of students and/or staff; c) construction/refurbishing of education facilities such as schools, training institutes and temporary learning spaces, procurement of furniture or durable equipment such as machinery in vocational training institutes.

Category 9. Grants, scholarships and cash transfer

This category of cost/ingredient capture intends to capture amount and type of cash transfer to individual beneficiaries or families in support of education project objectives, such as scholarships for attending an educational institution, grants to individuals to start business, or conditional cash transfers to families housing orphans or vulnerable children (OVCs) to support their schooling. This category captures both the actual amount of cash transfers as well as management and logistics costs associated with transferring the cash12.

Standard sub-categories include a) scholarships to children or young people to attend school, vocational training institute or a tertiary education institute; b) grants to individuals, for example, seed money to start a business or an entrepreneurship kit; c) conditional cash transfers to individuals or families, for example, to families housing OVCs.

Category 10. Block Grants

In the “Block grants” category implementers should code the amount of cash grants transferred to government and non-government organizations in support of specific purchases or activities that aim to contribute to achieving project’s objectives. In cases when implementing partner transfers money for direct education delivery (for instance, for paying teachers in refugee camps), such payments should also be captured in this category.

This category is not to be confused with sub-contracts or sub-awards to local partner organizations where local organizations are to perform a set of specified activities and are subject to USAID reporting requirements. Those will use standard expenditure categories and report following general guidance.

12 Standard indicator corresponding to this category is ES.2-3 - Number of individuals attending tertiary education institutions with USG scholarship/financial assistance

Standard sub-categories include a) block grants to government institutions, such as schools, vocational training institutes, colleges or other tertiary institutes, etc.; b) block grants to non-government institutes, such as local CBOs/NGOs or PTAs; c) payments for direct service delivery such as to pay teachers to work extra hours, or pay instructors of alternative education programs.

5. Selecting Reporting Categories

The selection of categories on which to report will be conducted collaboratively by the mission and the implementing partner, in consultation with USAID/Washington. All education projects will be required to report expenditure and ingredients for the categories most applicable to their scope of work. Projects selected for external impact evaluations will be expected to collaborate with the evaluation partner to establish which categories are necessary to include to enable cost-effectiveness analysis of intervention models. The steps below illustrate this process.

Step 1. Match objectives of the project with expenditure categories; select the most appropriate categories. The “general management and operations” and “Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting” categories are expected to be included in expenditure tracking for all projects.

Step 2. Determine which categories will need sub-categories. For example, projects with large development components are required to separately track development and implementation activities within such categories as teacher training or material development.

Step 3. If the project is externally evaluated, determine if there is need to track costs of different intervention models. For example, if the project is implementing different models of entrepreneurship training and the evaluation is designed to compare the results, tracking of expenditure by model might enable cost-effectiveness comparisons of these different models. In such cases it would be necessary to establish separate expenditure tracking codes to collect data on costs and ingredients of the models that are being compared.

The description of activities included in each of the cost tracking categories will help the staff of the implementing partner and its subcontracts to bill their time correctly.

Such description should be developed in the first quarter of the project following the award and the selection of cost tracking categories, and be included in the project’s policies and procedures manual.

6. Reporting on Expenditure and Ingredients The timeline and schedule for reporting on expenditure and ingredients by implementing partners to USAID Missions will be set by the terms of the implementing mechanism (e.g. contract, award). Once USAID Missions receive such data from their partners, they must transmit it to E3/ED within 60 days. Each report will contain two parts, one on the expenditure associated with each cost category incurred in the reporting period, and the other with the ingredients associated with these costs.

The expenditure part of the report will include the appropriate disaggregation where sub-codes are present. Each report will contain the following information for each of the cost tracking categories:

1. Labor costs

a. Salaries

b. Fringe benefits

2. Other costs (materials, travel, etc)

3. Overhead recovery

The second part will contain information on the ingredients for which the cost data have been reported, expressed in units captured in the implementing partner accounting system.

The current Guidance is accompanied by the following templates and instructions on how to use them:

1. Worksheet for reporting host government contributions to USAID-funded projects in education sector;

2. Worksheet for reporting non-government contributions to USAID-funded projects in education sector;

3. Worksheet for reporting other donors' contributions to USAID-funded projects in education sector

4. Template to report on details of the intervention: dosage at the beneficiary level.

E3/ED will provide additional clarification and examples to Missions and implementers, as needed.

7. Piloting the Guidance Within the first nine months of the issuance of this Guidance, E3/ED will be collecting feedback from Missions and implementing partners on the narrative of the Guidance and on the accompanying templates. E3/ED will also conduct a number of in-depth case studies to document partners’ and Missions’ experiences. Collected feedback and data from case studies will inform revisions of the Guidance and reporting templates.

The final Guidance is anticipated to be released in January, 2018.

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