Project profile — Commonwealth of Learning – Institutional Support 2022-2024

• Oceania, regional (10.00%)
• Asia, regional (25.00%)
• America, regional (15.00%)
• Europe, regional (5.00%)
• Africa, regional (45.00%)

• Education facilities and training:
Education facilities and training (11120) (20.00%)
Teacher training (11130) (10.00%)
• Basic life skills for youth and adults:
Basic life skills for youth and adults (11230) (5.00%)
Basic life skills for youth (11231) (5.00%)
• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (25.00%)
• Post-Secondary Education: Higher education (11420) (30.00%)
• Agriculture: Agricultural education/training (31181) (5.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)

This grant represents Canada's institutional support to the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). The COL uses these funds, along with other donor funding, to achieve its mandate, which is to help governments, institutions and organizations expand the scale, efficiency and quality of learning by using appropriate open, distance and technology-enabled learning. Guided by its 2021-2027 Strategic Plan, the COL focuses its programming and advocacy using distance learning and technologies to achieve improved outcomes in education, skills development and lifelong learning across the Commonwealth. It acts as an enabler, a capacity-builder and a catalyst to empower people through learning that leads to economic growth, social inclusion and environmental conservation. Project activities of COL include: (1) improving the capacity of government staff to develop and implement appropriate open and distance learning (ODL) strategies, policies and programs; (2) improving the capacity of staff and trainers to use, implement and scale up gender-responsive, quality ODL opportunities offered by institutions; (3) facilitating access to learning opportunities, particularly for women and girls, through community sensitization and support; (4) providing mentorship and facilitating access to services and financial resources for entrepreneurship and livelihood development; and (5) establishing partnerships with labour markets, finance and the service industry to facilitate the transition between learning and its practical application in the market.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved national effectiveness in leveraging open and distance learning (ODL); (2) improved institutional effectiveness in leveraging ODL; and (3) increased, equitable and inclusive access to quality learning opportunities, especially for women, girls and people with disabilities.

Results achieved as of July 2023 include: (1) trained 30,116 government and academic institutions’ staff in open and distance learning (ODL), open educational resource (OER), technology-enabled learning (TEL), gender equality (GE) or Commonwealth of Learning (COL) models; (2) developed 117 institutional policies or strategies; (3) developed or improved 535 courses with COL’s support; (4) enrolled 518,928 learners in gender-responsive learning opportunities developed and offered by COL through ODL; and (5) mentored and linked 83,426 learners to financial resources and community services.

• Proactive disclosure