Youth – defined by USAID as those between the ages of 10-29 – are creating innovative solutions to global issues, building their capacity as leaders, and, in some instances, assuming positions of power. In the international development sector, we must invest in youth and prioritize their development to ensure that they have the support they…
The five-year Lecture Pour Tous program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and completed in December 2021, made marked improvements in early grade reading outcomes in Senegal. The initiative directly supported reform efforts led by the Ministry of Education (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, or MEN) to use evidence-based approaches, including national…
Children, young people, and adults alike have been traumatized by more than a decade of conflict in Syria. With more than 2 million children out of school, education remains one of the country’s hardest-hit local governance sectors. Issues that affect children’s abilities to access quality education services range from a lack of infrastructure to the…
Soma Umenye targeted all children in grades P1-P3 attending public and government-aided schools nationwide to ensure that at least 70 percent of these students could read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension. USAID Soma Umenye helped: Create and distribute an essential core of Grade 1-3 teaching and learning materials Provide professional development to Grade 1-3…
Although agriculture has been a cornerstone of the Ugandan economy for generations, many farmers in the East African republic earned barely enough in 2013 to provide schooling for their children. Having grown up in smallholder farming families themselves, agri-tech entrepreneurs William Luyinda, Esther Karwera, and Zilla Mary Arach knew these struggles all too well. “Unfortunately,…
Malawi has benefitted from successful reading projects that provide learners with foundational reading and literacy skills to support the country’s continued development. USAID’s NextGen Early Grade Reading Activity builds on that progress by partnering with the Ministry of Education to support early literacy, improve classroom instruction, and build systemic capacity. The activity provides high-quality reading…
Following six months of interventions in Northeast Syria (NES), known as Injaz I, this follow-on project sought to address five years of psychosocial trauma and severely limited foundational learning in NES caused by primary and secondary exposure to ISIS ideology. With the closure of secular schools under ISIS, many children and youth were left susceptible…
From 2015 through 2021, Chemonics led multiple early grade reading reform activities under the USAID All Children Reading Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract. These activities include programming in Senegal to support the Ministry of National Education’s Lecture Pour Tous program; in Rwanda under the Soma Umenye project; and in Tajikistan for the Read with Me project.…
In 2021, village elders in the small Tajik community of Isfisor noticed a woman who frequently traveled the unpaved road through their neighborhood to visit the local school. Curious about the nature of the woman’s visits, they asked the school’s director, Nazira Khabibova. “I explained that our school works with the USAID Read with Me project,” says Khabibova,…
Chemonics International and One World Network of Schools (OWNOS) have entered into an institutional partnership bringing together global education practitioners with expertise in instructional leadership and a shared conviction that schools cannot outperform their leaders. The partnership uniquely positions Chemonics and OWNOS to study high-performing teachers and teacher-leaders globally through a practice-based approach. As partners,…