Oxfam Livelihoods and education

There has been a cumulative improvement in the number of learners enrolled in both the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) and Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) components. During this annual period, 1,053 learners enrolled in the ALP and 690 in the FAL components, respectively. Furthermore, at least 54% of the learners were able to transition under the ALP component, although this fell below the 80% milestone. Contextual factors were found to be major drivers of education outcomes. Discussions with learners and teachers revealed concerns about tough economic times, where families prioritize income generation over education, agricultural and farm-related activities that require learner labour during peak seasons, and school environments where learners feel inadequately prepared for tests. Project teams have continued engaging stakeholders at different levels, including learners, to address these issues with the aim of improving enrollment and retention in schools. Skill development through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has supported up to 700 learners in this cohort. They were engaged in various trades based on their choice and capacity levels at the time of enrollment. After a period of in-class training, they were placed in jobs for experience. According to tracer studies with the 2022 cohort, 90% of the graduates were employed, with 67% operating their own businesses and 23% working for various institutions. The majority (60%) found employment within 1-2 months, while the rest took 3-6 months to secure employment. Monthly incomes ranged from South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) 1,000 (approximately $1) to SSP 200,000 (approximately $200). However, the graduates also highlighted several challenges hindering their progress, including high rental costs, excessive and unregulated market tax levies, and inadequate start-up capital. Some also set up businesses in areas with high competition. Despite the challenges mentioned above, there has been an overall improvement at output level contributing to outcome 1. Overall, regarding outcome 2, the project has undertaken several initiatives to enhance local leadership and promote gender inclusive participation for better education and sustainable livelihoods. School leadership and governance bodies like Parent Teacher Associations and School Management Committees have received training to improve their management and planning skills. Additionally, the project has assisted these bodies in creating and implementing school development plans, many of which focused on enhancing school infrastructure. Local leaders were also mobilized to create awareness on positive gender behaviors to improve women's position within their communities, through the gender action learning approach. The leaders were facilitated through highlighting challenges and collectively identifying measures to address such, there has been an improvement on how the male counterparts view women, women's leadership positions in the community have also improved with some of them testifying that they are now involved in leadership roles as well as improved family roles. Capacity-building initiatives for teachers have continued, focusing on tailored professional development with elements of disaster risk reduction (DRR), gender, and conflict-sensitive education. Follow-up discussions with teachers and school management have revealed improvements in teachers' understanding of the curriculum. Classroom monitoring reports also showed enhancements in lesson planning and classroom management, addressing initial gaps among Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) teachers. However, the implementation of the Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) component has not meet expectations due to internal technical capacity gaps. This challenge has been mitigated through engagement with education stakeholders at both county and state levels. Efforts to improve household food production and income have been pursued during this reporting period. Activities focused on cultivating field crops and vegetables for both consumption and sale. In Juba, there has been a slight improvement in food consumption scores, with 33% of households reporting poor scores, 38% borderline, and 29% acceptable. Household incomes from vegetable sales, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA), and tricycles have continued to increase due to enhanced management practices and better record-keeping among groups. However, there has been a challenge in tracking income generated from goat farming, as most households chose to retain their goats for breeding rather than selling them. Overall, the National Education Coalition (NEC) has been on track in achieving its planned and expected outputs during this year. NEC was able to bring many different stakeholders together to address the common goal of improving education within the areas of project operation and beyond, particularly at state level. NEC has been actively involving stakeholders at state and grassroots level to raise awareness about education policies and identify challenges that need national attention. These initiatives have fostered continued engagement with various stakeholders to improve education overall.

The overall objective of the intervention is improved resilience through gender and conflict sensitive education and skill-based solutions for sustainable livelihoods for girls, boys, women and men in South Sudan. This will be achieved through the following outcomes: Outcome 1: Conflict-affected adolescents, youth, women and men have improved knowledge and skills through safe, quality and gender responsive education and skills development. Outcome 2: Strengthened inclusive participation and gender responsive local leadership to ensure resilient education systems and sustainable livelihoods.