Review and Revision of the Equity Strategy & Index

Donor: UNICEF Nepal • Timeframe: June – November 2024

Working in partnership with UNICEF and building on work done under the Data Must Speak Initiative, IDP is providing technical support to the Government of Nepal’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology’s Education Management Information System (EMIS) section in the Center for Education and Human Resource Development to strengthen evidence-based and need-based planning through the review and revision of the Consolidated Equity Strategy and Index for the School Education Sector. First written in 2014 and then independently evaluated in 2020, the Consolidated Equity Strategy for the School Education Sector (Equity Strategy) aimed to reduce disparities in 1) educational access and participation and 2) learning outcomes for children in basic and secondary public education in Nepal. 

Schoolchildren in blue shirts are seated at shared tables. All of them are holding books.
Photo by Jim Holmes for AusAID

To achieve this, the Equity Strategy developed and used an Equity in Education Index to collect and aggregate data by district and disparities between population groups on 1) access to school through the number of out-of-school children, 2) internal efficiency based on the basic education (Grades 1 to 8) survival rate, and 3) learning based on the SLC pass rate. Through the Review and Revision of the Equity Strategy Index activity, IDP is supporting the review and updating of the 2014 Consolidated Equity Strategy for the School Education Sector; the Equity Index formula; and the computation of the Equity Index scores for federal, provincial, and local government levels.

Project Highlights

  • Revising the Equity Strategy and Equity Index formula.
  • Developing tools to support local governments to better understand their index scores and utilize the data for need-based planning and budgeting.
  • Conducting quantitative data analysis from an equity perspective of the 2024 update of the Out of School Children Initiative analysis.
  • Conducting thematic analysis of education and inclusion census data.