The Independent Evaluator of the Girls’ Education Challenge Phase II is inviting proposals for its Rapid Research and Learning Fund.
The Independent Evaluation (IE) is being conducted by a consortium of partners: Tetra Tech International Development* (Tetra Tech), the Research and Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge, Fab Inc., and a number of academic and data collection partners across Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) II countries.
Drawing on the experience of GEC projects, the RRLF aims to commission and deliver a demand-driven portfolio of research to enhance the evidence-base on girls’ education in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The evidence generated through the Rapid Research and Learning Fund (RRLF) aims to inform GEC project grantees, its Fund Manager, FCDO policymakers, as well as researchers.
Proposals are invited to explore the overarching theme of “Resilience and Girls’ Education in the face of crisis”.
Health, political, economic and environmental crises and emergencies place immense challenges on education systems. The effects on girls’ learning and well-being can be considerable, often disproportionately affecting the more disadvantaged. This has become even more apparent in the light of COVID-19.
This call for proposals invites research that examines issues pertaining to girls’ education in crisis situations including but not limited to COVID-19. This also includes, but is not limited to, investigations into how interventions have responded to crises to develop resilience (of both the girls and the education systems in which they reside) and promote recovery efforts.
The RRLF will support research projects under two modalities:
- Small research projects with a duration of up to 10 months and a budget between £50,000 and £100,000. These can include research projects that analyse secondary GEC data, other relevant data sources, or those undertaking small scale data collection.
- Medium research projects will provide funding to projects for a duration between 10 and 16 months, and a budget between £100,000 and £300,000. Projects under this category must undertake new quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods data collection, and can include secondary data – notably GEC data – in their analysis, in order to answer the proposed research questions.
We particularly invite applications from research organisations based in low and lower middle-income countries.
Applications will need to be submitted by 31 January 2021.
How to apply
Full details on the call, eligibility and the application process can be found on this page: