The UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) would like to correct press reports suggesting that DFID funding to the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) ended at the close of the first term of the current school year.
The BEAM is a government social protection programme, implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services under the National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children II. DFID has been supporting the BEAM since 2009. In March 2012, DFID responded to an emergency request from the Government of Zimbabwe to provide $15 million to the BEAM to enable approximately 400,000 children from resource-constrained households to attend primary school for all three terms of the 2012 school year. Funds for the first and second school terms have been disbursed and disbursement of funds for the third term is expected to commence shortly.
Crown Agents is managing DFID’s current funding to the BEAM which includes monitoring the delivery of funds directly to the bank accounts of primary schools. UNICEF maintains a coordinating role.
DFID is also providing more than $36 million to the second phase of the Education Transition Fund (ETF II), managed by UNICEF, which aims to support the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture’s efforts to bring quality education to all children in Zimbabwe, with a special focus on orphans and vulnerable children.
Since February this year the UK Government has committed over $350 million to help ensure that the poorest people in Zimbabwe have access to basic services such as education, health, water and sanitation.
For further details of any of these programmes please see http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Africa-Eastern--Southern/Zimbabwe/
