The PROMOTE project was a training and employment programme for female secondary school teachers in Bangladesh funded by the European Commission, implemented during the period 1996 - 2005 and with a budget of Euro 36 million. The Project's main goal was to facilitate and accelerate a smooth transition to a more gender-sensitive and equitable society in rural Bangladesh by promoting girl-friendly schools and high quality and gender sensitive teaching at secondary level in rural areas. The purpose of the project was to facilitate the employment of more well-trained female teachers in rural secondary schools.

The purpose of this contract was to conduct an ex-post evaluation of the PROMOTE project, with the objective of providing the EU with: (i) an assessment of the results achieved under the project and their sustainability, and; an assessment of the continuation and completion of unfinished project activities by the Government's implementation agency, as agreed at the end of the implementation phase, particularly the completion of hostel construction and the payment of salary subventions.

Specific activities conducted:

• Evaluation of the sustainability of training methods and materials developed under PROMOTE;
• Tracer study of PROMOTE graduates, particularly their employment situation more than 2 years after the project end and exam pass rate;
• Evaluation of the management of the salary subvention payments to PROMOTE teachers by the Government implementing agency;
• Assessment of the physical condition of PROMOTE hostels and their maintenance by the Hostel Management Committees;
• Assessment of the status of 16 unfinished hostels handed over for completion of civil works;
• Evaluation of the present use and the occupancy rate of PROMOTE teacher hostels.

The evaluation described the project results, identified lessons to be learned from project design and implementation and provided concrete advice to the Government of Bangladesh on completion / continuation of activities

Expertise was provided in the areas of:  

• Evaluation of education and gender projects
• Education infrastructure / civil engineering / architecture (building design, construction and quality control and evaluation of civil works including water and sanitation
• EC project cycle management

Services provided as sub-contractor to HTSPE