Nigeria Education Crisis Response: Using Feedback Loops to Drive Project Success

The success of the Nigeria Education Crisis Response (ECR) has largely been determined by its ability to adapt to changing contextual factors and develop meaningful relationships with a broad network of key stakeholders. As a USAID-funded project focusing on expanding access to quality and relevant non-formal education (NFE) opportunities for internally displaced and out-of-school children/youth ages 6 through 17, ECR has used a CLA approach based on the application of feedback loops at multiple levels.

Since its inception in 2014, ECR has evolved its programming to adapt to Nigeria’s volatile northeastern region in five project states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe. ECR’s CLA approach became a powerful tool that not only created a project that was more responsive to its beneficiaries, but also one which was embedded in its communities and built upon local ownership. Through strategic collaboration, ECR has formed trusting relationships and empowered stakeholders to participate in project decision-making by gathering and analyzing evidence to enable its adaptive management.
 

By enabling ECR to adapt its implementation to improve effectiveness, CLA has enhanced organizational capacity and increased development outcomes. ECR has mobilized and trained nearly four dozen nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to establish more than 900 non-formal learning centers (NFLCs). To date, the project has enrolled more than 88,000 learners in a nine-month NFE program focused on basic literacy, numeracy and social emotional learning. Through CLA, it has succeeded in mobilizing community coalitions (CCs) to troubleshoot local implementation challenges and improve the quality, delivery and inclusiveness of its NFE model.