Ghana - Literacy and Functional Skills

 ICRR 10145 Report Number : ICRR10145 ICR Review Operations Evaluation Department 1. Project Data : OEDID: OEDID : C2349 Project ID : P000917 Project Name : Literacy and Functional Skills Country : Ghana Sector : Other Education L/C Number : C2349 Partners involved : Norway, UK Prepared by : Charles Derek Poate, OEDST Reviewed by : Linda Ankrah Dove Group Manager : Roger H. Slade Date Posted : 08/03/1998 2. Project Objectives, Financing, Costs and Components : Objectives : Develop institutional capacity of the Non -formal Education Division (NFED); formative monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and research; literacy program to render 840,000 adults literate; reading materials in 15 Ghanaian languages for new literates; and multi-language radio coverage. Main Components : institutional development; teaching and supervision; instructional materials and radio facilities. Financing : Approved on March 26, 1992 for an IDA credit of $17.4 million with cofinancing by Norway of $2.63 million and UK technical support. The credit closed on December 31, 1997 with extensions of 30 months and credit cancellations of $1.3 million. Actual Cost : $27.84 million (90% of estimate). 3. Achievement of Relevant Objectives : Institutional strengthening, M&E and research partially achieved but project leadership and management remained weak. Wider access to literacy program achieved with enrollments double expectations and participant dropout rates low. Range of reading materials disappointing but beneficiaries valued the radios . 4. Significant Achievements : Program developed a large literacy program and reduced regional and gender disparities in access to basic education (60% of learners were women and 70% had no formal schooling). Participants gained reading, numeracy, life - and income-generating skills, Writing skills showed less progress. Participants began to send their own children to school . 5. Significant Shortcomings : Weak borrower commitment, coordination and funding, with poor program and project management reduced effectiveness of institutional development through M&E, research and partner agencies' collaboration. However, borrower achieved substantial turn-around in extension period with improved leadership and management and IDA support. Efforts needed to improve quality of literacy training through materials development and training and incentives for instructors and supervisors . 6. Ratings : ICR OED Review Reason for Disagreement /Comments Outcome : Satisfactory Satisfactory Institutional Dev .: Partial Modest Sustainability : Uncertain Uncertain Bank Performance : Satisfactory Satisfactory Risks of complexity and weak  management capacity not fully foreseen at appraisal. Borrower Perf .: Satisfactory Satisfactory OED agrees with the ICR's rating of management performance as unsatisfactory but also views as troubling the weak borrower ownership and commitment. However, better performance in the extension period permits a satisfactory rating, though only marginally so. Quality of ICR : Satisfactory 7. Lessons of Broad Applicability : The ICR points out that project and program management require timely and energetic support from all relevant borrower agencies to ensure coordination, institutional strengthening and skill transfers from technical specialists and that the success of literacy programs depends largely on relevance and responsiveness to client demand. Local supervision of literacy instructors and monitoring of clients, with built-in incentives and support, are critical for high quality service delivery . 8. Audit Recommended? Yes No Why? Innovative project in Africa with anticipated human capital and poverty -reducing impact, to be evaluated for impact and sustainability and lessons learned in proposed follow -on project design. 9. Comments on Quality of ICR : ICR describes the project comprehensively and analyses issues well . Self-evaluation and post-completion operational plans could have been stronger and cofinancier's and other partners' contributions to the ICR should have been identified or their comments included .