Centre for Youth and Development

The Centre for Youth and Development (CYD) tackles the challenge of Children and Youth failing to reach their educational potential by partnering with them, their schools, communities, and governments to design and deliver solutions that equip them with skills to attain further education, overcome gender inequities, start businesses, get jobs, and drive development in their communities.

CYD is part of a consortium implementing a 6-year Malawi Government program called Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT). The Programme is a national rollout of a tablet-based learning intervention to all pupils in Standards 1-4 in public primary schools, reaching approximately 3.8 million learners in 6,000 schools. The rollout will be implemented in six different phases spanning from year 1 to year 6, from September 2023 to August 2029.

The Programme goal is to improve pupil learning outcomes in reading and numeracy through supplemental use of individualized, self-paced instruction delivered through specialized apps on Android tablets in standards 1-4 in all public primary schools in Malawi.

The Programme is implemented by the Ministry of Education and led by the Directorate of Open Distance and Learning (DODeL) and the Directorate of Basic Education (DBE) with support from a consortium comprising Imagine Worldwide (IW), Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), one billion (OB), Implementation Support Partners (ISPs) and Technical Support Partners (TSPs). In the first phase, CYD is the Implementation Support Partner for Mzimba North and South Educational Districts responsible for providing operational and implementation support in the targeted 99 Schools.