Pakistan/Education - Girls and Out of School Children: Action for Learning (GOAL)

GOAL focuses on two main priorities - access to and quality of learning. In the least developed districts of Punjab (South Punjab) and KP (the Newly Merged Districts), GOAL will directly support ~250,000 marginalised children, mainly girls and religious minorities, to enrol and stay in school and support an additional ~150,000 girls to read by age 10. GOAL will also improve learning outcomes for at least 16.9 million children (7.8 million girls) by strengthening the provincial education systems to improve the quality and equity of education, particularly the quality of teaching, and becoming more resilient post Covid, building on the achievements of UK support since 2011. The system strengthening and policy influencing through GOAL will contribute towards the G7 global targets by getting more of KP and Punjab's 5.3 million out of schoolgirls into school, and 3 million more girls in reading by the end of primary school. The programme will be delivered through: (i) technical assistance to Government to improve efficiency, quality, and governance of the education sector; (ii) modest targeted financial aid to influence reforms that improve the use of domestic resources for marginalised children, particularly girls; and (iii) grant funding (service delivery) to scale up programmes targeting girls and the most marginalised children. The total budget for GOAL is £130 million to be implemented over five years. This is a Prior Information Notice for a Market Engagement (ME) for:

• A Technical Assistance contract to be delivered through a Technical Assistance Management Organisation (TAMO). The purpose of the TAMO is primarily to support the School Education Department Punjab and Elementary and Secondary Education Department KP to effectively implement GOAL by strengthening education systems in Punjab and KP to improve learning outcomes and inclusion within schools. The objective of the Market Engagement is to share information on GOAL and the upcoming procurement on technical assistance and test the market on service delivery options. The ME will consult on the following:
• How valid is the programme design in the current context? Will the outlined design and theory of change achieve the proposed outcomes?
• What are the main challenges and risks in delivering GOAL?
• What is the current situation with the development space and geographic access?
• How can we reach marginalised children, especially religious minorities?
• What has the experience been with development programmes in the Newly Merged Districts?
• What approach to Technical Assistance would work best in the context of KP and Punjab.
• What are the possible delivery options for GOAL's service delivery component. The service delivery grants are expected to directly enrol 250,000 out of schoolgirls and marginalised children (with a focus on religious minorities) and teach 150,000 girls to read by age 10 and undertake pilots on inclusion and safeguarding in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)