GPE provides a systematic, organized and checked way of looking at things together. The process provides an opportunity to reflect as an education sector, building on a strong foundation of the government of Tanzania of education dialogue structure. From the community level up to national level, there is engagement of the different stakeholders. For me, it is that reflection moment where we look at the lessons we’ve learned and, most importantly, the information we have, what it tells us and where the gaps are. We have reflected on statistics in terms of where we are as a country but also in terms of finances – what we have as a government, what development partners bring, what CSOs bring, and what pieces are missing.

The partnership compact process is quite different from the past grant application process. It has crystalized inclusivity of all actors in the process, brought about in-depth ownership of the program to all who are involved and has further informed us of what is in the pipeline in terms of education systems transformation in the country. The past processes were too skewed within a group of people who could think and write on behalf of the country without wide consensus among all actors. The new process has increased transparency and ownership among all actors.

When you look at the education sector in Tanzania, there are quite a number of critical Issues that need urgent sustainable solutions. In light of this, the task force entrusted with developing the partnership compact revisited thoroughly our education sector development plan, education sector analysis reports for the past five years, learning outcomes, and overall system inefficiency derailing education progress. Unanimously, the government, development partners, CSOs under TEN/MET, and UN agencies involved agreed that to transform Tanzania’s education system, teacher’s workforce planning and management is inevitable.

Going to our documents, our priorities, our data – that’s how we came up with the priority around teacher education. We said: if we want to see improvement in terms of basic education – our education policy commitment – what is that thing that would be a catalyst? That’s how we came up with teacher workforce planning and management. If we do well with the teachers, plan better, train them better, employ and distribute them better, we will do better. We asked what is needed to help them succeed. We’ve looked at how teachers have been managed in the past, and we said as a sector, if we get this right, we’ll see improvements in education.

Positioning our work within the system. We talk with communities about how we can serve each individual child and support the system to do better. We work with the government, provide resources, contribute to the government agenda, stimulate community-driven accountability and bring learning from the community to inform what is needed. Working every day with young women from marginalized communities, hard-to-reach-schools, and teachers – and through the TEN/MET platform – we are able to share our case studies and tell the government, for example, that certain schools do not have female teachers, ensuring they are aware. We also look at issues together by, for example, inviting government officials to visit schools.

The CSOs have been contributing to transforming education in Tanzania through participating in implementing and monitoring grant activities and by taking an active role in the education sector dialogue structure. For many years, CSOs have been contributing resources to complement government efforts and have made commitments to contribute resources to unlock GPE’s innovative financing, i.e., the Multiplier. CSOs mobilize communities to effectively participate in grant activities and carry out periodic research and surveys to assess the achievement of results. Furthermore, CSOs have been taking an active role in policy monitoring and policy influencing, including the promotion of transparency and accountability across all levels.

Tanzania has been unable to allocate 20% of the annual budget or 5-6% of the GDP to the education sector as recommended by the international agreement. This is due to inadequate resources and competing priorities coming from different sectors. Thus, GPE’s investment has always been a great boost of resources, and the technical support received through GPE has been of great value. The achievements we are proud of in the education sector, such as a significant increase in gross enrollment in basic education (over 90%), gender parity in basic education, and infrastructure improvement and overall quality improvement, could be directly associated with GPE and other development partners' support.

GPE is a key partner in terms of education improvement. They bring resources, but they are also willing to be part of the team and the process, rather than just sending resources and watching. GPE’s value-added is the collaborative partnership and their willingness to be part of the team as we walk the journey.