## **Trustees Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2023.** This Annual Report covers the short period from 31st March to 30th June 2023 (as the previous Annual Report had covered the prior period) and a detailed update to the end of March 2024, the date of this Report. In summary, the last twelve months have been very productive, both in terms of reviewing the ongoing M&E work, evaluating the second year of the pilot ECE project and, most importantly, finalising work on a new potential strategic partnership with HAC in Holland and Kigali. Three Trustee visits have been made to Rwanda during this period to follow-up on these three initiatives-two in the summer of 2023 (including the July monitoring visit signalled in the last Annual Report) and one in February 2024. There has been no change in the charity’s purpose, objectives or scale since 2022. As in previous years, the Trustees therefore believe there is no need for the charity to have a policy on reserves or the induction or training of Trustees. The Trustees believe the charity is not exposed to any major risks and therefore no systems or procedures are required to manage such risks. Specifically no external fundraising activities were undertaken during the year or are currently planned in the medium term. ## M&E Study 2022/3 Given the very preliminary results obtained from the first year study, R4SR agreed to fund a second year of data collection by HAC across the three ECE centres and adjoining primary schools in 2023. This increased the sample size significantly across the target and control groups to over 300 children across two school years and a late start to data collection added to the complexity of the exercise. The results were concluded in October 2023 and presented very similar findings to the first year-the graduation rate from P1 was 54% (52% in the prior year) for the target group versus 34% in the control group (32%). Whilst the uplift is significant at approx 50%, the absolute graduation rates overall remain very low, highlighting again the importance of other factors, such as socioeconomic status, impacting on outcomes. Similar results also applied across the two years to attendance, with the target group exhibiting 5% non-attendance for more than 50% of the time versus 11% for the control group. As a result of these findings, R4SR agreed to fund most of the costs of one more year of the study and also determine whether an independent consultant could be identified this year who would add credibility to assessing and reporting on the full three years of data for external audiences and potential fundraising after 2024. In the summer of 2024 two workshops were also held with parents and teachers at two of the ECE centres and nearby primary schools to gather their qualitative feedback on the intervention. This was a limited sample of interviews. The generalised findings can be summarised as follows: Target group children exhibit more discipline and confidence in time keeping, concentration and personal hygiene. They have stronger social skills and are less aggressive; The parent-caregiver relationship can be an important and additive one. The latter can emphasise to parents, for example, the benefits of regular ECE attendance and homework; The gap in performance between the target and control groups may reduce over time as some members of the control group may catch up and some in the target group may underperform. But a gap is viewed by teachers as likely to persist rather than fade; The target group may also raise overall performance standards, although without a counterfactual this cannot be proven. This M&E exercise has highlighted the significant limitations in attempting to assess the impact of such an intervention in ECE. The high cost, time taken and technical limitations of the work (versus say, an RCT) are all problematic but R4SR has concluded the data collected to date is additive to the debate on the efficacy of ECE centres in Rwanda. ## Results of Second Monitoring Visit. In July 2023 the model centre in Nyamata and low cost centre in Nyarugenge were both visited. There were two key findings identified. Firstly, the Rwandan Government has significantly increased its local budget support for ECE centres which meet the Government’s minimum build specifications. In practice this means the remuneration of all the R4SR centres’ care givers is now met by the local District, alongside 90% of the cost of a school meal. This is a highly significant and positive development, as it has reduced the parents’ cost per child per term to approx $0.8/term. The sustainability of all three centres is therefore now also underpinned by Government funding as opposed to relying on community support and social capital. This was an aspiration when the project was first developed but not guaranteed when the centres first opened. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest the R4SR project has contributed to this systemic change in funding support, as the Nyamata centre in particular has been showcased by District and Government officials since opening. Secondly, school attendance at all three centres has increased dramatically over the last eighteen months. The model centre now accommodates approx 300 children and the two remote centres have over 200 children each, more than double the original capacity. Despite the addition of the two new remote classrooms referenced in the last Annual Report, children are once again experiencing open-air teaching. This has brought the total number of children attending the centres to 800 versus the original capacity of just under 400. On one level the project is clearly outperforming one of its major measurable objectives-improving access to ECE in the rural areas of Bugesera. But there is now significant pressure on infrastructure and staffing at all the centres. It is not possible to determine the extent to which this is impacting on the quality of teaching being provided and therefore the children's preparedness for primary school. Government support to address this is evidenced by the centres now employing and paying for seventeen caregivers in total versus only making a contribution to the original nine. Clearly this increased financial support has also played a part in the major uplift in school attendances, as places have become much more affordable. This is where the trade-off between quality and access becomes a challenge and a reality. This is an issue R4SR is actively reflecting on as it contemplates how best to learn from and scale its next intervention in ECE in Rwanda, after this pilot. ## HAC and a New Strategic Plan R4SR has actively engaged with HAC in Rwanda and Kigali over the last nine months on the potential for building on the learnings and results of this pilot ECE project and developing a new, medium term strategic partnership. This period coincided with HAC also working on a new ten year strategic plan itself for Rwanda. The organisation is planning to increase its focus on ECE going forward, with an ambitious target of contributing to the education of up to 120,000 children in Rwanda over the next ten years. Whilst these discussions were still at an early stage, HAC in Holland approached R4SR at the end of 2023 for its input on the possibility of supporting HAC in a project bidding process being run by the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) in Rwanda. This programme is a collaboration with The Ministry of Rwanda and is partially funded by the Rwandan Government . It aims to improve child development and school readiness outcomes for approximately 56,000 children by using an innovative Outcome Based Finance model. Payments are made to implementers based on the achievement of independently evaluated predefined performance metrics. Five tranches (each of $2m) will be made available to selected implementers for them to cover improving approx 100 existing community ECE centres in rural Rwanda over a four year period and across a range of child development outcomes. After careful consideration R4SR decided to support HAC exclusively in this bidding process. Clearly the existing relationship with HAC was a major factor in this decision but it was also based upon: (i) HAC’s domain expertise and strong reputation in this space in Rwanda; (ii) HAC’s consortium partnership with AEE Rwanda, a very credible implementing partner at scale, with both having worked successfully on R4SR’s pilot project (iii) R4SR’s indicative pre-funding commitment of $300k being highly additional, scaleable and also its crowding in of 2-3x more capital in supporting HAC’s bid (iv) the innovative, performance based approach, designed to improve both quality and access to ECE, which may result in R4SR capital being recycled, thereby increasing its impact further. The switch to upgrading existing community based ECE centres as opposed to funding new build ECE centres was deemed within the scope of R4SR’s stated objectives. It was also justified by R4SR needing to explore alternatives to high ECE new build construction costs in Rwanda, to help improve the scale and impact of R4SR’s capital. It is also possible that R4SR, if it is successful in bidding with this consortium, could consider raising external funding for the first time. Both R4SR and HAC submitted formal EOIs in the first round of the EOF process in February. R4SR submitted as an ‘impact investor’ with the option to team up with others if HAC is not selected as an implementer. As at the date of this Annual Report the results of this first round bidding process are still outstanding. It is anticipated the E0F’s final selection process and R4SR’s due diligence will take the rest of this year to complete. ## Governance Tony McCartney will be joining R4SR formally as a new Trustee in the next few weeks. Tony is a former Ernst & Young audit partner who is now focussed on development, having completed Masters Degrees at SOAS and LSE. He is a founder and trustee of James’ Jar of Gifts (JJOG), which creates opportunities for young people throughout the world. JJOG is currently sponsoring a significant number of students, including a gender focussed project in Uganda supporting girls in education. He is also a Trustee for Zimbabwe Educational Trust, which supports African education projects. He has recently visited Rwanda with R4SR Trustees and is therefore familiar with and supportive of R4SR’s work there. After nearly eight years as a founder Trustee, John Leach has indicated he would like to step down formally at the end of May 2024. We would like to take this opportunity to thank John wholeheartedly for his support, commitment and constructive challenge as a Trustee over this period of time. It has always been a pleasure working with him. Chris Coles, Chairman March 31st 2024 ||**Ready4SchoolRwanda**
|**Ready4SchoolRwanda**
|**Ready4SchoolRwanda**
|**1167472**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**For the period**
**from**|7/1/2022|**To**|6/30/2023|| ||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||| |**A1 Receipts**
Donations
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ -**
**A3 Payments**
HAC(Rwanda NGO)
**-**
Bank Charges
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
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**_Total payments_ -**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ -**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ -**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
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**-**
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**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**29,437**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**29,437**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**29,437**
**29,066**
**42**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**29,108**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**29,108**
**329**
**-**
**1,033**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| ||||**-**|**29,437**|**18,000**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**29,437**|**18,000**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**-**|| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**29,437**|**18,000**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**29,066**|**20,215**| ||||**-**|**42**|**115**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||**-**|**29,108**|**20,330**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**-**|| ||||**-**|**-**|| ||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**29,108**|**20,330**| ||||||| |||**-**|**-**|**329**|**- 2,330**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**-**|**-**||**-**| |||**-**|**-**|**1,033**|**- 704**| |**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|| |---|---|---|---|---| |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Barclays
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**1,033**
**-**
**-**
**1,033**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
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**-**
**-**
**-**
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**Cost (optional)**
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**-**
**-**
**-**
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**Cost (optional)**
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**Restricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||OK| |||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name Date of approval • oth￿rY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WE5 Independonl examinerfs report on the accounts Seelion A Indoptsndtsni Exanilner's Report Report to Ih¢ tNSts88 Ready 4 Sthwi Rwanda On acc4)uDts tor the y￿r Chority no IW any) 1167472 S*tout on pws I r8Wtttbthe Injstees on my 6xamin8tlw oflhe acwtjnts of the above chqrityfty th8 ye8rendthY 30 JiJn8 2023. As the thBrity¥tsuslees. yiw art l88por￿f019 forthe prep2raYon of the a(xounts ITh aLXJ)Td?r￿ ￿ Ihe requwem8ntsofth8 ChartttesPA2011 Rw*oTrslbllltles basls of teptsft I ￿ptyrt in r85P8Gtof my axamln3u￿ olthe charib/5 accounts ￿tTled out under8eotion 145 of th9 2011 Act and In carryi￿9 out myex8min8Uon. I avè all th8 applica0￿ Threcbonstsven bythe comrni5￿ uNJer¥e¢tion 14515Xbl ofthè Art IndepW￿efiI oxamin¥ts ¥*atement I have completed my8xamThtiOn. I confirm th8t rnateriai matters have ¢ome to my attentHJn in onn3ctran ￿th the exarrinalion wthich gfves rne cause to bdieve that In 4ny Ma￿lIa4 r95pect: theaccounlrpJ rewrds wère notkept in •cr*￿art￿ s&•on 130 ofthe Cr￿n￿e$Act ly . accwnts dMI nDt8cc¢rd with Iha ￿L%)Un￿ rg¢onJs. I heve aTYJ have corn8 4cross no other matt8rs in wnnedon with IhÈ 8xaminalw towhhth attention Èhwld be drawn In this report in order fo en8ble 8 PmP8r understsndlry ot the a¢o)unts to ￿ r¢ach8(L gn4d: sa G¥Jsby Relwant profes8lonal qUal￿1¢￿tIOn{sI or body 111 any}: ACA 7 E•stwlr* Dri¥è Great Bookham Surr&y, KT23 3PP tER Oct 2018 Seclion B Disclosure Qnly complete if the exaiiiiner needs lo highlight material matters of concem (see CC32. Independent examlnallon of charlty accounts: dlrectlons and g￿dance for 6xaminern). Glve here brlef detslls of any Items that the examSner wlshes to dlsclose. None IER Oct 2018