ABOUT

Daara is a vibrant community where education leaders across Africa come together to learn, innovate, and take the lead in implementing education reform in Africa. Its first phase, launched in January 2024, included 11 organisations from 8 countries, all working on foundational learning.

A second 12-month program begins in June 2025. It will bring together participants from the initial cohort with newly selected members.

Learning Crisis

We are facing a global learning crisis where millions of children are in school but are not learning at satisfactory levels. According to the World Bank, 9 out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by the age of 10.

Foundational skills form the basis of all learning. Daara partners have one shared goal: improving children’s literacy and numeracy skills. We now know more about how to teach children to read and do mathematics using approaches that are age-appropriate and effective.

A Change in Focus

To improve the quality of education in Sub-Saharan Africa, a rigorous focus on teaching and learning is needed, combined with local, context-specific solutions led by local implementers.

Daara aims to strengthen the capacity of local implementers within sub-Saharan Africa to champion and enhance their efforts in advancing learning outcomes at scale.

The program has been co-created by 11 organizations across sub-Saharan Africa, coordinated by Better Purpose, and funded by The Gates Foundation.

The program has five primary learning goals, addressing the biggest barriers faced by each organization in achieving its strategic aims.

“ The Daara Development Academy has provided us with a unique opportunity for self-reflection,
helping us identify what practices we want to continue and those we may need to rethink.
It has also given us the freedom to offer targeted coaching opportunities for our staff, ensuring they
receive support where they need it most. ”
Daniel Dotse, CEO and Co-Founder of Lead for Ghana

Values

Collaboration

We believe in the power of working together to achieve shared goals.

Peer Learning

We foster a culture of knowledge sharing and mutual support

Evidence-Based Solutions

We prioritize strategies backed by research and data.

Learning Goals

The program has five primary learning goals, addressing the biggest barriers faced by each organization in achieving its strategic aims:

Building pedagogical excellence– Strengthening organizations’ understanding of the science of teaching and learning, and how to effectively translate this into classroom practice and programming.
Working with government – Supporting organizations to design programs for scalability and work effectively with governments.
Building and leading an organisation – Reinforcing organizations’ talent management strategies to ensure alignment with organizational and market needs.
Strengthening fundraising capability– Supporting organizations to enhance their understanding of and engagement with the funding landscape.
Using and generating evidence – Solidifying organizations’ approaches to leveraging data to ensure programming and impact are evidence-driven.

Learning will take place through study tours, expert lectures, workshops, conferences, coaching, consultancy support, and technical assistance, with a focus on collaboration and peer learning among the cohort.

The program will also include an Innovation Fund. This central fund allows Daara partners to propose and bid for collaborative projects aimed at improving foundational learning outcomes. Ultimately, Daara aims to better equip local Sub-Saharan African organizations so they can lead the transformation of education for children in Africa, resulting in drastically improved learning outcomes.

Testimonials

FAQ

What does Daara mean?

Daara means “Learning” in commonly used languages in West Africa.

What is Daara about?

Daara is a model of support for effective organizations to strategically develop and grow to work at greater scale. It builds on a learning network that supports leaders from diverse local organizations and aims to empower these organizations that are active in the foundational learning sphere, by providing the training, resources, and collaboration needed, while also creating a dynamic and solid network working towards the same goals: to address the learning crisis and ensure every child receives a quality education. Learning takes place through study tours, expert lectures, workshops, conferences, coaching, consultancy support, and technical assistance, with a focus on collaboration and peer learning among the cohort.

The curriculum also includes an Innovation Fund. This central fund allows Daara partners to propose and bid for collaborative projects aimed at improving foundational learning outcomes.

Why such a project?

Learning outcomes within Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly dire, with 9 out of 10 children unable to read with comprehension by the age of 10 (compared to 1 out of 10 children in high-income countries). It is crucial to focus on the quality of education provided in public schools, and in particular on teaching and learning.

This project is meant to be a driver for improving the quality of implementation of foundational learning (FL) programs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To achieve this most effectively, we believe that a pipeline of expert, locally-led implementing organizations is needed, who can take a leading role in working with sub-Saharan African governments to design and implement, drive and sustain improvements in FL outcomes at scale.

What are the main components of the project?

The project is built around 5 strategic aims or components :

Building pedagogical excellence – Strengthening organizations’ understanding of the science of teaching and learning, and how to effectively translate this into classroom practice and programming.
Using and generating evidence – Solidifying organizations’ approaches to leveraging data to ensure programming and impact are evidence-driven.
Working with the government – Supporting organizations to design programs for scalability and sustainability and work effectively and strategically with governments.
Building and leading an organization – Reinforcing organizations’ talent management strategies to ensure alignment with organizational and sector needs.
Strengthening fundraising capability – Supporting organizations to enhance their understanding of and engagement with the funding landscape.

What are the criterias for becoming a partner?

We are looking for partner organizations who:

Already:

Believe that a focus on learning outcomes is important;
Believe that education outcomes can improve and that they are well-placed to lead this improvement in SSA;
Are committed to developing local leadership, including diverse leadership, of education programs;
Are committed to excellence for students and their teachers; use data and evidence to make decisions; and are thoughtful and reflective.

Are seeking:

To be leaders in improving the pedagogical quality of education programs, nationally, regionally and globally;
To build the importance of pedagogy in designing effective education programs and work to translate this into implementation of key components of education programs (textbooks, lesson guides, teacher training, teacher support, technology);
To co-create this program for their own organizational growth and for that of other organizations;
To support improvement and challenge the status quo constructively, be open to constructive scrutiny and be willing to act on findings;
To commit to engaging fully in this program.

Who are Daara partners?

Learn about our partners….

Which countries are the Daara partners coming from?

How can I learn more about Daara?

“Have questions, feedback, or need assistance? We’re here to help you!”