Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge: Final Learning Report (2026)

This learning report examines Save the Children UK’s experience delivering the Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC)—the organisation’s first engagement in an outcomes‑based financing (OBF) model in education. Implemented from 2022–2025 across 65 primary schools, SLEIC aimed to improve foundational learning in maths and English, strengthen gender equity, and test low‑cost approaches that could be scaled nationally. The learning report was developed to understand how and why implementation unfolded as it did, and to capture lessons for future programming within and beyond OBF modalities. Findings present a mixed picture. Schools saw meaningful improvements in mathematics, equivalent to roughly two‑thirds of a year of additional schooling. English outcomes remained weak, mirroring national declines. In both cases gains fell short of the targets set by the outcomes contract Intermediate results, however, show clear promise: teacher competencies and classroom practices improved; headteachers increasingly acted as instructional leaders; book banks were widely used; and pupils and parents valued the play‑based, flexible support offered through learning clubs, despite uneven delivery.