The proposed Project would build on the Bank’s current engagement and address the central challenges facing primary education by supporting MENFP in developing systems to increase access and improve quality. In particular, under the proposed Project, MENFP would develop, implement, and refine replicable models for supporting public and nonpublic schools in providing free, quality primary education to poor children. MENFP’s capacity would be built to develop and implement these models, and to manage the sector more broadly. Through these models, financial and technical support would be consolidated in a limited number of public and non-public schools, and the comprehensiveness of support provided to each school would be substantially increased in comparison with EFA II. By supporting the development of effective systems, the Project aims to produce measurable results in terms of both ensuring access for beneficiary children and improving the learning conditions in schools, both of which are intermediate outcomes critical to the higher-level objective of increasing learning and human capital in Haiti.
The proposed Project would finance activities in schools and communities in all departments of Southern Haiti, and complement ongoing disaster response efforts by the Bank and other partners, by supporting systemic improvements in the medium term. The
proposed Project would provide schools in some of the areas hardest-hit by Hurricane Matthew with sustained support to rehabilitate and improve the quality of education they supply. In addition, the proposed Project would support MENFP capacity-building at both the central and local levels, with a focus on strengthening departmental management of the education sector, which is critical to a successful hurricane recovery process. The Project team would coordinate closely with other partners focused on emergency relief and major reconstruction to ensure that interventions are complementary and that impacts are maximized. In addition, the proposed Project would continue to finance two major commitments to access launched under EFA II. Specifically, the Project would finance the sixth grade year of the EPT program’s final cohort started under EFA II, completing commitments under the tuition waiver program. In addition, the proposed Project would continue to finance community education grants to provide access to primary school for existing cohorts in poor, underserved rural communities, the majority of which are operating temporary schools. While sustainable access options continue to be sought, these cohorts require external financing to ensure their access to a complete course of primary education. Active policy dialogue on sector financing and options for long-term solutions to the lack of access will continue, but in the interim the continuation of support to the final tuition waiver cohort and to access in rural communities remain important commitments.