Independent evaluation of the Girls’ Education Challenge Phase II - evaluation study 3: Aggregate impact of GEC-T projects between baseline and midline; final report

This study is conducted as part of the independent evaluation (IE) of the Girls’ Education Challenge Phase II (GEC II), an eight-year (2017-2025) programme supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) that aims to improve the learning opportunities and outcomes of over one million of the world’s most marginalised girls. GEC Phase II is delivered through two funding windows: (1) GEC Transitions (GEC-T) Window, which supports marginalised girls participating in 27 GEC Phase I projects across 15 countries in transitioning to the next stage of their education; and (2) Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB) Window, which supports 14 projects in 10 countries working with highly marginalised, adolescent girls who have never attended or have already dropped out of school. This study focuses on the GEC-T Window, to enable the FCDO and the GEC II Fund Manager (FM) to respond to the accountability objective of whether, and to what extent the GEC-T is associated with changes in girls’ learning and transition outcomes, as well as to provide portfolio-level benchmarks for future IE studies on what magnitude of impact the GEC-T has achieved, which subgroups were most affected by projects’ interventions and which intermediate outcomes are correlated with improved learning. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following research questions: 1.) How did girls’ learning levels change between baseline and midline? Did GEC-T girls improve more than non-GEC girls? Are the observed changes different for literacy and numeracy? 2.) Who has learned the most (and least), and how much did they learn? How did changes in learning outcomes vary across contexts: by girls’ individual characteristics? By household-level characteristics? By school status? 3.) Why did some girls learn more than others? What are the factors (including the project’s intermediate outcomes) that are associated with learning across the GEC-T portfolio? 4.) Did girls successfully transition between baseline and midline? Who has not successfully transitioned in school?