Pivoting our solution in times of COVID-19 school closures — Education for Humanity: Powered by SolarSPELL in Ethiopia
Written by the Education for Humanity Team
The Ethiopian Ministry of Education had just agreed to provide us with their national curriculum and then schools closed for COVID-19.
Sadly, as we looked at all of the digital files we were continuing to receive, we hit the pause button on our aspirations for Education for Humanity’s SolarSPELL project in Ethiopia. Who was going to fund this now? After all, the program was designed to be an in-school solution, providing teachers and students with solar-powered, offline learning libraries, including the national curriculum. All of the evidence of impact we have on SolarSPELL lends itself to this in-school model.
In partnership with the Agency for Refugees and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), the Ethiopian government agency that oversees education in refugee communities, the Education for Humanity team had been planning to reach the most remote refugees and host communities without a need for the infrastructure they lacked such as electricity and internet. The Ministry of Education showed an interest in using SolarSPELL countrywide to turn large, empty rooms into e-libraries, where hundreds of students who lack printed books could congregate into these rooms in order to access textbooks and supplemental learning resources (virtual lab simulations, videos, English training materials, etc.). Then, COVID-19 came and we did not see a path forward, despite continued interest from local authorities
However, still buoyed by our discussions with local partners and the release of the country’s COVID-19 response plan, which notably included challenges regarding the delivery of books and that there will be teacher home-visits in remote refugee communities, we strategized to create a plan that could use our existing idea but within the new context of COVID-19 and continuity of learning at home. We spoke with in-country partners about our ideas, and they agreed that SolarSPELL could be a valuable tool in the COVID response. In response to our uncertainty regarding access to wifi-enabled technology, UNHCR education experts confirmed that enough teachers and community members have a smartphone and would be willing to download textbooks to their devices for this to be impactful (no data is required when transferring content from the SolarSPELL to personal devices).
The timing coincided serendipitously with the announcement for the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA) competition. Knowing of the successful and innovative solutions pitched during the initial HEA a few years ago, we knew this opportunity presented a chance to refine the idea and see if it could gain traction in a highly competitive competition.
We submitted our application and were fortunately selected to pitch for the HEA competition to a panel of expert reviewers. Thankfully, we were selected, and here we are today, having just finished the inaugural virtual HEA weeklong bootcamp, workshopping our ideas with experts from around the world and humbly learning from peers who are trying to solve similar problems in other low resource settings.
Through the HEA bootcamp we have been able to refine our processes and explore the program design that is required to meet the specific needs of our multi-tiered stakeholders while embracing the inevitable need for continued iteration. The bootcamp, even in virtual form, created a space for our team to collaborate and focus on this project in ways we had not previously, both given its change in direction due to COVID and also because of the expertise and advice available during the week. In a week full of “aha!” moments, three particular topics surface that will prove continually valuable as we revisit and revise our approach:
- Identifying and Testing Assumptions
The bootcamp required a detailed level of analysis on every component of our program design, mandating that we take no assumption for granted. This helped our team “zoom in” on the micro-level and establish a framework for verifying assumptions in an expedient manner, noting the items that “would sink the ship” if our assumptions turned out to be inaccurate.
- Prototyping in a COVID Context
Although our team has typically considered early prototyping practices that might help us move quickly to understand the needs of the population we serve, we have not done so as comprehensively in the COVID context. The bootcamp pushed us to consider how we can ethically prototype and reach reliable conclusions in innovative ways. Centered primarily on leveraging community experts and technology to solicit first-hand experiential accounts, we are excited by how much our “toolkit” for prototyping has expanded
- Pathways to Scale
As we navigated the spectrum between micro/macro approaches, the ability to scale was an omnipresent question. In considering scalability of the initiative, we were encouraged to consider the various pillars of sustainability, including the importance of government stakeholders, logistical partners, and the type of scaling that we desired (i.e. disseminate independently, via association with another entity, etc.). Budgetary considerations underpin many of these conversations, but the bootcamp emphasized the importance of creating an informed scaling plan and being confident in working to see it through.
To an observer, it would be safe to say that the HEA opportunity has fulfilled its objective in identifying a number of highly innovative solutions that can have immediate impact as a COVID response. However, as a participant, the experience has created so much more than can be captured in a description of the winning proposals. The bootcamp exposed each of us to new people, ideas, and challenged us to leave our comfort zones and consider new methods for reaching our goals. Whether speaking to fellow participants, engaging with expert panelists, or discussing bootcamp takeaways with team members, we have deepened our understanding of our own proposed solutions and come away motivated and confident to see them being implemented. The benefit to this is surely not limited to the winning teams, but rather will be seen across all of the communities with whom these teams work, with indirect benefits beyond what even the most sophisticated M&E models (which were also discussed) could capture.
In spring 2020, we were dejected as the arrival of COVID appeared to have extinguished the opportunity to implement an innovative solution in Ethiopia in tandem with government and local communities. However, due in large part to HEA, the Education for Humanity team is now equipped with a stronger, more flexible approach that stands to benefit learners and teachers in the immediate context as well as a sustaining model with the potential to impact millions in Ethiopia and beyond. We are grateful and humbled by our participation in the Accelerator and pledge to enthusiastically carry this momentum forward.
