Lebanon is facing a multifaceted crisis that has a significant impact on the education sector.
The country hosts the highest number of refugees per capita, with an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees. According to UN ESCWA (2021), in 2023, 74% of the population lives in poverty and about 1.45 million school-age children require assistance in accessing basic services. According to the same source, the education sector has been severely affected by the economic crisis, inflation, COVID-19 and the Beirut explosion, leading to widespread school closures and limited access to formal education. In addition, the quality of education has declined and children with disabilities face significant barriers to equal access.
In response to these challenges, the Haqqi consortium, funded by the European Union, is implementing a project to support the education of vulnerable children in Lebanon between December 2021 and July 2024.
The consortium, consisting of Save the Children International (SCI) as the lead, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Multi Aid Programs (MAPS), Nabad for Development (NABAD) and Back to Future Consortium (BTF), provided support in the area of non-formal education (NFE) in the form of Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Basic Literacy and Numeracy (BLN) and Retention Support (RS) courses as formal education (FE) programs. The project also included rehabilitation of learning centers, provision of learning materials and transportation support, participation in social and emotional learning (SEL) and Better Learning Programme (BLP) activities and advocacy for inclusive education policies. The project reached 14,5191 children and 1,386 adolescent beneficiaries in different regions of Lebanon, with a nearly balanced gender distribution among the recipients and including 508 children with disabilities.
Qualisus Consulting was commissioned to conduct a final evaluation of this project from February to June 2024. The objective of the evaluation was to assess the performance of the project against the OECD-DAC criteria, including relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, coherence and sustainability, as well as assessing the sections on inclusion, accountability, consortium dynamics, quality, evidence and learning. Finally, the evaluation also examined the key lessons learned and best practices achieved through the implementation of the Haqqi project.
