Programme pillar 1 of 3 · Education & youth
Quality Education Programme
Safe, inclusive, nourishing school environments that enable every child to learn
The problem
Quality education is more than curriculum. The learning crisis in sub Saharan Africa is driven not only by what is taught but by whether the conditions for learning exist at all. In Ethiopia, 77 percent of schools lack basic water services, 60 percent lack sanitation, and 94 percent lack basic hygiene services (UNICEF, 2018). Across the region, 244 million school age children are affected by food insecurity (WFP, 2023), one in three children cannot read a simple sentence by age 10 (World Bank, 2022), and 6.4 million children in crisis affected areas are out of school (UNICEF, 2024). Girls carry the sharpest cost: Ethiopian girls without private latrine access are 3.2 times more likely to drop out at puberty (Population Council, 2021). These are not peripheral concerns — they are the primary barriers any serious education programme must clear first.
What this pillar does
Pillar 1 addresses the physical, nutritional, cognitive, and protective conditions that determine whether learning can take place. Seven sub projects operate on a single shared cohort of 40 public schools across four Ethiopian regions, sequenced so that each intervention compounds the one before it.
Water and sanitation raise attendance. Meals sustain concentration. Foundational learning and mother tongue materials convert attendance into literacy. Trained school leaders and engaged families hold the gains after the programme closes.
P1.1 WASH in Schools is complete and donor ready. It requests USD 8,475,715 over 30 months to deliver integrated water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health management infrastructure across 40 schools, reaching 33,300 children and 1,670 teachers. The budget is costed bottom up from a bill of quantities, carries a 15 percent contingency (10 percent physical and 5 percent foreign exchange and inflation reserve), and was independently reviewed by Dr. Adrianus T. Vlugman. Its design responds to the World Bank One WASH National Programme Consolidated WASH Account Phase II Mission Report of October 2024.
Sub project portfolio
| # | Sub project | Core objective | Pilot target | Phase & status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1.1 | WASH in Schools | Water supply, gender separated sanitation, handwashing stations, and MHM facilities, plus a hygiene behaviour change curriculum and School WASH Committees | 40 schools; 33,300 students; 1,670 teachers | Phase 1, 2026–2027Proposal complete — USD 8,475,715 |
| P1.2 | School Feeding and Nutrition for Learning | Evidence based school feeding integrated with nutrition education, linked to government home grown school feeding frameworks | 40 schools, shared cohort | Phase 2, 2027–2028Design scheduled |
| P1.7 | School Leadership and Management | Instructional leadership, school improvement planning, WASH governance, and community engagement, minimum 50 percent female | 40 schools; 80 school leaders | Phase 2, 2027–2028Design scheduled |
| P1.3 | Foundational Learning and Early Childhood Development | Reading, numeracy, mother tongue based multilingual instruction, and ECD programming in schools and community centres | 40 schools; ECD centres in 3 woredas | Phase 3, 2028–2030Design scheduled |
| P1.4 | Inclusive Learning Materials and Mother Tongue Education | Gender responsive, culturally relevant materials in local languages, digitised for continental distribution through P2.3 | Ethiopia, then continental via ADL-NG | Phase 3, 2028–2030Design scheduled |
| P1.5 | Family and Community Engagement for Early Learning | Structured 8-week caregiver programmes on early stimulation, reading at home, nutrition, and school readiness | 20 pilot communities | Phase 3, 2028–2030Design scheduled |
| P1.6 | Education Continuity in Crisis | Low bandwidth and radio based learning continuity packages for communities disrupted by conflict, climate, or health emergencies | Amhara and Oromia; DRC in Phase 2 | Phase 3, 2028–2030Design scheduled |
Sequencing logic
Sequencing follows dependency, not preference. P1.2 and P1.7 enter in Phase 2 because both operate on the cohort P1.1 establishes and both compound its attendance and sustainability outcomes directly. P1.5 follows P1.3 because the caregiver programme is designed as a component of foundational learning delivery. P1.6 follows P2.5 because crisis continuity runs on the offline infrastructure that sub project builds. Phase 3 sub projects are defined and costed at range, with full proposals developed as Phase 1 and Phase 2 funding is secured.
How this pillar connects to the other pillars
All school based sub projects operate on the shared 40-school cohort established by P1.1 in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Amhara, and SNNPR. Pillar 1 establishes the delivery footprint used by ADEI (P2.4, P2.5) and Teacher Development (P3.2, P3.3). Foundational learning and inclusive materials (P1.3, P1.4) publish into African Learning Planet (P2.2) and the African Digital Library Next Generation (P2.3).
Delivery credibility and funding
CAFOR is registered in Ethiopia through its Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union Commission signed in January 2019, and is hosted at the AU Commission in Addis Ababa. Accounts are subject to dual audit, external and AU Commission. Staff are paid on the African Union non taxable salary scale. No sub project is implemented without a formal partnership agreement with the relevant national ministry and regional education bureau. Local implementing partners are selected through donor facilitated open call procurement rather than pre named.
P1.1 is costed at USD 8,475,715. The remaining six sub projects fall within an indicative range of USD 4 million to USD 15 million each, confirmed at proposal stage. Priority donor targets include the World Bank, AfDB, the European Union, UNICEF, UK FCDO, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Dr. Lawalley Cole, Executive Director — l.cole@cafor.org · Mr. Kaleb Amare Abay, Programme Officer — k.abay@cafor.org · +251-96-783-3709