Impact Evaluation and Policy Research

Inadequacies in Tanzania's education and training systems compromise the quality of workforce skills, giving rise to skill shortages, and constraining the operations and growth of formal sector firms in the country. This study addressed these concerns using data from a unique Enterprise Skills Survey that asked Tanzanian employers about the education, training, and occupational mix of their workforce, the skill gaps in cognitive, noncognitive, and job-specific competencies affecting their operations, and the strategies they are using to overcome these skill gaps.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Timeline: 2013- 2016. The evaluation is an extension of a previous SIEF-supported evaluation that looks at the effects of teacher incentives across 420 public and private schools. This evaluation will examine the long-term impacts of teacher incentives, as well as the impacts of withdrawing teacher incentives?that is to say, giving them performance-based incentives for one year but not the next. It will also look at the effectiveness of giving incentivizes to students directly instead of to teachers.

This publication is the first comprehensive overview of the education sector in Sudan. The challenge that remains is to design policy responses to the issues identified within the forthcoming education sector strategic plan. More important, these policies-already being discussed with the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) must be effectively implemented so that Sudan can make faster progress toward achieving the Education for All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goal's (MDGs).

A textbook provision program in Sierra Leone demonstrates how volatility in the flow of government-provided learning inputs to schools can induce storage of these inputs by school administrators to smooth future consumption. This process in turn leads to low current utilization of inputs for student learning. A randomized trial of a public program providing textbooks to primary schools had modest positive impacts on teacher behavior but no impacts on student performance.

[Impact Evaluation] The effect of increasing school resources on educational outcomes is a central issue in the debate on improving school quality. This paper uses a randomized experiment to analyze the impact of a school grants program in Senegal, which allowed schools to apply for funding for improvements of their own choice. The analysis finds positive effects on test scores at lower grades that persist at least two years.

Institutional features of the African setting, large extended families and imperfect credit and land markets, matter to the equity and efficiency roles played by intergenerational linkages. Using original survey data on Senegal that include an individualized measure of consumption, this paper studies the role played by land inheritance, other bequests and parental background as influences on an adult's economic welfare and economic activities.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] In Rwanda, where teacher accountability is low, development experts are working closely with policy makers in the country?s Education Board to better attract and retain skilled and motivated teachers through pay-for-performance schemes. Although incentives are already built into teacher salaries in Rwanda, researchers are exploring an additional bonus program that rewards teachers who score within the top 20 percent of their district with an even greater salary boost.

The Republic of Rwanda is a relatively small country located in Central Africa with a population of approximately 10 million people, making it one of the more densely populated countries in the world. The current government is taking positive steps to helps the country emerge from its tragic past, and aims to promote reconciliation and unity among all Rwandese and forbids any political activity or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or relation.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Timeline: June 2015- December 2016. Evaluation: Nigeria has launched key reforms in education, including a program making basic education compulsory. Enrollment rates, especially among the poorest families, are still insufficient in basic and secondary education, and the quality of schooling remains low. In 2006, as part of a new round of reforms, the government unveiled a ten-year plan to improve access, equity and quality in education.

This case study seeks to understand how the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project (Eko Project) tailored international best practices to leverage impact through education sector reforms in Lagos State?s public secondary school system. These best practices include an intensive utilization of evidence-based policy making, the granting of autonomy to a variety of stakeholders together with the expectation of accountability for results, community participation, incentives for reform, support for public-private partnerships (PPPs), and adaptive implementation.