Funder: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Duration: 2026
Location: Tanzania

Shule Bora is a national education programme which aims to improve the quality of pre-primary and primary schools in Tanzania. The programme is working to improve learning outcomes for all children, improve transition rates to secondary schools for girls, reduce physical and sexual violence in and around schools, and help children with disabilities to access quality education.

FHI 360 UK leads the integration of Political Economy Analysis (PEA) into Shule Bora to ensure that workplans are robust, realistic and based on sound understanding of the Tanzania context; that clear risk mitigation strategies are in place; and that harmful practices (institutional or operational) are avoided. Our PEA includes mapping and analysis of the political economy around the education sector and focuses on exploring new stakeholder opportunities outside of existing channels (teachers’ unions, leading CSOs, other major donors like the World Bank), looking at potential stakeholders in industry, the private sector, religious groups, and media.

Our analysis lays the groundwork for understanding the post-election political order, including potential shifts in power dynamics during the current presidential term through 2025, as well as identifying key external drivers behind delivery of public services, especially in the education sector. Additionally, we have integrated PEA expertise into the project team to help members draw on their understanding of the context and political economy, providing them with tools to challenge their assumptions and consider alternative scenarios for successful implementation of Shule Bora interventions. Our work feeds into the wider adaptive management process, informing programmatic decisions such as pursuing or stopping activities, modifying work, collaborating with new or different counterparts, and influencing decision-making. Our methodology includes a mix of macro-level, sector-level, and problem-driven analysis.

In addition to our PEA work, we are providing support and capacity building to the Government of Tanzania on fiduciary risk management and mitigation. In addition to our PEA work, we provide support and capacity building to the Government of Tanzania on fiduciary risk management and mitigation. The main objectives for the national-level Public Financial Management (PFM) work in Shule Bora are to maximize the level of finance entering the education sector from different sources, increase the efficiency with which that finance flows through the system to its intended endpoint, and improve how effectively these funds are allocated at the national level based on priorities and evidence.