Background
In 2003, the Government of Kenya made primary school education free which has seen the enrollment rates in primary school almost double since then. Despite increased primary school enrollment, education advancement has been limited with only one to four youth of official secondary-school age accessing secondary school education. Education advancement has been greatly weakened as a result of AIDS related problems, foremost being a major increase in poverty levels and inability to pay school fees. In the “Education Sector Policy for HIV and AIDS” launched by the Kenya Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) in 2013 it states that “it emphasizes the need to ‘mobilize communities support HIV infected and/or affected (p.22). The Policy further commits the Government of Kenya to ‘collaborate with …development partners… private sector and other stakeholders to address the needs of OVC and learners living with HIV to enhance completion of their education’ (p. 22). Therefore, in order to encourage education institutions to assist children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS pandemic to complete their education, and with the belief that such education will help reduce the risk of infection, the U.S Government through funding from the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), funded the OVC Scholarship and Leadership Program (the Wings to Fly Program).
The Economic Survey for 2014 shows that many children are not able to transition from primary to secondary school. For instance in 2013 there were 10.2 million children enrolled in primary school. At the same time there were only 2.1 million enrolled in secondary schools (Kenya: Economic Survey, 2014, p.11). This means that although secondary school enrollment has been increasing steadily, there is Wings To Fly Mid-term Performance Evaluation 80 still a big wastage and many children are not able to transition to secondary school. High poverty levels and effects of HIV/Aids are some of the factors that bar many primary school leavers from joining secondary schools.
The Wings to Fly scholarship program is a public-private partnership between USAID, Equity Group Foundation, Mastercard Foundation (MCF), UKaid, KfW and other partners. The project provides full scholarships that include tuition, room, and board to enable academically gifted but economically disadvantaged and vulnerable children to pursue secondary and tertiary education. The selected young people also receive leadership training, career guidance, and personal mentoring to help them maximize their potential. USAID’s contribution of $26.5 million supports 2,678Wings to Fly scholars over a five year period; plus an additional 500 scholars inherited from a previous scholarship program. In total the USAID funding support 3100 scholars. Overall, the Wings to Fly partnership is supporting 8,219 young Kenyans with access to a full secondary education by 2019 (3,583funded by MCF, 590 by UKAID and 350 by Kfw, 12 by Vitol Foundation and 1,006 by others). The program is an initiative of Equity Bank who reached out to other partners to support the program. The current funding from all the partners stand at $128m of which USAID contributes 20.7% using PEPFAR funds.
USAID is one of the lead donors for the Wings to Fly program and has utilized PEPFAR funds to support the program. The Wings to Fly project is implemented by prime partner, Equity Group Foundation and reaches scholars from across the country. The project has no sub partners.
Duration: The evaluation exercise lasted 6 months, From November 2014 to May 2015