Access to basic education for children living in hard to reach areas of Badghis Province Number of Out of School Children (OOSC) in Afghanistan is on the rise with the increase of natural and conflict emergencies particularly in hard to reach areas. In Badghis, number of OOSC in Jawand and Murghab together is 53% of the total OOSC population in Badghis. Girls comprise the 80% of OOSC in Jawand and Murghab districts. Continued conflict and drought have significantly affected access to education for children and pose children on the risk of child labor, early and forced marriage, recruitment by armed forces and dealing with psychosocial issues. 

Given the relative security and access to Abkamari, Muqur, Qadis, and Qala-e-Naw districts of Badghis, the education-implementing partners including World Vision have been responding to the needs of education in emergency. Nonetheless, the severe needs of drought and conflict-affected population in Jawand and Murghab has remained unmet. According to OCHA and WV assessment, 6,000 households from Murghab district center have been displaced, due to the conflict, fleeing to the surrounding villages where education facilities are limited, already overstretched and some cases are not functioning and closed, and not adequate to accommodate the needs of displaced girls and boys. Severely affected by drought, like Murghab, Jawand has been categorized as hard to reach district in Badghis where the government-limited access hindered the provision of basic services including education services. 

WV proposes to implement community-based education in alignment with 2017-2021 National Education Strategic Plan (NESP III), and Community Based Education Policy, to address the immediate needs of 4,800 out of school girls and boys in Jawand and Murghab. WV plans to establish community-based classes (CBS) in Murghab and Jawand and Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS) in Murghab to serve both children in their places of origin and in the IDP sites within their district. In close coordination with MoE, Badghis PED, Jawand and Murghab DEDs and consultation with the community Shuras and informal structures to reach women and children, WV will first sensitize the community on children right particularly child education and girls’ education and second establish and run CBS and TLS for 12 months. WV will work with the community, PED and DEDs, and other Education Implementing partners throughout the implementation period to ensure the transition of the targeted students from TLS and CBS to next grade. 

The primary recipient of the proposed intervention will be out of school girls and boys aged 7 to 14 living in Jawand and Murghab districts of Badghis province. In total, 4,800 children including 2,880 girls will enroll in Temporary Learning Spaces in Murghab and in Community-Based Classes in Murghab and Jawand hard to reach areas where their situation (distance to school, lack of female teachers and gender appropriate facilities, social norms, and geographic and security barriers) do not allow them to have access to basic education. Children’s household will receive cash assistance in two installments prior to and before the poppy/opium harvest for their regular attendance in the TLS/CBS facilities.

Although WV did not implement Education projects funded by AHF, but it has implemented grants in various other sectors such as Health/Nutrition, Food Security and WASH funded by OCHA through the AHF different funding streams. The food security projects funded by AHF did involve cash distribution modality and WV has rich experience in food/cash distributions. WV has implemented multi- year and multi- million projects falling under Education sector funded by other donors in the Western region of Afghanistan and has great in house expertise and trained education experts to implement the proposed education grant. Currently WV has a number of ongoing Education projects funded by various donors. 

The activities that are proposed under this grant are aligned with the relevant cluster standards.