SEVENTH Six-month progress report for project

REPORT COVER PAGE

Participating UN Organization:	Cluster:
UNESCO Iraq Office	Cluster B – Education and Culture

Project No. and Project Title:	Report Number:
B1-31: Distance Learning Project	1

Reporting Period:	Project Budget:
July 2007 – Dec. 2007	US$ 6,505,228

List Implementing Partners:	Geographic Coverage/Scope:
Ministry of Education (MoE)	The project covers all of Iraq

Abbreviations and acronyms:	Project Duration:
MOE: Ministry of Education. EFA: Education for All. MDGs: Millennium Development Goals. NDS: National Development Strategy	18 months (July 2007- Jan 2009).

Report Formatting Instructions: We kindly ask that you review the instructions below and follow them in the preparation of your report:	Do not put the narrative text into boxes as was done in the previous report and do not incorporate boxes, graphs, etc into the narrative report.	Add additional information including charts, graphs, etc as annexes to the report and clearly reference the annexes using footnotes or endnotes within the body of the narrative	Number all sections and paragraphs as indicated below	Format the entire document using the following font: 12point _ Times New Roman & do not use colours.

NARRATIVE REPORT FORMAT

Purpose

1.1 The main development goal, objectives and outputs of the project are:

Development Goal

The goal is to increase the participation and involvement of primary and secondary school students in their studies within the context of the deteriorating security situation through distance learning tools designed according to the Iraqi formal school curricula.

Objectives of the programme/project:

To provide school students with immediate access to class lessons, covering all curricula subjects at all school levels through producing and broadcasting TV and Radio educational programs.

Outputs of the programme project:

Training 150 educational specialists from MOE, 20 educational specialists from Colleges of Education as well as 80 radio and TV technical specialists on the use of distance learning tools and the design and broadcasting of curricular lessons.

Producing and broadcasting educational TV and Radio programs covering all subjects to students in Iraq

1.2 The project is relevant to the following benchmarks:

UN Assistance Strategy for Iraq

UN Millennium Development Goals

Joint Needs Assessment

Iraq National Development Strategy

Since it is fully in line with the National Development Strategy of the Government of Iraq 2006 and conforms closely to the priorities expressed by the Iraqi authorities during the July 2005 Donors Conference, the project directly addresses four outcomes of the Cluster (B) matrix:

Improvement in access and attendance;

Completion of quality education and enhancement of policy formulation;

Management and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms objectives;

Strengthening the national capacities in planning and administration.

This project also directly addresses three MDG outcomes, (i.e. Goals 1, 2 and 3) that relate to poverty reduction, universalisation of primary education, and eliminating gender disparities respectively. The Distance Learning Project is designed to help in the attainment of gender equality and girls’ participation, retention and provision of quality education.

1.3 The main implementing partners, their roles and responsibilities, and their interaction with the Agency.

The project is jointly supervised by both UNESCO and MOE. The MOE is the major implementing partner at all levels with UNESCO directly involved in coordination, technical assistance and support at all levels.

MOE’s responsibility includes developing the program scenarios, designing the TV educational programs and broadcasting the programs. It also participates in planning, monitoring and evaluating operations for effective implementation of different activities of the project, particularly the monitoring of delivery, installation and training.

Human Resources

2.1 National Staff & Consultants:

National staff (program):

1 National Staff NO levels partially co-shared with other projects

8 National Staff GS levels partially co-shared with other projects

2.2 International Staff:

1 Project Manager based in Amman (full time)

Methods of Operating

3.1 Summary of the implementation mechanisms primarily utilized and how they are adapted to achieve maximum impact given the challenging operating context.

At this stage, tendering activities are being completed. However, to guarantee maximum impact and overcome the deteriorating security conditions, the following issues are taken into consideration:

Training (capacity building activities):

Breaking down participation of MOE staff into groups of 10.

Ensuring that the training provider offers complete and modern training facilities located in a safe area.

Experience of training provider and staff.

Production activities:

Keeping a copy of all produced material at UNESCO – Iraq Office in Amman.

Making sure that producing companies provide state of the art production facilities located in a safe area.

Forming a committee that includes a MOE project coordinator and representatives from the production companies to provide better coordination.

Experience of service provider and staff.

Broadcasting activities:

Sharing information regarding the delivery of equipment with a limited number of MOE staff for security reasons.

Ensuring that enough spare parts are available to guarantee non-stop broadcasting.

Training MOE broadcasting engineers on problem solving and providing them with continuous technical assistance and support in addition to the continuous assessment of production and broadcasting operations to guarantee high quality.

Provide details on the procurement procedures utilized and explain variances in standard procedures.

All procurement activities in this project are implemented according to UNESCO’s standard rules and procedures of competitive bidding.

3.3 Provide details on the monitoring system(s) that are being used and how you identify and incorporate lessons learned into the ongoing programme/project.

A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system in addition to a tracking mechanism for monitoring logistics operations, performance and progress reports from the field are used to follow up on implementation and guarantee quality. The monitoring system also includes professional quality analysis for both production and transmission activities. These are all executed in close cooperation with MOE to ensure efficiency.

3.4 Report on any assessments, evaluations or studies undertaken

A comprehensive survey and technical analysis on the existing Iraqi TV and radio production and broadcasting establishments was conducted before executing the procurement activities.

Results

4.1 Provide a summary of programme/project progress in relation to planned outcomes and outputs; explain any variance in achieved versus planned outputs during the six month reporting period.

Planned Outputs:

One hundred and fifty (150) educational specialists from MOE, twenty (20) educational specialists from Colleges of Education as well as 80 radio and TV technical specialists trained on the use of distance learning tools and the design and broadcasting of curricular lessons.

Educational TV and Radio programs covering all subjects produced and broadcasted to students in Iraq.

Progress to date:

Much of the project is still at procurement level. All tendering activities regarding capacity building, production and broadcasting activities are being completed.

Delays took place at the tendering level, mainly, due to:

Delay of MOE in deciding on the project location.

Delay of MOE in providing the list of MOE trainees (names and CVs).

Limited number of participating suppliers in tenders that caused re-bidding.

The limited radio transmission ability in Iraq reduces the period of transmission assigned for the education programs, which ultimately leads to ineffective education. Additionally, the cost of establishing such a station requires large sums of funds that cannot be provided for this project. Consequently, the MOE requested not to produce and broadcast radio educational programs and to transfer the allocated funds for TV production activities. UNESCO agreed with this request and is acting accordingly.

Report on progress made toward the achievement of specific medium-term outcomes of the programme/project as a result of the achieved short-term outputs during this reporting period.

It is not possible to report on any progress made since the project is still in its initial stages.

Report on the key outputs achieved in the six month period including # and nature of the activities (inputs), % of completion and beneficiaries.

None to be reported on.

Explain, if relevant, delays in programme/project implementation, the nature of the constraints, lessons learned in the process and actions taken to mitigate future delays.

Refer to 4.1 above.

List the key partnerships and collaborations, and explain how such relationships impact on the achievement of results.

None.

Summarize achievements against planned results for cross cutting issues: security, gender, human rights, employment (including # of short and/or long-term jobs created), and environment.

None

Future Work Plan

5.1 Summarize the projected activities up to the end of June 2008 indicating any major adjustments in strategies, targets or key outcomes and outputs planned.

Capacity building activities are expected to be completed

Production of Educational TV episodes is anticipated to be on-going.

Establishment of the TV broadcasting unit is anticipated to be on-going.