Building capacities for strengthening literacy and lifelong learning in Nepal (CapEFA Nepal)
©UNESCO/Krishna Malla
The project contributes to address the capacity gap of the non-formal education (NFE) subsector in Nepal by enhancing the capacity of government officials in policy and planning, monitoring and evaluation, effective NFE service management and delivery at the central, district and community learning centres levels. It will contribute to the Government of Nepal’s endeavours to achieve the national goals in literacy, thereby realising, in particular, the Education for All (EFA) Goals 3, 4, and 5.
Project duration: October 2011 – December 2016
Budget: USD 400,000
Project background
Illiteracy remains a persistent development challenge in Nepal. The Nepal Living Standard Survey 2011 reflects a 15+ literacy rate of only 56.5%. There have been several attempts to increase literacy in Nepal. However, this and other initiatives did not yield the expected results, mainly because of lack of proper institutional and organizational capacities, as evidenced by the recent capacity assessment of Nepal’s non-formal education sector.
In order to support the initiatives of the Government of Nepal for providing literacy for all, especially the Literate Nepal Mission Campaign (LINEM) that aims to eradicate illiteracy in Nepal by 2015, the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu works in close collaboration with the Non-formal Education Centre (NFEC) in strengthening literacy and non-formal education. The majority of the activities is being implemented within the framework of the initiative “Capacity Development for Education for All (CapEFA)”, an extra-budgetary funding mechanism and programmes approach, financed by the Governments of Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Project objectives
The project aims at strengthening capacities of the Government of Nepal at the central, mid, and local levels including non-formal education providers, to efficiently:
· Plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate literacy and lifelong learning programmes through improving data management system. This includes the training of a wide number of planners and managers, and practitioners at various levels.
· Improve quality of literacy and NFE programmes need to be supported with the equivalency/accreditation with the formal sector which will ultimately contribute to achieve literacy goals.
· Develop the basis of an equivalency system for a better transition from literacy and non-formal education programmes to the formal sector.
The project will contribute to the Government of Nepal’s endeavors to achieve the national goals in literacy, thereby realizing, in particular, the Education for All (EFA) Goals 3, 4, and 5.
Project strategy
The strategy of the project is reflected in following interventions:
· Strengthening data management and M&E of literacy and non-formal education programmes at central, district and CLC levels;
· Enhancing capacity of NFEC and CLC and other providers for effective Literacy service delivery;
· Enhancing life skills and livelihood components in literacy curricula and materials;
· Formulating equivalency programmes particularly linkages between non-formal and formal education.
Project partners
The UNESCO Office in Kathmandu implements the project with a variety of partners/stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Non-formal Education Centre (NFEC), District Education Offices (DEOs) and Community Learning Centers (CLCs).
The project is implemented with the support of UNESCO Headquarters, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), and the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific.
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