Client: DFID, Cambridge Educational

Description: The DFID-funded Strengthening Education Systems for Improved Learning, (SESIL) program will support the Ministry of Education and Sports to achieve the objectives of its Education Sector Strategic Plan. SESIL’s approach, as its name suggests, is to work to improve the end-to-end education system so that all stakeholders are aligned to deliver better learning outcomes. This involves working with all levels of the system, from policy-makers to frontline teachers, to enable them to better understand what currently works and what prevents the system from working efficiently, and then to identify blockages and develop solutions. At the core of this is the system’s capability to ‘Manage for Results’ and improve performance. A three-day design consultation was held in April 2018. Over 100 participants attended, including a range of system stakeholders from school, district, municipality, sub-regional and national levels, as well as Education Development Partners. The aim of the consultations was to help the SESIL team gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and blockages in the system that contribute to low levels of learning achievement (particularly in literacy and numeracy in the lower primary grades) and to identify potential strategies to improve performance. Ichuli was hired to document the process using graphic recording and to produce a record of participant’s discussions and identification of the key factors limiting achievement of learning outcomes.