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2020-01-22
Open Society Foundations;
This is a special edition of Amplifying Voices that includes highlights of the Open Society Initiative for East Africa's work from 2005 to 2015. Amplifying Voices documents different journeys the foundation has traveled with its partners since its launch in 2005 and the collective efforts to realize human rights and freedoms for all.
Amplifying Voices pays particular attention to those on the margins of society, including stories of working on the forced sterilization of HIV-positive women or those with mental health illnesses, promoting the rights of sex workers, or addressing the question of human rights and counterterrorism.
The Open Society Initiative for East Africa started as a one-program initiative in 2005 in Kenya and today has grown to include eight programs in the region. Geographically, the foundation now works in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Sudan. It addresses issues including health and rights, disability rights, and food security.
2019-06-27
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.;
There is growing recognition that youth need more than formal or vocational education to thrive in school, work, and life. They also need life skills - a set of cognitive, personal, and interpersonal strengths that position them for success in their lives and livelihoods. To leverage the growing momentum and give youth access to these vital tools for success, the Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE) supports grantee partners testing diverse approaches to strengthening life skills. The PSIPSE commissioned an in-depth study of 18 projects in 7 countries, uncovering actionable lessons on how to design, implement, assess, and scale youth life skills programming in low- and middle-income countries. The study is intended for practitioners and government officials interested in building, improving, and expanding work around life skills, as well as donors looking to advance this field and provide useful guidance to their grantees.
2019-06-27
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.;
There is growing recognition that youth need more than academic knowledge to transition successfully into employment and adulthood (Dupuy et al. 2018). They also need "life skills," a set of cognitive, personal, and interpersonal strengths that position them for success in their lives and livelihoods. Life skills can enhance young people's agency and resilience, improve their psychosocial well-being, and predict a range of long-term outcomes, including health, job performance, and wages (Kwauk et al. 2018; OECD 2018, Kautz et al. 2014). The Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE), a donor collaborative, has invested in 18 projects to strengthen life skills in young people. This brief offers eight lessons based on the experiences of these projects—on the design, delivery, measurement, and scale-up of youth life skills programming in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs).
2019-06-27
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.;
There is growing recognition that youth need more than academic knowledge and technical expertise to transition successfully into employment and adulthood (Dupuy et al. 2018). They also need "life skills," a set of cognitive, personal, and interpersonal strengths that position them for success in their lives and livelihoods. Life skills can enhance young people's agency and resilience, improve their psychosocial well-being, and predict a range of long-term outcomes, including health, job performance, and wages (Kwauk et al. 2018; OECD 2018; Kautz et al. 2014). The Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE), a donor collaborative, has invested in 18 projects that focus on developing life skills among youth (see left). Mathematica, the PSIPSE's learning partner, recently conducted an in-depth study of these projects. The study used interviews with implementing organizations, an extensive review of project documents and evaluation reports, and high-level literature and landscape scans to examine project experiences, set them in context, and draw out lessons for a range of stakeholders. This brief summarizes the lessons for government officials—on how to successfully devise, roll out, scale, and strengthen life skills policies for youth in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).
2019-05-31
TrustAfrica;
The NBDCK (National Book Development Council of Kenya) project aims to raise reading outcomes by offering extracurricular reading opportunities to public school children in the Kisii area of western Kenya. This is a micro level incremental innovation which originally included comparison to a control group, but this is no longer the case. Grade six students ('mentors') are trained to read with grade 1 and 2 students ('buddies') during informal small group sessions supervised by teachers trained to this end.
2019-03-01
Open Society Foundations;
The active and meaningful participation of citizens in public affairs is the distinguishing feature of democratic societies, which are judged by the extent to which governments open up to citizen involvement in public affairs and the space they give for citizens to hold the government accountable. It is because of this that citizens in Kenya and Africa in general continue to demand increased space for participation.
This report is about the challenges of participatory democracy in Kenya; it assesses the state of democracy and participation in the country. It examines the institutional and legislative processes that would contribute to the consolidation of democracy and political participation. The report explores the available instruments, such as the Constitution of Kenya (2010), to enhance democracy and people's political participation.
The report identifies impediments to Kenya's democratic consolidation, with the most important challenges identified as ethnicity and identity politics, the electoral system of first-past-the-post, and the dominance of the executive. The report notes that ethnicity is a symptom of the structure and use of political power. Specifically, the interplay of ethnicity and the competition for executive power have constrained public participation and the democratic transition in general.
2019-02-01
MasterCard Foundation, The;
This paper addresses the issue of education governance in SSA in an attempt to shed light on the status of and developments in this area with a focus on lessons learned from various efforts across the region and recommendations on how to strengthen governance of secondary education. The paper is intended to serve as a background paper on secondary education governance in SSA which will be used to contribute to a more comprehensive publication on secondary education in SSA and the future of work. The paper addresses two key topics under secondary education governance: 1) Accountability as an important aspect of education governance, and 2) the need for enhancing institutional capacity to collect and use educational statistics, and how effective use of data can support education governance. The authors identify several specific actionable recommendations to help policy makers in SSA countries, depending on the local context, implement improvements in the governance of their secondary education systems at central, provincial, and local levels
2019-02-01
MasterCard Foundation, The;
This report considers key trends in secondary education in particularly with respect to enrollment and domestic and aid financing from an equity perspective. While many national governments and international donors have shifted their spending from primary to secondary education since the early 2000's, it is evident that unfinished business remains in regards to primary education, with the poorest and most disadvantaged still unlikely to complete the full cycle of primary education. Even when they do, many are not learning the basics, and their chances of transitioning into secondary education is much lower then their more advantaged counterparts. In order for countries to achieve the SDG4 targets by 2030, the way in which governments and international donors disburse their resources will have a huge bearing on countries being on track to ensure no one is left behind.
2019-02-01
MasterCard Foundation, The;
This report draws on quantitative and qualitative methods to first examine trends in access to secondary education in CAC, then review policies and practices that can address barriers to access. We use case study methods in Kenya and Uganda to compare and contrast two different approaches to managing refugee education. The cases of Kenya and Uganda offer comparative insights that may inform policy responses for refugees across SSA. Whereas Kenya favors the encampment and separation of refugees from nationals, including through education, Uganda has pursued a policy of refugee inclusion and allows refugees to access its public primary and secondary schools. We consider the policy environment and state of secondary education for refugees in each case. Neither the Kenyan or Ugandan approach offers a clear solution to the lack of access to secondary education for refugees in CAC.
2019-02-01
MasterCard Foundation, The;
This situational analysis is about school to work transitions (SWT) in the sub-Saharan African context. We focus in particular on the transition from secondary education to work, including both general secondary education and secondary-level technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Secondary education is often framed as a conduit into tertiary education, but for many youths it is not. It is the last step in their educational trajectory, before or during which they may make the transition to work. This study is about how to best prepare youth enrolled in secondary school to transition to work and navigate a pathway to an employment trajectory that eventually leads to improved lives. We aim to provide a framework to structure thinking around school to work transitions, outline the context, identify the scope and the gaps in the knowledge base, and provide recommendations to guide future programming and policy on school to work transitions
2018-12-31
Rockefeller Foundation;
In 2013, the United Nations projected that Africa would be home to over 40 percent of the global youth population by 2030. The challenge of how to successfully absorb these young people into the formal economy became top of mind for governments, policymakers and development practitioners.
Thinking toward this future, The Rockefeller Foundation recognized the potential of Africa's growing information and communications technology (ICT) sector to create new economic opportunities – particularly for its young people. The Foundation created its Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) initiative to help equip youth – specifically those with limited access to opportunities – with the technical and soft skills, and job placement support necessary to transition into a technology-enabled workforce.
Nearly five years into implementation, the Foundation commissioned an independent evaluation of DJA to better understand the extent to which it was realizing its goals and driving impact. Genesis Analytics was engaged to collect data and gather case stories from participating youth in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
2018-11-30
Action Change Transform (ACT);
Experiences of working with grassroots peace structures to address electoral conflicts and violence in Kenya.
