Donor collective to tackle South Africa’s foundational education challenge 

Foundational literacy and numeracy skills are crucial for educational success and lifelong learning. South Africa faces significant challenges in this area, with alarmingly low proficiency rates among primary school learners. An emerging donor collaborative aims to respond to these challenges, bringing together resources, expertise and a shared commitment to improve educational outcomes at scale for South African learners. 

The state of foundational literacy and numeracy in South Africa is dire. According to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) report, 81% of grade 4 learners (10-year-olds) in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2019 showed that 63% of South African grade 5 learners lack basic numeracy skills. These statistics speak to a crisis in foundational early education that demands urgent and coordinated action. 

Historically, donors have worked individually, presenting separate plans to the government to address these issues. However, the emerging Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Donor Group, a collective of donors with a long track record of working in the education sector, in partnership with government, has set out to tackle the problem together. Recognising that educational change takes time, the funders have committed to a long-term partnership. Zenex Foundation CEO Gail Campbell and Epoch and Optima Trust Head Sarah Cairns, both FLN Donor Group steering committee members, explain how several factors came together to make this collaboration possible.  

“We know how serious South Africa’s education crisis is, but the release of the PIRLS results in 2021 was a stark reminder for the public, igniting renewed private sector energy as well as focus from the DBE to try and address it. With provinces tasked with developing reading strategies and plans, the timing is right to channel resources into targeted interventions that can make a meaningful and lasting difference,” says Cairns.  

She notes that the release of these insights on the state of Foundation Phase education coincided with strategic reviews of several major donor organisations, including the Anglo American-funded Epoch and Optima Trusts, the Maitri Trust and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. These reviews resulted in the prioritisation of foundational literacy and numeracy in funder strategies.  

Campbell adds that the government’s increased openness to working in partnership, together with a growing body of evidence about what works in improving literacy and numeracy added to the impetus. These factors, combined with the global and local move towards donor collaboration as a driver of systemic change, particularly around education, have created fertile ground for the FLN Donor Group. 

Pooling donor resources to amplify impact 

Multiple funders pooling their resources, expertise and efforts to address complex societal challenges that are too large for any single organisation to tackle effectively are an opportunity for systemic change. The model allows for greater impact, sharing of risk, and the leveraging of diverse skills and networks. 

In its article ‘Collaborating to Systemically Address Social Justice in South Africa’, IPASA explores how multisectoral funder collaboration can powerfully bring about much-needed, transformative social change, particularly in the education sector.  

“Education remains one of the most powerful tools for advancing social justice, yet many South Africans still lack access to quality education. Collaborative philanthropy can focus on improving education outcomes through addressing underlying inequity and social justice issues in underserved communities by funding teacher training, digital learning platforms and infrastructure improvements,” writes article author and IPASA Executive Director Louise Driver.  

The idea is not a new one in the education space. The Global Partnerships for Education (GPE), the largest international fund dedicated to transforming education in lower-income countries, was established in 2002. The multistakeholder partnership brings together partners invested in education, including donors, international organisations, civil society, the private sector and private foundations, to transform education systems in lower-income countries. GPE has helped partner countries to improve access to education, learning, equity and educational outcomes for millions of children. 

Closer to home, South Africa’s NECT was established in 2013, also with the mission of mobilising a network of partners to strengthen government capacity to improve education (see pages 133–134 and page 227 for more information on NECT).  

FLN Donor Group collaboration 

Donor collaborations can take different forms, from learning collaboratives and giving circles to pooled funds. The FLN Donor Group – comprised of like-minded, strategically aligned donors – combines knowledge and financial resources, pooling the latter into a fund to support foundational literacy and numeracy at a provincial level.  

The collaboration, which emerged out of a Zenex-convened session of interested parties in 2022, aims to work closely with South African provincial governments to support the implementation of evidence-based strategies to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes in Foundation Phase education, or grade R to grade 3. 

Cairns explains that the collaboration is built on a sound set of general principles and a common understanding of what works in foundational literacy and numeracy, in particular, the research Early Grade Interventions in South Africa: Reading and Mathematics. “The research points to the importance of quality learning materials and working in the classroom with teachers, among other interventions, to make a difference,” comments Cairns.  

In its planning phase, the FLN Donor Group’s organising group, composed of funders and interested parties, has established the necessary structures to support additional funders and stakeholders coming on board later. 

Fortunately the convening donors understood early on that the collaborative process itself requires funding and several participating funders provided seed funding to make this possible, comments Campbell. The Gates Foundation provided resources to commission a review of existing literacy interventions reaching more than 50 schools to ensure that the collaborative’s deliberations were informed by evidence.  

In 2023, the convening group developed a concept note and a steering committee with three working groups to manage the complexities of setting up such a large collaboration. 

The stakeholder engagement working group was tasked with identifying the relevant stakeholders, potential donors and other interested parties and establishing engagement processes and protocols. The legal and governance working group focused on establishing the collaborative structure and decision-making processes. The budget and project design working group set out to establish exactly what the collaborative would do and the associated costs.  

Balancing inclusivity and efficiency, the collaborative’s decision-making power will be based on funding contribution in a tiered structure. Funders that have committed above a defined threshold will comprise core or anchor funders, while those contributing less than the threshold will be considered partner funders. A third tier will comprise associated parties that contribute neither to finance nor decision-making but are represented in discussion and provide insight.  

Organising the collaborative’s decision-making this way was based on research into the functioning of local and international donor collaborations. “While driving consensus is the goal of collaboration, it is necessary to decide early on how decisions will be made in the absence of consensus. The general feedback from our survey of successful collaboratives found that financial contributions seem to be the best way to manage a complex set of donors with layers of decision-making,” explains Campbell.  

The decision was made early on that the collaborative would not establish itself as a separate legal entity. Instead, it is in the process of selecting a fund administrator to manage the pooled funds and make disbursements to service providers for the various provincial interventions. A project management office will oversee day-to-day operations.  

M&E planning 

The FLN Donor Group initiative will commit 10% of its budget to M&E to ensure rigorous impact measurement. While specific metrics are still being developed, these will likely include improvements in literacy and numeracy rates, teacher competency and the scalability of interventions, among other measures.