COVID-19 response
Allocation: US$7 million
Years: 2020-2022
Grant agent: UNICEF
Key document: Application and program document
The US$7 million grant supports:
- learning continuity during school closure through producing and disseminating print, radio, TV and online materials
- vulnerable groups including girls, children in rural areas and children with disabilities through distribution of small radios, school canteens and printed learning materials
- back-to-school and social mobilization campaigns targeting girls, and producing guides based on a recently implemented accelerated education program for girls, in isolated areas. Attention will be given to welcoming pregnant girls and children who may have been victims of violence during the school closure in the best possible conditions
- safe reopening of schools through WASH programs, guidance for parents on school health, and psychosocial support.
In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Guinea received a GPE grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education in planning its response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Education in Guinea
The government of Guinea faces challenges to improve the financial and institutional capacities of its education system to achieve sustainable goals in terms of school coverage, enrollment, quality and equity.
These challenges include the low primary completion rate, inequalities between girls and boys, poor learning outcomes, lack of trained teachers, and high repetition and dropout rates.
The education sector plan covering the 2020-2029 period defines six priority programs:
- Equitable access to general education.
- Quality and relevance of teaching.
- Adult literacy and education.
- Extension and reform of technical education and vocational training.
- Reform of higher education and scientific research.
- Governance and management of the education system.
Guinea intends to ensure equitable access to basic education for all children, including children with disabilities and those with special needs.
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A girl solves a math problem on the blackboard. Alphabaria school, Dabola Area, Guinea. May 2016.
The €34 million (US$37,899,994) grant supports a sector-wide pooled fund that uses a traceable budgetary support modality called the FCE/BAS (Fonds Commun de l’Éducation/Budget d’Affectation Spéciale, or Education Pooled Fund/Special Budget Allocation). The fund includes co-financing from AFD and UNICEF, for a total of €54.48 million.
GPE’s grant is composed of a fixed part of €23.82 million and a variable part linked to results of €10.21 million.
The FCE/BAS supports the implementation of the country’s 10-year education sector strategy and remains open for additional partners to join the common mechanism.
The program has the following objectives:
- Make access to basic education more equitable:
- expand of the existing school system through construction at the preschool, primary and lower secondary levels
- develop post-primary vocational training
- align with the country’s decentralization policy for education sector infrastructure work
- stimulate demand for education.
- Improve quality of learning in basic education:
- extend the basic education cycle to the first 10 years of formal schooling
- diversify options for upper secondary with an emphasis on more science and technology
- improve the quality of learning at all levels including performance on standardized testing, lower repetition and drop-out rates, employer satisfaction with school-leavers’ competencies, availability of pedagogical materials, in-service and pre-service teacher training, etc.
- Improve adequacy between education and the needs of the workplace:
- expand and adjust TVET programs to respond to the needs of students enrolling directly from primary school, from lower secondary and from upper secondary to meet the needs of the job market
- for higher education, place an emphasis on responding to the needs of the job market and scientific research.
- Improve efficiency in the education system:
- improve sector management and governance in the context of national deconcentration and decentralization policy
- strengthen sector coordination
- build capacity of various education system actors.
The proposed grant mechanism is considerably more aligned on national systems than the previous pooled fund, particularly in integration into the national budget following the national budget functional classification, budget expenditure process, procurement, and accounting.
Grants
All amounts are in US dollars.
| Grant type | Years | Allocations | Utilization | Grant agent | |
| COVID-19 | 2020-2022 | 7,000,000 | 5,600,911 | UNICEF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program implementation | 2020-2024 | 37,899,994 | 7,921,219 | AFD | |
| 2015-2019 | 37,650,510 | 37,650,510 | WB | Completion report | |
| 2010-2014 | 40,000,000 | 40,000,000 | WB | Completion report | |
| 2010-2014 | 24,000,000 | 24,000,000 | UNICEF | ||
| Sector plan development | 2020-2023 | 200,000 | 121,875 | UNICEF | |
| 2018-2019 | 218,055 | 218,055 | UNICEF | ||
| 2017-2018 | 219,401 | 219,401 | UNICEF | ||
| 2013-2014 | 241,360 | 241,360 | WB | ||
| Program development | 2019-2020 | 200,000 | 200,000 | AFD | |
| 2014 | 136,539 | 136,539 | WB | ||
| Total | 147,765,859 | 116,309,870 |
* This grant was approved in euros, for a total of 34,04 million euros.