Piloting the Expansion of Locally Led Mentoring Programs

In January 2023, Daring Girls and GLAMI published a call for applications from locally led organizations in Africa, but outside Tanzania, to become our very first partner organization to localize and implement Kisa Project or Binti Shupavu in their community. The timeline from our initial annoucement until the application cutoff was only 15 days long. We anticipated receiving around 20 applications, but the response was incredible:

• 198 responses to our pilot partner self-assessment form
• 291 clicks through to our grant application
• Interest in the Binti Shupavu curriculum outweighed interest in the Kisa Project curriculum by nearly 2:1
• More than 70 completed applications submitted for Daring Girls/GLAMI review from a dozen African countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)

The application process alone has taught us that there is not only strong interest, but strong need for the girls’ mentoring programs we support. We have selected our first partner, which will be announced in the fall of 2023, but we are actively seeking funding to expand this pilot to reach three partners in Africa. If your institution is interested in learning how to join us in this effort, please contact us at hello@daringgirls.org.

Why pilot these programs outside Tanzania?

For more than a decade, AfricAid has worked with our local partner, GLAMI (Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative) through the design, implementation and measurement of two mentoring programs for secondary school-aged girls: Kisa Project and Binti Shupavu. These programs are designed to increase graduation rates and prepare Scholars to pursue further education and future careers. Girls who graduate from these mentoring programs regularly pass their final exams at higher rates, with better results than their peers. In 2022, GLAMI was recognized for their leadership of these two programs when they received the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. 

We wanted to make this programming available to more girls, in more places. But we also wanted to understand what elements of the curriculum would need to change to make it as relevant as possible to girls in another community.

What commitment do our pilot partner(s) receive to support program implementation?

Partner(s) receive a two-year commitment of $10,000 per year to implement their selection of either Kisa Project or Binti Shupavu. Grants may be renewable after the initial two years and are subject to increases based on performance and an assessment of the overall partnership. Partners receive a training manual, a program manual, in-person training, a bank of technical assistance per month from a DaringGirls/GLAMI program expert, and additional organizational support from Daring Girls. 

Will you reopen the application process if you are able to secure funding to expand this pilot?

We received an extraordinary number of high quality applications to this pilot. We do not plan to reopen the application process once we are able to expand this pilot. We will instead reach back out to our top applicants to re-gauge their interest in partnering with us before soliciting new applications.