Queen Rania Foundation, Jordan

 

 

Programme name Country Date of information
Iqrali (in Arabic: Read to Me) Jordan 24 August 2023

 

Question Answer
About the Organisation  
Organisation name Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development
Organisation address Moh’d Al-Sa’d Al-Batayneh St.

PO. BOX 140141 Amman, Jordan 11814

Goal/objective: this may be your vision/mission Children in Jordan arrive at school ready to learn to read (i.e. have emergent literacy skills) with a focus on shared book reading between parents and their children.
Contact Person Dima Masri
Position of Contact Person Dima Masri: Research and Design Specialist

 

Organisation website www.qrf.org/
Organisation type The Queen Rania Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in 2013 with the belief in the power of education and that every child in Jordan and the Arab world deserves a quality education.

 

Today, half of all children in Jordan cannot read and understand a simple text at the age of ten. The World Bank and UNESCO have classified this as “learning poverty.” QRF’s core programs are designed to ensure that every child reads fluently in Arabic and with comprehension.

 

One of QRF’s strategic programs is the National Behaviour Change Program that targets parents of children aged 5 and under and promotes shared book reading as the main behaviour. This program has 3 core components 1) Social Behaviour Change Communications (SBCC/ messaging) 2) Interventions supporting book reading like the book gifting program and 3) A platform that hosts resources to help parents read effectively with their children among other supporting aspects.

 

The Queen Rania Foundation takes a rigorous, evidence-informed approach to programs. To ensure the National Behaviour Change Program is evidence-informed, QRF conducted two studies: the first is a nationally representative survey of parents to understand their barriers and motivators to engaging in activities such as reading with their children aged 0-5; the second is qualitative research to determine the messaging styles that resonate with parents in Jordan.

About the Programme
Basic details
Programme name Iqrali (in Arabic: Read to Me)
Country/Province/City where the programme takes place Jordan
Year started Set up and implementation: 2023-2026
Programme goal/objective Vision: Children in Jordan arrive at school ready to learn to read, building on the emergent literacy skills they have developed at home with their parents from birth to age 5.

 

Outcome:  A meaningful increase in the number of parents who read to their children as part of a typical day by 2030

 

Outputs:

–          A measurable shift in awareness and attitudes about and towards reading to young children, in the general population and among parents of children from birth to 5​ in Jordan.

–          Measurable increases in access to and engagement with reading resources and activities that support reading among parents of children from birth to 5 in Jordan​ (the book gifting program falls under this output).

–          Parents of children from birth to age 5 are supported in turning intention into action through targeted, measurable interventions that generate evidence on effective support.

–          Partnerships with private sector, public sector and other ECD actors enable the sharing of evidence, practice and amplify efforts and contribute to holistic ECD.

 

Geographic coverage The ultimate objective of the program is to reach national scale. However, we would pilot the interventions depending on the demographics and characteristics of the early adopters (research currently underway to narrow down the first phase of the target audience to the parents who are most likely to pick up the behaviour quickly). Other options could relate to geographic areas e.g.  piloting in one governorate of Jordan or several governorates across the Kingdom.
Are you involved in any other comparable networks? Education Endowment Foundation’s Global Partners Network

International Education Funders Group (IEFG)

mEducation Alliance

Jordan’s National Early Childhood Education Team

 

Purpose of the programme
Not for profit? Yes, non-profit
Religious or political purpose? No
Local consistency of model
Is your programme model consistent across your geographic area, or are there regional differences? Consistent

 

Book Packs
What are the contents of your gifting pack? The number of books:

We are exploring gifting formally through the national vaccination program, which targets children from birth up until 18 months. We expect the total number of books received for the full duration to be between 4-8 books but whether it will be one book per appointment or a different scheme is TBD.

 

Contents will include the age-appropriate book(s) with priority given to quality locally written books relevant to children’s life (where possible).

 

Along with the books, pamphlets and signing up to a chatbot program to support parents is under exploration e.g. information about a platform with resources about reading to their children could be distributed (TBD).

Is your programme offered free of charge to all families? Yes
Partnerships and Delivery
What are your primary ‘points of contact’ with the population you serve? ·       Health clinic

·       QRF’s Social media platform with over 350,000 parents in Jordan and region

·       Consortium partners’ existing programs and channels of communication with parents

Who gifts/hands-out your pack to families/?

 

·       healthcare workers

·       We are considering other channels like product placements e.g. on diapers, distributions through supermarkets and other touchpoints with parents-particularly of children in older age groups.

Please list your other programme partnerships The National Behavioural Change Program which the book gifting project sits within has a number of partners in the following structure:

Consortium partners: QRF has set-up a consortium of the following organisations who can carry the vision through to national execution and maintain the vision, quality and scale nationally. These organisations include: In addition to QRF, the Royal Health Awareness Society, International Rescue Committee, Plan International, National Council for Family Affairs, Busara Center for behavioural economics.

The program taskforce (being set-up): Will mainly feature ministries who work with parents and children under the age of 5 e.g. Ministry of Health.

The taskforce includes technical teams who will focus on social behaviour change messaging, interventions – including building on existing channels and offerings nationally and platform content.

Other partnerships that are envisioned at the more mature phase of the program include, private sector for aspects such as product placement, media partners, NGOs from the national ECD team for dissemination of messaging.

Audience
Is the programme universal or targeted? The program targets parents of children aged birth to 5 in Jordan. However, it is targeted rather than universal as we are working on identifying the ‘movable middle’ or ‘early adopters’ of shared book reading for the first phase of the program.

 

How many children does your programme serve a year? The book gifting is under development and piloting will take a sample of the total population. However, at scale i.e. nationally there is a total of 1,278,000 (based on estimated annual number of births, excluding under five mortality)
At what age/gifting period do children receive your programme. Prenatal

Birth – 6 months

6 – 12 months

12 – 24 months

2-4 years

 

Diversity provision
Does your program include provisions or resources for children with special needs? no

 

What language populations does your programme serve? Arabic, potentially with some wordless books.
Evaluation and research
Have you conducted programme evaluation or research (including longitudinal)?

If yes, has this evaluation/research been published?  Please provide details

Testing of the projects and interventions is planned for the book gifting in addition to the other components of the entire program (SBCC, the varying interventions, platform).

 

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is an integral part of the behaviour change program and its activities. MEL was tackled explicitly within the program’s strategy and a pathway has been mapped.

Further information or comments
Please give us any further information that would be helpful for us and others to understand your programme The book gifting program will run in-person and is expected to include the following components:

–          Book gifting/ provision

–          Modelling/ demonstration of shared book reading

–          Brief information session on the importance of shared book reading to the child’s development