Background

The Africa Education Initiative (AEI) is a multiyear basic education Presidential Initiative that is providing 550,000 scholarships for African girls, training 160,000 new and 260,000 existing teachers, providing 4.5 million textbooks and other learning tools, and increasing the role of parents in their children's education by making school systems more transparent and open to reforms. The Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP) is one of the three components of the AEI. The AGSP began under AEI's predecessor, the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) and focuses on the girls' scholarships and mentoring aspects of the AEI program.

The AGSP now continues under the new initiative with modifications to program focus, management, and administration. The new phase of the AGSP is under the auspices of USAID's Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development, Education Division (AFR/SD/ED).

The AGSP in West Africa/Region 1 is implemented by World Education, Inc. (WEI) and its partner International Evaluation and Training Corporation (IETC), a small business located in western Massachusetts. This program, awarded on September 30, 2004, will administer over 83,333 scholarships and provide supporting activities over four years, with the possibility of an additional 17,000 scholarships in an optional fifth year. Under World Education's auspices, the AGSP is being implemented in 12 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The objective of the AGSP is to support the goal of the AEI to retain girls in school, focusing on girls who would otherwise have no means of continuing their education. This is accomplished through awarding scholarships and encouraging complementary mentoring programs that inspire and encourage girls in their educational pursuits. Additionally, supporting activities focus on HIV/AIDS mitigation and prevention, and community participation and democracy, with collaboration from in-country consultants and NGO partners.