The Programme Haitien d’Appui à la Réforme de l’Education (PHARE) in Haiti is a USAID-funded, deliverables-based contract with AIR. PHARE is USAID’s response to the Government of Haiti’s effort to restore, sustain, and expand education and health services. The earthquake in January 2010 had a devastating impact on these services, with over 4,000 schools—roughly 90% of the education system in the earthquake affected areas destroyed. AIR is actively supporting the emergency education response, continuing its commitment to improved education in Haiti. In partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Education and Professional Training (MENFP), AIR is working with a local Haitian firm to set up transitional school structures to provide a safe and secure learning environment for children in earthquake affected areas.

PHARE’s main objective, even before the earthquake, was to reinforce the capacity of the MENFP to plan, deliver, monitor, and evaluate educational services in public and non-public schools. PHARE is working to improve learning outcomes by strengthening teacher and school director professional development systems, school licensing procedures, community participation, and monitoring and evaluation of services. In addition to delivering support for a standards-based approach in education, PHARE is helping the MENFP to design and deliver sexual and reproductive health modules, to be integrated into the national basic education curriculum.

Between March 2010 and June 2011, AIR and PHARE, working with the MENFP to respond to the earthquake, will have created emergency education opportunities for 60,000 students in 650 emergency classrooms at 140 schools operating at over 50 sites. AIR and PHARE will also have strengthened the quality of teaching and learning at these schools, supporting teachers through training to return to the classroom, providing furnishings for schools, and focusing on water and sanitation at each of these sites.