[{"bbox": [91, 153, 187, 264], "category": "Text", "text": "to people and the organisation)"}, {"bbox": [91, 284, 253, 309], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Lessons Learnt:"}, {"bbox": [91, 328, 1162, 412], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU has been providing BS to Cambodia in the field of education since the early 2000's. An evaluation covering the 2018-2023 programme was finalized in early January 2023 to provide independent and structured recommendations and lessons learnt."}, {"bbox": [91, 431, 1162, 546], "category": "Text", "text": "The evaluation concluded that the programme was high-relevant; very effective at output level (with less evidence at outcome level), highly efficient, also thanks to its good flexibility to adapt to the changing context (mainly COVID school closures) and with reasonable sustainability, with many of the achievements, mainly for the scholarships in basic education, the school operating funds to be embedded in the national budget."}, {"bbox": [91, 563, 1162, 617], "category": "Text", "text": "The main lessons learnt and findings of the evaluation can be summarized as follows – with indication on how this has informed the action:"}, {"bbox": [91, 634, 1162, 1625], "category": "Table", "text": "<table><thead><tr><td>Main lesson learnt and findings from the previous (2018-2023) action</td><td>How this has informed the new (2024-2028) action design</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Good level of relevance, effectiveness efficiency, sustainability and ownership by the Government of the programme.</td><td>Pursuit of the BS approach with the MoEYS and the MEF</td></tr><tr><td>Despite the good output achievement of the programme, and due to COVID school closures, national data shows that learning outcomes have further deteriorated. Data and evidence consistently shows issues with high levels of drop-out, peaking in secondary where boys are disproportionately affected</td><td>The Specific Objective 2 of the programme (Improved overall cost-efficiency and governance of the education sector effectively integrating gender mainstreaming), and Induced Outputs 2.1 and 2.2 focus on data quality and inclusiveness, as well as the cost-efficiency and governance of the sector. It enhances even more the linkages between this action and the on-going action on PFM, to increase transparency and better investment in the system to unpack and solve bottlenecks towards improved learning outcomes including reducing high drop-outs..</td></tr><tr><td>When achievements kick-started and supported by the EU funding are embedded in the national budget, they become permanent and therefore sustainable. Some example of that are: basic education scholarships, school operating funds and community pre-schools.</td><td>Based on the success story of expanding sustainably basic education scholarships, school operating funds and community pre-schools, the variable tranche indicator focus at concrete achievable output-oriented changes (such as scholarships for secondary, technical and higher education) with reasonable objectives, so that the achievement can be sustained. The action supports both output-based and normative targets (i.e. spearheading and approval of policies) to increase sustainability further.</td></tr><tr><td>High number of indicators and areas covered implied a higher management charge and could have “diluted” the policy dialogue on the achievement of the targets instead than on more structural issues. The “Met” or “Not Met” approach is sometimes seen unfair by the RGC; at the same time overly-complex calculation methods of the achievement led to unnecessary detailed discussions on the exact disbursement.</td><td>The action is structured around few specific priorities and six indicators/induced outputs (versus ten before). The complementary measures of the new programme are clearly and specifically supporting the same areas of the induced outputs with technical assistance and capacity building, to inform the policy dialogue on the structural issues encompassing the supported policies. Whenever possible and relevant, simple calculation methods for scalable targets are proposed.</td></tr></tbody></table>"}, {"bbox": [1026, 1680, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 18 of 34"}]