Leveraging an Integrated Program Design to Maximize Reach:
Observations from USAID’s Malawi Early Grade Reading Activity.
T. S. Slade, RTI International, Malawi.
tslade@rti.org
USAID’s Malawi Early Grade Reading Activity (EGRA) provides technical assistance to the Government of Malawi to improve the reading performance of learners in Standards 1–3. One of the EGRA’s cross-cutting themes focuses on students with disabilities. Only approximately 3% of EGRA’s budget was earmarked for disability programming. The presentation discusses concrete lessons that RTI and Perkins International have learned over the course of EGRA’s implementation with the goal of supporting other USAID implementers’ efforts to effectively integrate an inclusive approach. It also examines some of the challenges an embedded approach to design poses for post-hoc accounting of funds allocated toward disability programming.
