Annex 2: An initial Value for Money review of community-based structures

This review adds a Value for Money (VfM) dimension to this thematic review on community-based structures (CBSs). It looks at communitybased approaches to school governance, accountability and improvement adopted by two GEC projects implemented by Link Education International in Ethiopia and Malawi. This review explores the extent to which the community’s role in governance, accountability, school improvement, learning support and safeguarding within the two projects amplify their value. These two projects were chosen for a VfM review as they exhibited all of the six characteristics that demonstrate the successful utilisation of CBSs. Community-based approaches are assessed against the GEC VfM framework and the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability criteria. Evidence is drawn from interviews with project staff, evaluation findings and findings from this thematic review. It is important to note that this is an initial review and that the findings are not definitive. Furthermore, the communitybased approaches discussed are currently implemented by the two GEC projects. Although, this initial review provides some reflections and considerations that may be valuable to the two projects and other organisations implementing CBS approaches.

Supporting Transition of Adolescent Girls through Enhanced Systems (STAGES): Running from 2017 to 2024, the STAGES project is being implemented by Link Education International and Link Education in Ethiopia. The project aims to support 61,345 marginalised girls across 127 primary schools and up to 17 secondary schools in the rural and densely populated area of Wolaita. STAGES works closely with communities on school improvement activities through communitybased management committees embedded into government systems.

Transformational Empowerment for Adolescent Marginalised Girls in Malawi (TEAM Girl Malawi): Running from 2017 to 2023, the TEAM Girl Malawi project is being implemented by Link Education International. It aims to support up to 5,250 highly marginalised out-of-school girls aged between 10 and 19. The project works across three districts (Lilongwe, Dedza and Mchinji) with high average girls’ dropouts, grade repetitions, orphans and child-headed households. In addition, TEAM Girl Malawi works closely with communities through community-based learning centres.

The Gec Vfm Framework

The GEC VfM framework uses four of the OECD DAC criteria:

1. Relevance – whether the project invested in the right activities and modalities to respond to the needs and barriers of the girls identified, with optimal resources allocated to them.

2. (Cost)-effectiveness – whether the project produced the expected outcomes at an optimal cost for the girls and others reached by the project.

3. Efficiency – whether the project delivery was on time, on budget and with good quality processes.

4. Sustainability – whether there has been a long-term continuation of outcomes for the girls and others reached by the project and whether there has been replication and scale-up or adoption of the activities without FCDO funding.

How much does a CBS approach cost?

For both STAGES and TEAM Girl Malawi, the costs for implementing community-based approaches are relatively low as they rely significantly on community volunteers. For STAGES, the main cost is associated with training the community volunteers. The main community-based activities cost between 10 and 15% of the total budget for STAGES and 11% for TEAM Girl Malawi. The average annual cost per beneficiary is £42 for STAGES and £292 for TEAM Girl Malawi. The higher relative cost for TEAM Girl Malawi reflects the financial effort entailed in reaching extremely marginalised out-of-school girls and setting up community learning centres (a significant element of the programming). These costs include the setting up of the CBE centres, payment of facilitators and additional support to girls who have completely missed out on education. STAGES do not incur these costs as it is working with existing public primary and secondary schools which are already staffed with qualified teachers, and developing that systemic capacity to reach all children. This explains their lower relative cost.

How relevant is a CBS approach?

In Ethiopia, STAGES works with government-mandated community-school structures, including the Kebele Education and Training Board18, the Parent Teacher Student Associations and the School Improvement Committees, all of which have a role to play in the school improvement planning process. The project supports these actors to play their statutory school improvement roles to support girls and other vulnerable children to be in school and learn. For example, STAGES reviews the government’s teacher training materials and resources for the School Improvement Committees to work with teachers. The design and setup of STAGES’ community-based activities are highly relevant, being aligned with existing Ethiopian education policy frameworks and structures. The Government of Ethiopia strongly supports the project’s work. They view it as supporting and strengthening the implementation of existing policy and guidance around community engagement, gender, safeguarding, education in emergencies, and climate resilience. STAGES also works directly with headteachers who lead the school improvement planning process, supported by Woreda Cluster Supervisors. Headteachers also work closely with the community and ensure the school improvement planning process has a strong focus on gender, inclusion, safeguarding and emergency preparedness. STAGES also builds the capacity of headteachers and local government staff to train teachers.

In Malawi, TEAM Girl Malawi established Learning Centre Management Committees, which work as school management committees and have a remit to support learning and give oversight to teaching. After approximately a year of their establishment, TEAM Girl Malawi realised that the community was not sufficiently engaged in problem-solving and adaptive management processes undertaken by the Learning Centre Management Committees. Therefore, the project decided to give the community a more explicit role in identifying problems and finding solutions within the Learning Centre Management Committees. As a result, TEAM Girl Malawi systematically started collecting and analysing data on barriers to learning and attendance. Sharing the data with the community gave rise to identifying better solutions without the direct intervention of the project, such as the introduction of background safeguarding checks by a network of “trusted adults” and the involvement of community leaders, which is often crucial to address barriers that impede girls to access education. Findings so far show that the Learning Centre Management Committees are highly relevant in addressing barriers to learning and attendance and proposing relevant solutions.

How efficient is a CBS approach?

As STAGES works through existing Government-mandated communityschool structures and school improvement planning processes, transactions, capital and learning costs are lower than setting up a parallel system. In addition, the project works directly with headteachers, and headteachers and communities have direct links, which maximises efficiency.

In TEAM Girl Malawi, the activities undertaken by the Learning Centre Management Committees vary from encouraging community members to support girls’ education to carrying out routine repairs and maintenance. These multipurpose roles of the Learning Centre Management Committees lead to economies of scope and good cost efficiencies. There is also an element of scale economies in setting up the Learning Centre Management Committees. The training and setup costs are upfront semifixed costs. The longer timespan the training cost can be allocated over, the better return on the investment, as the annual cost per training unit is lower. The project learned that it is essential to have the committees up and running when school terms start to gain the most value for money from the Learning Centre Management Committees.

How effective is a CBS approach?

For both STAGES and TEAM Girl Malawi greater accountability with communities is likely to result in better effectiveness of learning. Having communities more informed of education rights and entitlements for children, including the most vulnerable, can lead to community members and parents holding schools more accountable for delivering these and implementing the school improvement plan they developed together. On the other hand, communities provide support to education. As a result, they can solve problems more effectively internally and at a reduced cost than a project providing external assistance or activities.

STAGES aims to maximise the community’s role in supporting school improvement, ensuring that all children are in school and learning and that no one is left behind. The project is also bringing together government and communities with an understanding that they all have a role to play in supporting education. This approach led to stronger partnerships between local government and communities and a more fertile ground for effective outcomes. For example, STAGES evaluation data on retention and transition suggest that despite many girls being married during the COVID-19 school closures, almost all of them were back in school as a result of communities, schools and local government working together to that effect. The positive impacts of community engagement intensified during COVID-19 as projects had to rely on the community structures to stay in contact with girls. Also, mother groups followed up with girls who were married during COVID-19 school closures and those at risk of early marriage.

Findings from the STAGES midline evaluation suggest that it is not yet possible to establish a direct link between community engagement and improved learning outcomes. However, stakeholders perceive that the increased community engagement has led to improved conditions for learning to happen. For example, teachers reported increased responsiveness to issues around girls’ education by Woreda cluster officials, Woreda school supervisors, Girls’ Education Advisory Committee Members, and school leadership from baseline to midline19. Woreda officials stated that Woreda cluster supervisors have become more effective in their jobs and offering more responsive and targeted feedback. Woreda cluster supervisors reported that headteachers tend to focus less on administrative issues and routine activities and more on evaluating and observing teachers, following up with them about practices introduced by STAGES.

Within TEAM Girl Malawi, the involvement of traditional leaders was associated with the decreased rate of students’ absenteeism. Because of the community-based education centres, TEAM Girl Malawi is also well-positioned to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through arranging distance learning activities. The Learning Centre Management Committees were central in monitoring and encouraging home learning. TEAM Girl Malawi also worked closely with the community on strengthening safeguarding and child protection measures. The activities of training, community reporting, and support to survivors were efficient, low-cost responses.

Within TEAM Girl Malawi, the community had a role in selecting the teachers working in the Learning Centres and the learners. In addition, processes such as advertising the roles, conducting safeguarding background checks, and identifying the most marginalised learners were facilitated by the Learning Centre Management Committees. Learning from implementing these processes suggests that whilst working with communities in partnership is time-consuming, the result is increased ownership by communities over the process and a willingness to embed project activities within existing structures. Such continuation of the project activities leads to better effectiveness. Also, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that building effective partnerships at the local, district and national level leads to collaborative decision-making and a faster and more efficient and effective response.

How sustainable is a CBS approach?

For STAGES, aligning the community-based structures with existing policy frameworks and government systems is a strong start for sustainability. The midline evaluation report states, “government officials cited how the interventions were not only all very aligned with government priorities but also how they were already effectively integrated into existing systems. It is evident that woreda officials are already starting to make long-term changes to their work by incorporating aspects of interventions into their planning processes, including sectoral and annual plans”. However, the midline evaluation also notes several obstacles that will need to be overcome, such as staff turnover at all levels and limited resources.

19 The Woreda cluster officials are local government officials operating at district level. The Woreda School Supervisors support a cluster of 4-5 schools each which are in close proximity. The Girls’ Education Advisory Committee Members are responsible for supporting girls in school. For example, they supervise rooms where girls can go to wash or rest during menstruation, advise girls on matters affecting them in and around school.

Both STAGES and TEAM Girl Malawi have found that empowering the community means that the solutions are more likely to last. The Government of Ethiopia expressed their interest in scaling up STAGES mothers’ and fathers’ groups, which were particularly inspiring through the COVID-19 pandemic. TEAM Girl Malawi is working closely with the Government of Malawi on adopting the Learning Centres to be part of their Complementary Basic Education programme.

Beyond the potential adoptions by the governments, the positive effects of the community-based structures utilised by STAGES and TEAM Girl Malawi could also be sustained by parents or primary caregivers taking more of an interest in their girls’ education. Such permanent behaviour changes are invaluable in terms of the benefits that the project can leave behind and extend beyond direct beneficiaries, thus outweighing the project’s initial costs. This is particularly the case if they can transform the way that community members perceive girls’ education.

Both projects are considering the following factors as part of their sustainability strategies:

1. Alignment with and building on/strengthening existing policy and practice.

2. Working closely with the relevant government structures at all levels.

3. Working closely with existing structures which link the community to the school – for example PTAs, School Improvement Committees, Kebele Education and Training Boards, SMCs, Mother and Father Groups.

4. Strengthening and aligning with the existing mechanisms which link community to school – for example the statutory School Improvement Planning processes in which communities participate and begin to hold schools accountable, and for which in most countries there are resources already attached though small school grants, block grants etc.

5. The point at which there is ‘buy-in’ and interest to roll the project or project interventions out to new areas/schools within or beyond the project timeframe (strong findings on this are shown in the STAGES midline with Malawi one ongoing).

6. The point at which communities and parents might continue to support girls to be in school, stay in school and learn.

7. The point at which the value added by the project is incorporated as relevant, planned for and resourced without project funds.

Consistent Vfm Findings From The World Bank Smart Buys Report

The October 2020 World Bank report on ‘Cost-effective approaches to improve global learning’20 found that that where involving community members in school management has worked, (as in Indonesia21, Uganda22, and Kenya23), it is very costeffective. One feature of successful interventions, as in Indonesia and Kenya, has been explicitly linking school committees that involve community members that have high levels of authority. This is a consistent finding to those of STAGES and TEAM Girls Malawi. The report continues to state that more work in testing various designs is needed to understand when and why this works, including a study of the composition, government structures, and complementary mechanisms, all of which appear to be important for effectiveness.

Key findings

This review shows how the community-based structures appear to be cost-effective for both the STAGES and TEAM Girl Malawi projects. Comprising between 10 and 15% of project budgets, they are likely to amplify results in a highly relevant way by instilling accountability, problem-solving, using the knowledge and expertise of the community to drive learning outcomes, retention and transition for girls. In addition, they bring efficiencies into project delivery through the use of existing government systems – as in the case of STAGES – and economies of scope and scale – as in the case of TEAM Girl Malawi. Finally, whilst it is too soon to report on sustainability, both projects are showing promising contributions through potential adoption of some project activities by the government, such as the implementation of mother and father groups for STAGES, and potential behaviour changes towards girls’ education by the parents directly involved in the project for TEAM Girl Malawi. If such adoptions and behaviour changes materialised, the benefits of using community-based approaches would most likely far outweigh the costs for the two projects and give rise to strong value for money.

20 https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/ en/719211603835247448/pdf/Cost-EffectiveApproaches-to-Improve-Global-LearningWhat-Does-Recent-Evidence-Tell-Us-AreSmart-Buys-for-Improving-Learning-in-Lowand-Middle-Income-Countries.pdf

21 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/ handle/10986/3559

22 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download? doi=10.1.1.372.6834&rep=rep1&type=pdf

23 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/ aer.101.5.1739