This brief analyzes one of the four major themes in USAID education programming in Sub-Saharan Africa: community engagement, conflict- and crisis-response, gender-based violence, and systems strengthening. These themes were identified through the basic education PPR narratives submitted for fiscal year (FY) 2019. Eighteen Sub-Saharan African countries provided FY 2019 PPR narratives for basic education activities: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In some cases, countries also reported on education activities under other PPR narratives, such as youth, genderbased violence (GBV), gender, or inclusive development. When possible, these programs are included here, which has resulted in the inclusion of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Programs that did not clearly describe a school-based component in the PPR narratives were excluded, so there may be some relevant programming not captured here.
The most frequently mentioned themes across PPR narratives were community engagement, conflict- and crisis-response, and systems strengthening. GBV is elevated as a fourth theme because it is a major priority for USAID and because school-based GBV programs are frequently described in the GBV and gender PPR narratives, even when not included in the basic education narratives. Each thematic area is divided in two sections: 1) background on the theme and its importance, and 2) a snapshot of USAID’s work in these areas, including a list of programs, high-level observations about the nature of the work, and summaries of exemplar projects. Country PPR narratives provide more information on all programs described here.