Our TEAM Girl Malawi project has been trialling a new form of delivery called adaptive management. The system has been designed to constantly gather data on how successful our activities are, and then work with all project stakeholders to review any issues and find improvements.
The project is delivered by a consortium of five organisations, led by Link. Every six months all stakeholders meet to exchange ideas – from staff to project participants and government stakeholders to donors. These meetings ensure there is time for meaningful discussions with input from every partner at every level of the project. We create feedback mechanisms that are accessible to all, taking account of age, gender, language and ability, and provide multiple channels and opportunities to participate, like focus group discussions and suggestion boxes.
Our recent mid-point evaluation provided extensive new data for the team to scrutinise, and a number of adaptations have been agreed by the partners.
- Where some learners did not improve in Chichewa and English as hoped, we extended daily learning time specifically for reading and writing practice.
- Absenteeism from learners continues to impact learning outcomes, and so we’ve worked hard to follow up with learners, reach out to communities, and are running a Back to School campaign to encourage higher attendance.
- Learning centre facilitators reported that they still found supporting and integrating children with disabilities into their lessons challenging. To strengthen teachers’ ability to reach these pupils, we developed a comprehensive plan to provide training and ongoing support.
- Some parents voiced concerns about the sexual and reproductive health aspects of Girls’ Club lessons. We involved health workers in the delivery of some sessions to reduce stigma and enhance trust in the content. We will continue to consult extensively on the curriculum and age-appropriate delivery.
Once the adaptations have been costed and agreed with the donor, these are shared with district teams to put into effect. Community feedback meetings will be held at the community learning centres where activities take place to keep stakeholders informed of how the project is responding to their concerns and to secure their participation in the solutions. We will continue monitoring the attendance, learning, and feedback from girls in the next cohort to see if these changes lead to improvements.