Making Waves: Gender-Responsive Radio Education in the DRC is an innovative Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) initiative that will reach over 28,000 beneficiaries targeting out-of-school children and youth between the ages of 12 and 16 over the next two years. The project builds upon War Child Canada’s 20 years of education experience in both formal and non-formal settings with nearly fifteen years of successful programming in the DRC, including a four-year pilot of IRI.
STS conducted research on the efficacy of accelerated learning delivered through IRI when compared to traditional accelerated learning programs. With War Child Canada, STS defined research questions and methodology as well as coordinated research logistics and in-country field work. STS adapted existing French EGRA subtasks to create a learning assessment with new EGMA subtasks. We also created a student psychosocial questionnaire (adapted from the ILET rapid version), teacher questionnaire, and key informant interview protocols for teachers, students, and parents. The evaluation results provided War Child Canada and its partners with evidence-based, actionable recommendations for program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.