Action Research: Measuring Literacy Programme Participants’ Learning Outcomes - Results of the First Phase (2011–2014)

«The action research project RAMAA was initiated by UIL in order to provide policymakers and development partners with reliable and usable contextual data. This data will help improve the quality of literacy programmes for youth and adults, strengthen evidence-based advocacy, and develop national capacities with an emphasis on ownership and sustainability» (Arne Carlsen, UIL Director).

This new publication is a critical review of the first results of action research on measuring the learning outcomes of literacy programmes. Five francophone African countries ‒ Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco, Niger and Senegal ‒ have been developing and implementing common tools to measure the level of skills reached by participants of literacy programmes.

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), UNESCO offices in Dakar and Abuja, Statistics Canada, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), researchers from Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech and the University of Hamburg as well consultants and members of national teams have all contributed to the development of contextual measurement tools.

The results of this first phase of the action research are encouraging, as visible positive impacts have been found in the participating countries. In addition to the five countries involved in the first phase, seven more countries ‒ Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Togo ‒ have expressed interest in participating in the second phase of RAMAA, which is planned for this year.

The publication is available for free full-text download (PDF, English, 1.9 MB).