This is the first of two annual reports to be submitted during the three-year prospective evaluation (PE) of the Global Partnership for Education in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – one of eight country PEs, to be complemented by 20 summative country evaluations that will be carried out between 2018 and 2020. It follows a baseline report on DRC (the complete draft of which was prepared prior to the field visit in May 2018 with the final version submitted in 2018) and reproduces some of the material that was included in that report. It incorporates the findings of the first PE mission to the country, which took place from in May 2018, and offers tentative conclusions based on the data collection, monitoring and assessment of the GPE support to the DRC at this early stage of implementation.