EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS GROUP (ED DPG) MEETING

Held at the Canadian Cooperation Office, 38 Mirambo Street

Wednesday, August 18th 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Attendance:

  1. Corey HuntingtonCIDA Acting chair
  2. Joseph VereUNESCOMember
  3. Tomoko MaedaWFPMember
  4. Willem ThuringWFPMember
  5. Elikunda KisangaWFPMember
  6. Criana ConnalUNESCOMember
  7. Leoncia SalakanaILOMember
  8. Pantalee KapichiUNICEFMember
  9. Niki AbrishamianUNICEFMember
  10. Beatrice OmariCIDAMember

Absent with Apology:

  1. Tanya ZebroffDFIDChair
  2. Arun JoshiWorld BankMember
  3. Tom LeblancUSAIDMember
  4. Agripina HabichtUNESCOSecretariat
  5. Noel IhebuzorUNICEFMember
  6. Heinrich HeinrichsGTZMember

Agenda:

  1. Opening of the meeting
  2. Review of the Agenda and Approval of ED DPG 16th June Minutes
  3. Matters Arising from ED DPG 16th June Meeting
  4. Update on TWGs - issues to be raised on upcoming meetings
  5. JESR Technical Review - September 28th to 30th 2010
  6. Update on other outstanding issues
  7. Issues to be raised with MOEVT through TROIKA
  8. Member updates on Education Sector activities
  9. AOB
  1. Opening the Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 9:15 am by the Acting Chair, Corey Huntington, with introductions for the benefit of new Members from the World Food Programme.

  1. Review of the Agenda and Approval of ED DPG 16th June Minutes

2.1 The Agenda was approved as presented.

2.2 The Minutes of June 16th, 2010 were approved as submitted

  1. Matters Arising from the June 16th DPG Meeting

3.1.Translation of Education Circulars- on-going

Action:Secretariat to report progress at next meeting

3.2.Media Monitoring:Secretariat has contacted Haki Elimu and arranged for electronic distribution of print media monitoring reports to ED DPG.

Action: Daily email of news clippings to start September 1st when Agripina returns from leave.

3.3.Field Reports: Most summaries for the field reports have been received and will be incorporated in upcoming sector update. Beatrice has also sent a reminder to those who have not yet submitted their paragraph of highlights for the Sector Update to do the same.

3.4.Sector Update Report: Secretariat has sent a reminder to all to review DP activity table in last update and add new information, as required, reflecting each agency’s activities up to the end of June, 2010. Most have been received and will be incorporated in upcoming sector update.

Action: Secretariat to send reminder to those who have not yet submitted updates.

3.5.Fast Track Initiative:

  • No information yet available whether Kapichi has been able to trace a copy of paper presented by Mr. Sagini at a conference in Kenya some years ago to the ED DPG for reference.

Action: Kapichi to report on status of the paper at next meeting

  • Members sought further clarification on the FTI and the on-going process at the Ministry. The Chair reported that the RACEF TWG and MOEVT management have been briefed on the FTI process by DPs, and that the GoT has indicated interest informally, but has not submitted a formal request for support to apply for FTI to date. We understand that the sector Ministries are consulting with MOFEA on this issue. In the meantime, some members of the Ministry have also expressed an interest in conducting a study visit to learn more about the FTI in other countries, but DPs have not received a formal request for support in this regard yet either.

3.6.Costed ESDP Operational Plan: Informed that one of the key motivations for having this activity done is to make sure it is available as part of the FTI requirements when (if) the GoT is ready to make an application. To this end, DfID/Tanya has contacted FTI Secretariat for guidance and UNESCO/Criana obtained the FTI template for applications, which can be shared with the GoT.

Action: CIDA/Corey and UNESCO/Criana to finalize reviewing these documents in order to provide joint DP feedback to RACEF Technical Working Group by end August, 2010.

3.7.Tanzania Beyond Tomorrow: Chair has sent email toMOEVT/DPP to request that a date be set for DPs to visit TBT Model Classrooms in Mbezi Juu, now that the Budget session is over in Parliament.

Action: Secretariat to follow up with MOEVT to confirm date for this activity in early September, if possible.

3.8.ETP presentation: Chair has sent email to MOEVT/DPP to request that a date be set for this presentation to DPs, now that the Budget session is over in Parliament.

Action: Secretariat to follow up with MOEVT to confirm date for this activity in early September, if possible.

3.9.Cross-Cutting Issues (CCI) TWG:

  • The Troika raised the need for CCI TWG to meet at the ESDC Task Force meeting held on 17th June, 2010, especially with regard to information sharing on new initiatives such as BTC support.
  • The ESDC Task Force directed CCI-TWG to meet urgently to discuss some issues and report back at ESDC meeting at the end of June 2010, but this did not address the HIV/AIDS projects.

3.10.Higher Education (HE) TWG:The ESDC Task Force (2010-06-17) revealed that there had been no HE-TWG meeting held between April and June. Task Force directed HE-TWG to meet regularly and report back at next meeting.

Action: DP Focal Person for HE TWG (Arun) to follow up and report back at the next ED DPG meeting.

3.11.JESR Themes: DPs provided suggestion for the JESR thematic papers related to literacy, access to basic education, inclusion and equity as well as proposing ideas on how the ESA could be included in the JESR discussions. These suggestions were shared with GoT. (See Agenda no. 5 for further details.)

3.12.Textbook Issue: The correspondence with the Irish Embassy has been circulated by the Chair for members’ information

3.13.Global Week of Action: UNESCO attended the July 6thmeeting and informed that the planning for the event is being spearheaded by TENMET.

Action: Joe Vere to circulate the minutes prepared by Agripina to all members.

3.14.MKUZA II:UNESCO/Joe provided comments on the MKUZA on behalf of Education DPG. These were incorporated in inputs submitted by the UNDP.

3.15.Education Sector Update Report:See no. 3.4 above

3.16.WASH TWG:The WASHschedule of key events has been shared among DPs. See Agenda 6.4 for more details.

3.17.World Food Programme Update: The 2008 Evaluation of the WFP School Feeding Program has been shared among DPs, as well as the draft National School Feeding Guidelines.

3.18.USAID - Africa Regional Education Workshop Update:Documents are still being finalized. When they are ready, USAID will circulate to all and they will be posted on the ED DPG Website.

3.19.UN Group – UNDAP Education Activities Selection: UNESCO has circulated the update by email and made presentation at the ED DPG meeting on August 18th. See Agenda 8a for details.

3.20.DfID – Use of UK-imposed BAE fine to fund pro-poor development in Tanzania:

Action:DfID to provide update at next DPG meeting.

3.21.World Bank – Support for CapacityBuilding for Early Childhood Development: Chair has communicatedED DPG endorsement of this proposal to World Bank as requested and copied to Ministry.

  1. Update on TWGs:
  2. Dialogue Structure: New members wanted to know how the dialogue in the sector is structured. The Chair gave a summary of the Education dialogue structure. It was also noted that there have been a number of changes, but that the DPs have not been officially updated regarding the changes to the Ministry structure since 2008.

Action:

  • The TROIKA to follow up with the Ministry on updates of the current structure.
  • Beatrice to circulate the ESDP document and organogram to ED DPG members.

4.2.Resource Allocation, Costs, Efficiency and Financing (RACEF): The group met on 16th June 2010 and had three key agenda items:

  • The Operational Costed Workplan: All members were asked to provide comments on the proposed template and TORS.
  • Unit Cost Analysis: RACEF sub-committee was urged to complete revisions to draft TORS as soon as possible.
  • Brief presentation and discussion on the draft outline of the Education Budget, which was to be presented to Parliament in July 2010. It was agreed that the approved Budget Estimates would be shared with stakeholders four weeks after approval.

Feedback from the MOEVT on August 12th indicated that the MTEFs were still being revised to incorporate the changes arising from discussions in Parliament, etc, and will be shared when ready.

Actions:

  • Corey/Criana to finalise DP inputs to Costed Workplan, as per Agenda 3.6 above.
  • Corey to provide DP feedback on draft TORs for Unit Cost Analysis.
  • Corey to circulate budget outline tables presented at June 16th meeting.
  • RACEF TWG members (Corey/Tanya) and the Secretariat to follow up on the final MTEFs and circulate to ED DPG members.

4.3.Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) TWG: The TWG has not met since the last DPG meeting, but the following issue needs to be addressed before the ESDC Task Force meeting on September 7, 2010:

  • The Education Sector Analysis (ESA) is an on-going activity which falls under the M&E TWG. It has been agreed in principle that the summary of the preliminary ESAfindings will be presented at the Joint Education Sector Review in September 2010, but the presentation must first be endorsed by the M&E TWG and then shared in the relevant ESDC committees and the management before being tabled at the Review.

Action: Criana to follow up with M&E TWG Chair, on behalf of ESA Team, to ensure that an M&E TWG meeting will be held to review and endorse the ESA presentation for consideration by the relevant ESDC Committees in preparation for the Review.

4.4.Institutional Arrangement (IA-TWG):

  • The sub-committee that was selected to oversee the procurement of the consultants for the HRSITAN has been meeting frequently from third week of June to end July. The process of selecting the consultants has been finalized and the committee is working on the details for contracting the selected candidates in close consultation with CIDA, which is funding this activity. The sub-committee is expected to report back to the IA-TWG before the ESDC Task Force meeting.
  • WFP colleagues informed members that the process of handing over the School Feeding Programme to the Government is underway and that there will be human resource and management implications in the implementation process, which may be best addressed through the IA-TWG.

Action:WFP to present its programme to ED DPG in October or November, with a view to receiving feedback on how best to integrate the hand over process within the existing dialogue structure.

4.5.Cross Cutting Issues TWG: The CCI TWG has not met since mid-June, however:

  • Since the last meeting, Heinrich has been able to make links with the BTC project at the Ministry and circulated a summary of the key activities conducted under PASHA and those supported under BTC (see attached Annex); and,
  • DPs were invited to a workshop organized by the Belgian Technical Cooperation to disseminate results of a baseline survey on HIV/AIDS/ASRH in primary schools at Kibaha on 22nd July, 2010. The meeting was attended by Kapichi (UNICEF) on behalf of the Ed DPG.
  • The UNICEF led inter-agency advocacy campaign on adolescent pregnancy andreturn to school conducted a Media seminar on July 29th, 2010, but discussions and follow up on the Re-entry guidelines for pregnant school girls has not been implemented as directed by the ESDC meeting in June.

Action:DP Focal Person (Beatrice) to follow up on the CCI TWGand update on the developments with regards to the re-entry guidelines for pregnant school girls.

4.6.Enrolment Expansion TWG:The TWG has not met since June 14th, 2010, however:

  • The WFP colleagues have been linked with the TWG and there are plans to make a presentation to the TWG members with a view to sharing the results of the 2008 evaluation of WFP and ensuring that the School Feeding Programme issues are taken on board in the regular dialogue processes.

4.7.Quality Improvement TWG:The TWG has not metsince June 2010.

Action: DP Focal Person (Niki) to follow up with regards to the development of ToRs for the Textbook Study that was endorsed at the June ESDC meeting, as the TWG should report on progress in this regard at the ESDC Task Force on September 7th, 2010.

4.8.Higher Education TWG:No information available.

Action: DP Focal Person(Arun) to follow up and urge the TWG to meet, as per instructions at ESDC meeting in June, 2010.

4.9.Technical and Vocational Education Training TWG: The TWG has not met since June, however:

  • The sub-committee overseeing the selection of consultants for the TVET–SITAN finally managed to complete the selection, only to receive a request to provide names of three consultants to SADC, which seemed to indicate that SADC would make the selection. The selected names have been sent to SADC and a response is awaited.
  • In addition, although the sub-committee had worked to adapt the original generic TORS, so that the SITAN would be more useful for Tanzania’s purposes (i.e. as a basis for the development of the TVEDP), SADC has now indicated that the generic TORS should be used for the study. Rationale for the modified TORS has been submitted to SADC and a response is awaited.
  • SADC seems to be eager to have the Tanzanian consultant selected, as there is a workshop for consultants from all countries in the region scheduled to take place in early September.

Action: ILO/UNESCO (Leoncia/Joseph) to make a follow up to establish whether MOEVT/TVET Department is still working on developing another SITAN that will inform the development of the TVET Development Programme, which would take place in parallel to the SADC SITAN.

4.10.Folk Education Development Committee (FEDC):

  • The minutes for the meeting held in June were circulated to ED DPG members.
  • The next FEDC Task Force meeting is scheduled for 27th August, 2010.
  1. JESR Technical Review:
  2. Update on preparations:
  • Reported that the ToRs for the Review, the Facilitators, and the Thematic Paper were approved in the Extra Ordinary ESDC Task Force and ESDC meetings held on July 20 and 22 respectively. The agreed thematic issues are:
  • “Management, inspection and supervision for effective delivery of quality education”;
  • “Literacy and Numeracy in Tanzania: Levels of Attainment”; and,
  • “Relevance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in market demands: Skills for Employability”
  • Facilitators for the technical review have been selected: Kate Dyer and N.Burretta.
  • Writers/presenters for the thematic papers have been commissioned.
  • The consolidation of the Field Monitoring Visit reports is being finalized by the M&E Section and an Executive Summary for presentation at the Review will be prepared by the facilitators.
  • Preparation of sub-sector reports for the Annual Education Sector Performance Report is on-going and consolidation will be done by the M&E section.

5.2Dates for the ESDC meetings:

  • The dates for the technical review will be September 28 -30th in Dar es Salaam.
  • The Chair shared a summary of the Critical Path to the Joint Sector Review that shows the key dates in the month of September. Members were requested to take note of the critical dates and be prepared to input in the various documents for the Review, particularly the Annual Performance Report. Draft documents are expected to start becoming available fromAugust 20th, 2010.
  • Informed that the dates for the High Level Meeting are not yet known, but that the Aide Memoire will be developed soon after the end of the technical review for endorsement by the ESDC in late October 2010.

5.3 DP Participation in JESR

  • Agreedthat next ED DPG meeting (September 15th) would be dedicated to preparation for the Review, including brainstorming regarding key messages for DPs to communicate during the Review and proposed milestones for 2010/11 and 2011/12.
  • Action: Beatrice to send email asking agencies to indicate how many will participate in the Technical Review process for sharing with the GoT as they prepare the list of participants for the JESR.
  1. Update on Other Outstanding Issues:

6.1.DP participation at the Education Budget Speech – July 12th, 2010:

  • Kapichi gave a summary of the key highlights of the budget speech, including statements from the Parliamentary Social Service Committee and the Opposition.
  • Informed that the Budget Speech is being translated on behalf of the DPs (the GoT usually provides the English version of the speech, but comes much later in the year). Agreed that the presentations from the Parliamentary Social Service Committee and the CSOs should also be included in the translations.

Actions:

  • Kapichi and Beatrice to collaborate and finalize the summary report on the Budget and circulate to members.
  • Secretariat to obtain copies of presentations by Parliamentary Social Service Committee and the Opposition, to include in translation with Budget Speech.

6.2.Global Week of Action event – September 8th , 2010