On a recent visit to Sudan organized by the Ministry of Education and local partners from UNICEF, we were greeted by parents and community members dancing in front of a school in Nyala, South Darfur. The school was built by the community with GPE funds. Throughout the week, we visited schools across Sudan to see first-hand the impact of partnership and GPE funds on the education system.

Sudan joined the Global Partnership for Education in 2012 and received a US$76.5 million grant to assist in implementing its education sector plan. The GPE grant supports improving the learning environment in targeted areas, increasing textbook availability, and strengthening education planning and management mechanisms.

GPE funding has contributed to the following progress:

• Helped the country establish and implement a system for assessing learning at the primary level.
• Assisted the country in building or rehabilitating 378 classrooms at the primary level benefitting 22,777 children.
• 103 communities received school construction management training and 463 communities received school grants.
• Sudan completed the revision of textbooks and teacher’s guides for Grade 1 and 2 core subjects.