IIEP supports Northern Sudan by fostering a learning-by-doing approach

11 January 2011
Planning at States levels

In 2008, the Sudanese Government of National Unity (GoNU) launched with key international partners an education sector policy reform programme with the following objectives : coordination and harmonization among various plans, evidence-based policies and result-oriented plans, resource-tracking, and capacity development in education sector planning.

In this framework, UNICEF requested IIEP’s collaboration in providing technical support to the Federal and State Ministries in their efforts to develop modern educational planning capacity, in a learning-by-doing approach, ensuring total ownership and institutionalization of the planning process. IIEP’s involvement will focus on capacity and skills development for plan preparation in the 15 Northern States.

Prepare the next State Education plans

Over the 18 coming months, IIEP will provide selected state-level planners with effective, practical planning skills which will enable them to prepare the next State Education Plans (2012-2016). In particular, the project will:

  • enable state actors to understand and internalize the outcomes of the sector review and its sector policy and strategic implications;
  • train about 55 staff from both the state Ministries of Education and the Federal Ministry of General Education on how to prepare a medium-term (5-year) strategic education plan; and
  • adapt existing simulation models to suit the policy, strategic planning, and costing needs of the 15 Northern states in Sudan.

Education sector diagnoses are underway

A first mission was fielded during 12-21 December 2010 to train state-level teams on sector diagnosis. As a result, the state teams (some 50 participants in all) gained an understanding of:

  • the conceptual framework and a methodological approach for coherent sector-wide planning; and
  • the tools, data, and processes needed for sector diagnosis.

The 15 state-level sector diagnoses are expected by the end of January 2011, and will form the building block for the next phases of the project.

This workshop was preceded by a fact-finding mission (September 2010) to collect data for the design of a simulation model, which will be coherent and compatible among the 15 northern states, while at the same time remaining sufficiently flexible for each state to include its own specificities.

The work conducted is firmly anchored in an alliance with the Federal Ministry of General Education, UNICEF, UNESCO, and other partners. This will ensure the streamlining of the support currently offered by UN actors in Northern Sudan.