Scaling Global Change

10Government Funding: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

The Triangular Partnership

It was supposed to be called the “Triangular Partnership.” Room to Read was going to develop the teaching and learning materials, UNICEF was going to fund the effort, and the Ministry of Education in Zambia was going to ensure that teachers were trained and materials were being used in classrooms. This was an exciting opportunity. Room to Read had been creating a lot of buzz in Zambia for the rigorous strategies that we were using to help young children learn to read. Officials from all levels of the government had visited the pilot schools in Kafue district, near the capital of Lusaka, to see our work with children in grades 1 and 2. Children were learning to sound out words in ways that had never been seen before.

Although Room to Read’s reading materials were supposed to supplement the government curriculum, some teachers had been ignoring the government textbook completely and were just using the Room to Read student books instead. Teachers, school principals, and government officials were gaining so much confidence in what they had been seeing that UNICEF was keen to scale the approach nationally. The Ministry of Education seemed enthusiastic to support it.

In September 2012, Cory and Room to Read’s global director of literacy traveled to Zambia to work with the country team in the preparation of a proposal for UNICEF’s consideration. Our proposal was to scale the program in another ...