Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), with support from the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education, established a strategic partnership with a unique NGO Consortium of seven national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to implement parts of the National COVID-19 Education Response (and recovery) Program toward three outcomes:

1. Boys and girls, including children with disabilities, access COVID-19 and education response (distance learning and return to school) messaging.
2. Boys and girls, including children with disabilities, access inclusive, safe, and age-appropriate and gender-responsive distance learning opportunities.
3. Boys and girls, including children with disabilities, return to safe, gender-sensitive and inclusive learning in schools.

Consortium partners leverage their strengths toward education for all

The consortium partners are passionate about achieving quality, inclusive and accessible education for all girls and boys, including children with disabilities and the most marginalized children across some of Sierra Leone’s most hard to reach communities in its 16 districts.

Among them, they have the global expertise, knowledge of best practices and a long history of working in close collaboration with the government of Sierra Leone. The consortium presents a unique combination of local and international NGOs.

Through the NGO Consortium’s activities under the emergency education response, collaborative relationships with the MBSSE, Teaching Service Commission (TSC), District Education Offices (DEOs), schools and communities are being established and strengthened to ensure activities are founded on an effective model and a strong, deep understanding of the education system at all levels.

Tiers of implementation

The consortium’s approach spans three key levels of implementation:

• National level: Close collaboration and coordination with the MBSSE, TSC, pillar leads (emergency thematic group) and relevant technical working groups to refine and support the development of national guidelines and resources, including refining/reviewing current national guidelines and training resources to include inclusion and so on, contributing to in-service teacher training curriculum and so on.
• District level: Close collaboration and capacity development of district authorities to take ownership of education activities, strengthen local-level education capacity and systems, conduct joint monitoring and provide support for expansion beyond the consortium’s target schools. The project schools were selected with the District Education Office to ensure there is no duplication and to be able to target the most marginalized and remote school systems that did not receive much support at the time.

• Community level: The GPE consortium works alongside actors based at the community level (volunteers, teachers and parents). This community approach allows the project to be sustainable.

The MBSSE actively works with non-state actors to support the government’s activities to achieve SDG 4 targets. Additionally, the MBSSE has Service Level Agreements endorsed by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development with over 80 organizations.