The World Bank is to provide Haiti’s education sector with additional grant financing of US$90 million.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the additional funds toward the Promoting a More Equitable, Sustainable and Safer Education Project (PROMESSE), which is expected to benefit about 150,000 students, of whom about 69,000 are girls. The project will also support targeted interventions to help at least 1,500 girls stay and advance in school.
“The World Bank is committed to helping Haiti overcome the multi-faceted effects caused by the political, social, and economic uncertainty, coupled with the devastating impact of the 2021 earthquake and other natural disasters. One urgent need is a coordinated medium-term approach to transforming the education sector as the average Haitian student is only retaining a total of 6.1 years of schooling when adjusted for quality,” said Laurent Msellati, World Bank Country Manager for Haiti.
“This additional financing constitutes a further investment in human capital to support the government’s effort to improve learning outcomes by building a more equitable, modern, and resilient education system, as well as putting children back to school in the Southern Peninsula affected last year by the earthquake.”
The additional financing (AF) of US$90 million from the International Development Association (IDA) includes US$40 million from the IDA Crisis Response Window (CRW) that will enable the continuity of schooling in areas affected by the August 2021 earthquake.
Funds to benefit public and private schools in Haiti
The funds will allow for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of school infrastructure and provide nutritional support and improved learning conditions for children. The project will support 262 public schools by funding grants to support their operations, the delivery of kits with teaching and learning materials, training and support to teachers and administrators, and help to students reading in early grades.
The project will also support access to 126 non-public primary schools and improve their teaching and learning environment through a results-based tuition waiver financing mechanism. Additionally, the additional financing will be used to enhance infrastructure investment planning and upgrade permanent school infrastructure in the longer term to “build back better” with improved earthquake and climate change resilience.
The school infrastructure plans will include gender sensitivity and accessibility for people with disabilities, planting trees on school campuses to promote water infiltration and natural shade and cooling, and the use of water-efficient technologies and renewable energy.
The parent project, Promoting an Efficient Education System in Haiti Project, was a US$15.6 million project funded by the Global Partnership for Education with the aim to improve the Ministry of Education’s planning and regulatory functions and the learning assessment system.
The additional financing of US$90 million will take the total project amount to US$105.6 million. It will build upon the parent project’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry at the central and departmental levels and support data collection to inform better decision-making in synergy with the school-level supports.
