Annex 2: Methodology for this paper

For this paper, project data was collated and analysed on:

• attainment in literacy, numeracy and attendance

• the degree to which projects had addressed gender issues

• the potential for sustainability of project gains.

Tools which had been developed for the second phase of GEC for organisations to assess their projects in terms of gender responsiveness and sustainability were used to inform this analysis. Commonalities are illustrated with examples from GEC projects.

There was a wide array of elements of ‘success’: Projects in which girls learned the most and which achieved significantly higher than their targets in literacy did not necessarily have the same achievements in numeracy and vice versa, and some projects succeeded in raising attendance but not learning. Some projects showed promising elements of work to transform gender relations but may have not met their targets for learning. Similarly there were some projects which set in place structures to sustain project interventions but did not meet all of their learning targets.

In order to identify what was successful, projects were scored against the following domains: literacy, numeracy, attendance, marginalisation, gender, sustainability and child protection. The literacy, numeracy and attendance scores were taken from the final evaluations. Projects were also scored against the GEC’s Gender and Social Inclusion and Sustainability frameworks. Eighteen projects emerged from this exercise as showing examples of good practice in one or more of these domains. Additionally, although there was no analysis on these in this paper, the domains of value for money which in the GEC includes equity, child protection, financial management and delivery (defined by average milestone achievement) are also considered.