Review of the Education Sector Reform Contract

Detailed description of project Back

Within the framework of the ESRC (AAP2015), the European Union (EU) provides financial assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic during Kyrgyz fiscal years 2016-2018. This assistance is provided through a foreign currency facility channeled into the national budget. The overall objective is to support the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to implement structural reforms in the Education Sector in order to enhance the quality of human capital, alleviate poverty, stimulate socio-economic development, and improve the quality of life of the citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Under the EU guidelines for budgetary aid operations, the disbursement of EU budgetary support to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is conditional upon the implementation of a set of reform outcomes agreed between the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the EU. A maximum total amount of € 30 million could be transferred to the Kyrgyz state budget during the fiscal years 2016-2018. The Financing Agreement between the European Commission and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic was signed in April 2016. The disbursement of the first instalment of EUR 10,000,000 (EUR 3,000,000 fixed and EUR 7,000,000 variable tranches) will indicatively take place during the second semester of 2016, while the two following instalments of a maximum of EUR 10,000,000 each are expected to be disbursed in the second semesters of 2017 and 2018.In line with the EU Budget Support Guidelines the Programme foresees General Conditions that are applied to the disbursement of all the instalments; and Special Conditions that are applied to individual variable instalments.

The overall objective of the assignment is to provide a detailed review of the implementation of the ESRC 2015 and to enable the EU to use the outcomes of the reviews for decisions on instalment disbursement and programme execution, as well as to contribute to the Programming exercise to be funded by the Annual Action Plan 2018.

The first specific objective is to conduct review missions, one during the fiscal year 2016 for the disbursement of the first fixed and variable instalments, another one during 2017 for the disbursement of the second fixed and variable instalments and the third mission during 2018 for the disbursement of the final fixed and variable instalments.

The second specific objective is to contribute to the Programming process to be funded from AAP 2018.

Type of services provided

• The first review mission will verify compliance with conditions attached to the release of the first tranche. The conclusions of the first review mission will be used to decide upon the disbursement of the first fixed and variable instalments of the ESRC (€3 mill and €7 mill respectively), indicatively scheduled for the second half of 2016;
• The second review mission will verify compliance with conditions and/or achievement of targets attached to the release of the second tranche. The conclusions of the second review mission will be used to decide upon the disbursement of the second fixed and variable instalments under the programme (€3 mill and €7 mill respectively), indicatively by the third quarter of 2017;
• The final review mission will verify compliance with conditions and/or achievement of targets attached to the release of the third tranche. The conclusions of the third review mission will be used to decide upon the disbursement of the third (final) fixed and variable instalments under the programme (€3 mill and €7 mill respectively), indicatively by the third quarter of 2018;
• Analysis and preparations of background and baseline papers, incl. Identification and Action documents, as well as other services which may occur during the programming exercise related to the education programme package of about EUR 36 million under AAP 2018.

The expert team consists of:

• Team Leader/Assessment Expert;
• Education Assessment Expert.