Synergy in Development. An Evaluation of the Speed Schools (SSA/SSP) & the Women’s Saving for Change project (CMMF/SFC) in three African Countries

1. Project Description and Background to Evaluation:
In SF’s three intervention countries in West Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, 3.18 million children are out of school. SF’s Speed Schools (SS) aims to bring out-of-school children between the ages of 8 to 12 back to school through 9 months of intensive training. SF also works through CMMF groups in SS areas, to encourage the mothers of Speed School children to save and increase their income. This contributes to keeping children in school and has other positive developmental effects in the community. Speed Schools and CMMF are often combined in programming to promote synergy, and there has been a need to evaluate the effect of this.

2. Purpose/objective:
Assess the sustainability, relevance, impact, efficiency and effectiveness of the two concepts Speed Schools & Saving for Change groups in West Africa, in order to improve design.

3. Methodology:
Documentary analysis, interviews in the field and focus group sessions with participants in the two projects being evaluated.

4. Key findings:
The two projects are successfully implemented and at reasonable cost, with sound original design and a clear focus on poverty alleviation and reduction in the three partner countries Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Design is effective as SF works closely with well-established local NGO partners. Success factors included: initial sensitization of communities, appointment and training of locally based animators and supervisors, avoidance of ‘bridgehead’ strategies which create unsustainable islands of change, and the adoption of more rooted, indigenous approaches.

The impact of the projects was clearly demonstrated; savings groups functioned very well and pupils enrolled in Speed Schools graduated to regular schools in creditable numbers. Village economies and gender equity had been improved by the savings groups and the appetite for schooling had been increased, including demand for more women’s literacy opportunities and more income generating and health-related activities. Governments had also embraced the Speed School concept, providing centres in many cases and working through a Focal Point person or institution to ensure coherence with the NGO partners. A less positive aspect of the Speed School project has been the lack of capacity in regular schools to receive transferred pupils - classes are very large and books are few.

Relevance and sustainability were deemed strong, as projects address real poverty-related and felt needs. As social, technical and political sustainability are in place, a longer-term commitment by financing partners is essential. Dependency must be avoided but building on the capacity developed by the two projects is also essential.

With regard to synergy, the evaluators adopted a metaphor of the cooking pot and the number of legs it needs to stand on. Speed School and savings groups are two of these legs but third and fourth and even fifth legs were recommended by informants - women’s literacy, income generating activities and health-promoting activities were the most prominent issues identified. Any or all of these have synergistic effects on the core educational and micro-financing project activities and should be developed.

5. Recommendations:

• Create more synergies by developing the kinds of activities identified by project participants - literacy, health, income generation. Concentrate such activities on sites where success has already been met, building on sound foundations
• Develop the Active Literacy programme further
• Carry out special studies to generate hard evidence on such key issues as why children drop-out from or do not attend school, what are culturally relevant teaching and learning materials, what are relevant income-generating activities, how men can be sensitised and so on, creating a knowledge base for further development activities
• Develop more extensive training for partner NGOs to help them address community needs more effectively; address any salary/allowance anomalies
• Examine budget allocations, especially for administrative tasks to rationalise expenditure
• Develop strategies for the sensitisation of men in communities to add synergy to the work among women; seek out opportunities to develop local capacity further
•  Maintain a stronger gender emphasis in the projects, especially in the search for female teachers
• Try to match Speed Schools to receiving schools which can cope with an influx of new pupils; close contact with local education authorities should be developed further
• SF should take steps to publicise the effective work of SSA/SSP and CMMF to draw further support from potential partners
• SF should seek new or additional partners for financing expansion of the SSA/SSP and CMMF activities
• SF should consider a ten to fifteen year engagement with the two projects to ensure sustainability and continuity
•  SF and the SF Regional Office are encouraged to keep their interventions as simple and uncomplicated as possible.

6. Comments from the organisation, if any:
The above-mentioned aspects will be taken into account in the design and continuation of new Speed Schools and CMMF groups. Funding applications have been sent, and will continue to be sent, to institutions for the further development of the Active Literacy programme, and processes with Mali Biocarburant and other companies are underway to promote the diversification of income generating sources for CMMF members.