Recent research by international organisations has found that teachers do not sufficiently participate in key discussions on educational reform in developing countries, therefore depriving the process of teachers’ input and undermining teachers’ sense of ownership and commitment. The UNESCO project ‘Improving Teacher Support and Participation in Local Education Groups (LEGs)’ sought to address this deficit. Having run since 2015, ECOPER and Ockham IPS evaluators have recently completed an evaluation of the intervention. A mixed method approach was used for the evaluation, involving interviews with stakeholders at international and national levels, an online survey and field missions to Ivory Coast, Nepal, and Uganda, which provided a deeper understanding of how the project had operated at a country level.
Support for TVET in the Southern African Development Community
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) can empower individuals and contribute to economic growth. UNESCO’s Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR) project aimed to support TVET in five African countries and this month the project’s evaluation report was published following a collaboration between ECOPER and Ockham IPS. The evaluation involved ECOPER carrying out field missions in two countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia.
Supporting literacy in West Africa
Despite rising school enrolment rates in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal, research into primary school reading literacy have revealed poor results. With the aim of addressing this, UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (IBE) launched the project ‘The results of learning to read in the first years of primary school: integration of the curriculum, teaching, learning aids and assessment’ in November 2013. ECOPER has recently presented its evaluation report of the project. The evaluation applied a mixed methodology, taking in surveys, interviews and focus groups with project stakeholders, and field missions to the three beneficiary countries.
Public-private development partnerships in the Dominican Republic
Public Private Development Partnerships (PPDPs) are recognised as one of the primary means of implementing the international development agenda as framed by the Sustainable Developing Goals. On this topic, CODESPA recently presented the report ‘Institutional, Legal and Socioeconomic Context as a Reference for the Establishment and Promotion of Public Private Development Partnerships in the Dominican Republic’, in which ECOPER collaborated. The study was funded Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and was commissioned ahead of an AECID project which will aim to strengthen the capacities of the Dominican Vice Ministry of International Cooperation in the creation of PPDPs.
Entrepreneurship and enterprise skills development
Entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been a priority area for the European Training Foundation (ETF) in recent years in recognition of their effects on economic growth, job creation and social cohesion. ECOPER has collaborated with Ockham IPS to complete the evaluation of the ETF’s work in entrepreneurship and enterprise skills development (EESD) in partner countries between 2010 and 2014. The evaluation involved a contribution analysis, reflecting the ETF’s place among several other stakeholders attempting to promote EESD. This means that rather than seeking to establish whether the ETF’s interventions led to the observed impact, the analysis aimed to ascertain the ETF’s contribution to the perceived effects as one actor among a group. This was done by qualitatively analysing all potential key causal links. The evaluation incorporated six in-depth country studies, as part of which ECOPER conducted three field missions in Armenia, Lebanon and Tunisia.
UNESCO Associated Schools
ECOPER has collaborated with Ockham IPS in the evaluation of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project (ASP) Network. The evaluation involved a document review, a series of interviews and focus groups and an online survey, and involved six in-country field missions, including one conducted in Haiti by ECOPER consultant Aitor Pérez. The ASP Network supports UNESCO in …
Community water management in the Dominican Republic
The relationship between water, disease and poverty is a priority area of development in the Dominican Republic, though the extent of the challenges posed varies significantly between geographic areas. ECOPER has recently submitted its report on the evaluation of eight Manos Unidas projects aimed at improving access to water and sanitation in the Dominican Republic. ECOPER conducted a field mission to the country to gather information from beneficiaries via a survey and to interview local leaders and counterparts, in addition to other actors involved in development in the region.