FCE/BAS ProDEG – Technical Assistance Mechanism of the Common Education Fund to Support the Ten-Year Education Programme in Guinea

The Ten-Year Education Programme in Guinea (ProDEG) is the new sectoral plan for education and training in the Republic of Guinea for 2020-2029. It has been developed by the Government of Guinea to meet the education needs of the Guinean population.

Its objective is to improve the success of young Guineans in their learning and training by building schools in the least served areas, overhauling programmes and revising textbooks, providing community-based teacher training and education for girls and women, extending the basic education cycle from 6 to 10 years and supporting technical and scientific courses.

ProDEG guides the policy of the three sectoral ministries of education: the Ministry of Pre-University Education and Literacy (MEPUA), the Ministry of Technical Education, Vocational Training and Employment (METFPE) and the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation (MESRSI).

This programme is based on six priority areas:

1. Equal access to general education;
2. The quality and relevance of education;
3. Adult literacy and education;
4. The extension and reform of technical and vocational education and training;
5. The reform of higher education and scientific research;
6. The governance and management of the education system.

Alongside the Guinean Government, the main donor of ProDEG, part of the activities of the system is implemented via the Common Education Fund (FCE), a targeted budgetary method involving several technical and financial partners, including the Global Partnership for Education, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and UNICEF.

In response to the request of the authorities, AFD has proposed to assist Guinea with the preparation, financing and implementation of earmarked budget allocations (BAS), based on a sectoral and programmatic approach and implemented by each ministry.

FCE/BAS is based on various principles:

• A planning based on the sectoral dialogue and national budgetary process;
• An annual programming developed on the basis of the strategic priorities of the sector and strengthening the annual dialogue bodies, resulting in a detailed annual action plan;
• Emphasis on the priority strategies of PRODEG, the key aspects of the future sectoral dialogue and the conditions for the feasibility and operational implementation to achieve the expected outcomes in the ProDEG;
• An alignment with national systems (teams and procedures) and a sustainable and general strengthening of national capacities;
• Focusing the dialogue on the monitoring of public policies and a strengthening of the overall management of the sector by the Guinean Government;
• Enhanced coordination between international donors: BAS is a sustainable mechanism that can be integrated into the Common Fund of new donors;
• Stronger sectoral coordination as FCE/BAS covers all the education sub-sectors.

The technical assistance mechanism set up by Expertise France with AFD financing aims to facilitate the establishment, use and proper functioning of FCE/BAS ProDEG. This innovative operational strategy is fully in line with the sectoral strategy of the Republic of Guinea.

To address the issues of this mission, the mechanism is composed of 15 international and national experts are assisting the central and decentralised administrations involved in ProDEG, as well as the technical Secretariat for the coordination and management of ProDEG.

The expertise mobilised is characterised by its technical nature, with the technical assistants mobilised covering both education sector issues and specialised expertise in accounting management, financial reporting and public procurement.

The role of the technical assistants is to support officials from the central and decentralised administration to ensure there is a real transfer of skills, based on a capacity building approach.

This capacity building plan is based on four areas: support for the structuring and organisation of the intersectoral coordination, operationalisation of the management of FCE/BAS, support for the financial and accounting management and the strengthening of the procurement function

This skills transfer will take place during an implementation phase of 30 months and will be gradually completed with a phasing-out period of 6 months, during which the Guinean beneficiaries will be required to progressively ensure the sustainability of the joint efforts.

In the context of this unique operation, Expertise France has called on an external consulting firm to set up a monitoring and evaluation system just for the technical assistance mechanism. This system regularly measures the transfer of skills and responsibilities from the technical assistants to the beneficiary departments.

It is essential for the process and tools to be validated by the beneficiaries of the mechanism, which are its first users. The compilation of data regularly collected and the coordination and monitoring work of this system are essential to the effective implementation of the technical assistance mechanism and benefit a process for continuous improvement.