GPE supported programs are currently on pause as the grant agent had halted operations in the country. GPE was in discussions with partners about options for resuming support to the education sector when the conflict erupted in mid-April. GPE is in contact with partners and will resume the discussions as soon as the situation allows.
Allocation: US$11 million
Years: 2020-2021
Grant agent: World Bank
Key document: Application and program document
The US$11 million COVID-19 grant support:
These initiatives are based on the Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 response plan.
In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Sudan received a GPE grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education with its COVID-19 response. Funds have been used to:
Education development in Sudan is anchored in the constitution, with clear provisions to facilitate investment in human capital at all levels of education and training.
The federal government, through its Federal Ministry of Education, is responsible for oversight in the sector and for the development and maintenance of standards including curriculum development and mobilization of resources from internal and external sources.
At the state level, educational boards, under the state ministries of education, organize and coordinate educational activities.
The country is emerging out of a deep political crisis, which has seriously affected the ability of the people in all states to keep their children in school.
Sudan’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2018-2023 was endorsed in January 2019. Among other things, the plan is explicit about the humanitarian context in Sudan drawing from the Humanitarian Needs Overview of 2017.
The plan took the strategy of integration of the refugees and internally displaced people with the host communities in terms of provision of education.
Even though more children are accessing school today compared to 2009, the system is slowed down by high dropout rates rendering the achievement of universal basic education a big challenge for the country.
Significant numbers of children are still excluded from a conducive learning environment. For instance, only two thirds of learners in government basic education schools are seated and about 24,000 teachers in government basic education schools are volunteers.
The 5-year program, titled Sudan Basic Education Support Program, supports the country’s implementation of the ESSP 2018-23 priorities, through expanding access and improving the quality of basic education.
The US$62.62 million grant contains a GPE Multiplier allocation of $3.62 million.
The program includes interventions at system and school levels, targeting disadvantaged schools through three components:
All amounts are in US dollars.
| Grant type | Years | Allocations | Utilization | Grant agent | |
| COVID-19 | 2022 | 5,946,706 | 114,815 | UNICEF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 11,000,000 | 0 | WB | ||
| Accelerated funding | 2020-2021 | 11,800,000 | 0 | WB | |
| Program implementation and Multiplier | 2020-2025 | 62,620,000 | 10,548,000 | WB | Progress report |
| Program implementation | 2013-2019 | 76,472,764 | 76,472,764 | WB | Completion report |
| Sector plan development | 2016-2018 | 499,900 | 498,359 | WB | |
| Program development | 2018-2020 | 200,000 | 299,605 | WB | |
| 2019-2020 | 100,000 | 99,868 | WB | ||
| Total | 168,639,370 | 88,033,411 |
As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the Sudanese Coalition for Education for All (SCEFA) for the 2019-2021 period.
This builds on 11 years of Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) support to national education coalitions for their engagement in education sector policy dialogue.
GPE had provided the Sudanese Coalition for Education for All (SCEFA) with a grant from the CSEF to support its engagement in education sector policy dialogue and citizens’ voice in education quality, equity, and financing and sector reform.