The Regional Action Plan/Decision Making (RAP-DM) Project  assists the Ministry of Education through capacity strengthening in the areas of planning, financial and budget management, and education objective and activity evaluation in each education academy, or Académie d’Education (AE). This effort is part of USAID/Mali’s Intermediate Result 7.4 of Strategic Objective 7 for education: “The Quality of Basic Education for Boys and Girls Improved.” RAP-DM provides technical assistance to deconcentrated Ministry of Education entities, such as Centers for Pedagogical Animation (CAPs) and AEs, to better plan and manage activities and offer support to the decentralized government structures at their levels.

RAP-DM is implemented according to the following two components:

Component 1: Capacity building activities for regional and district Ministry of Education offices

• Support improved institutional performance
• Support training of AE, CAP, and national directors

• Support ascendant planning process
• Facilitate understanding of the needs of people marginalized by centralized management
• Develop models and tools for decentralized school management

RAP-DM helps the Ministry of Education:

• Set up adequate education planning, monitoring, and financial management systems in each of the country’s 15 AEs;
• Reinforce the Ministry of Education’s commitment to decentralization, particularly in the areas of planning and implementing primary education improvements at the regional and local level;
• Strengthen AEs' capacity to plan, effectively implement, and monitor and evaluate their activities and manage funds;
• Improve Ministry of Education decentralized units’ performance and use of EMIS data analysis in decision making; and
• Develop sound regional education action plans and related budgets.

EQUIP2 Partners
Education Development Center (EDC)

Award Amount
$4,999,239

Award Duration
August 2004 – August 2009

Chief of Party
Douglas Lehman, dlehman@edc.org

USAID CTO
Ibrahima Sissoko, isissoko@usaid.gov

For more information, contact:
Matilda Macklin, mmacklin@aed.org