British Council – English Connects

British Council - English Connects

Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 - 2021

Countries

Lead M&E Consultant(s)

Nicky Hockly, Gavin Dudeney, Michael Watts & Guillem Bonilla. Supported by a team of six additional TCE Consultants.

Project Overview

The English Connects programme aims to connect the UK to beneficiaries in francophone and lusaphone Africa through English; to improve the employability, resilience, and networks of young people; and to support senior policy makers in this endeavour. A team of TCE consultants carried out summative evaluations of the multi-strand English Connects programme in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for two programme phases.

Approaches & Outputs

TCE used a mixed methods approach to collect, triangulate, and analyse data from the 10 ‘sub-programmes’ included in this programme. Outputs included: 12 literature reviews, a theory of change and a large logframe with 100+indicators, an evaluation plan, a range of qualitative and quantitative evaluation instruments, progress and final evaluation reports.

Impact On

42 Ministry of Education officials in 12 countries; 250 MoE trainers; 15,000 English language teachers; 2,000 English Clubs attendees; 9,000 online language learners.

Challenges

Changes in context included a move from f2f, in-country M&E data collection in the first phase, to fully online M&E in the second phase due to the COVID-19 pandemic. TCE’s long experience in delivering online M&E ensured a smooth transition, with additional training, guidelines and support given to members of the 6-member TCE data collection team less experienced in running online FGDs.

British Council – English Connects