Proposed ida grant in the amount of

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The proposed project will be implemented over a period of five years, however if the government can disburse in less than five years (given their previous positive implementation record), they can pursue additional IDA financing to the project. As in previous projects, an inter-ministerial senior management team (SMT) will retain oversight of the sector and the project activities. This team comprises the Ministers from the MoBSE and MoHERST, the permanent secretaries, the deputy permanent secretaries, the directors, and the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) manager. Once a year, a representative from MoFEA will be invited by the SMT to discuss sector budget preparation and execution issues.

The members in SMT and PCU who implemented the Bank financed projects such as the Third Education Project Phase II (P077903, 2006-13), EFA-FTI Project (P115427, 2009-13), and READ Project (P133079, ongoing) have not substantially changed the last decade, and represent an experienced, technically able group of representatives. The PCU has been functioning in a satisfactory manner in previous Bank- financed projects. With this experience, it is expected that the proposed project will greatly benefit from the arrangement of the MoBSE and PCU and will help in mitigating the residual risks that may exist, and is largely safeguarded from any impacts that result in changing of Ministers.

While the MoBSE will be the key implementation agency, the MoHERST will be consulted for all pre-service teacher training activities since Gambia College oversight falls under its mandate and will thus carry joint-responsibility. The Regional Educational Directorates (REDs) will be responsible for supervising all school related interventions via the head teachers and cluster monitors within their respective regions. The directors in the MoBSE Headquarters will oversee all activities related to their mandates including in-service teacher training, planning, curriculum, monitoring and evaluation, early childhood development, standards and quality assurance. The West African Exams Council in partnership with Standards and Quality Assurance Directorate (SQAD) and the Planning Directorate in the MoBSE, will continue to be responsible for assessment related activities.

B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation

The results framework (Annex 1) consists of the project development objective, PDO level indicators, intermediate indicators, baselines and targets, frequency, data source/methodology, and responsibilities for data collection. The approach has been to build capacity of country systems for monitoring as is evidenced through the sustained development of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) year over year. As such, the project, as in previous projects, does not use a stand-alone M&E system, but rather benefits from the M&E arrangements for the ESSP given its close alignment with sector priorities. MoBSE has the critical M&E function of coordination and implementation supported by the EMIS team of the Directorate of Planning.

The M&E arrangements in place as defined in the ESSP and medium term plan are generally adequate, although there are some inconsistencies across data sets (IHS, EMIS, etc.). M&E within the sector will benefit from additional capacity building under Component 3 as well as strengthening data information at the post-secondary level which has historically been underdeveloped and includes data collection at The Gambia College and the University of the Gambia. In addition to regular tracking of the PDO and intermediate level indicators through a variety of sources as referenced in Annex 1, the sector will benefit from an evaluation on the impact of the PSI-PMI initiative, a rigorous impact evaluation on the CCT in region 5, and an evaluation of the pilot second chance program.

Fiscal Sustainability. The aim of the intervention is to increase access to ECD and basic education as well as improve the quality of teaching and learning. A majority of the project’s funding (72 percent) is allocated to quality improvement and capacity building, which has minor implications on the fiscal space of the government. In addition, the project will not jeopardize the government budget because the proposed incremental costs are manageable under the government fiscal space. Both GDP and education spending as a share of GDP are expected to increase based on the projection in table 5 of Annex 5, implying the strong commitment of the government towards the education sector. Therefore, the project is in line with the government’s priorities and manageable by the fiscal space of the current budget framework, therefore sustainability of the project is not at risk. At the same time, the interventions which are recurrent expenditures such as stipends to teacher trainees and hardship allowances will be taken over by the Government, in the same way that school grants previously were, and will be minimized due to clearer projections of teachers by region which is expected to result in some efficiency gains.

The project also benefits from strong commitment of the Government which has demonstrated that education is a key priority, and the active role the government has taken in preparation of the project. Sustained engagement of key stakeholders through monthly Coordinating Committee Meetings throughout the regions ensures a high level of consultation and engagement with all key players in the sector to ensure ownership of reforms at national, regional and district levels and sustainability of interventions beyond the project cycle.

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