Imagine Worldwide, maker of the RCT-validated onebillion app, piloted tablet literacy/numeracy teaching with CRS in two Burkina Faso schools, scaled to 16 schools and 7,500+ pupils via USDA's McGovern-Dole programme, then shut down in May 2025 when funding ended.
2 schools
Schools in pre-pilot (2021)
16 government primary schools
Schools after 2023 expansion (2023)
7,500+ students
Planned students to be served over 3 years (2023-2025 (planned))
Details
Maturity
Discontinued
Promoter
Imagine Worldwide / Catholic Relief Services
Period
2021–2025 (discontinued)
Keywords
Primary education, adaptive-learning tablets, rural and food-insecure communities
Context
Imagine Worldwide — the NGO behind the onebillion adaptive-learning app, whose tablet-based reading and maths instruction has multiple randomised controlled trials showing gains for both girls and boys in Malawi — began work in Burkina Faso with a two-school pre-pilot in Pissila and Tibtenga (Sanmatenga province), delivering tablet-based instruction to grades 1–3 to test whether its delivery model and software translated to a new context.
Activities
Following that pre-pilot, the programme expanded in 2023 to 16 government primary schools, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services and funded through the USDA McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, with a three-year plan to serve more than 7,500 students.
Results
No Burkina-Faso-specific learning-outcome results have been published.
Conclusions
The programme was discontinued in May 2025 when its McGovern-Dole funding ended. Imagine Worldwide's own account of its current country portfolio (as of September 2025) lists only Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania — Burkina Faso is no longer part of its active work. The case illustrates a common risk for donor-funded EdTech pilots in fragile contexts: strong delivery-model validation elsewhere does not guarantee continuity once a single funding stream ends, and reach figures should not be read as evidence of sustained impact.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Funded through the USDA McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program; tablet-based hardware deployment across 16 schools; specific budget figures not disclosed in sources.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Pre-pilot from 2021 in 2 schools; expanded 2023 to 16 schools with a 3-year plan; discontinued May 2025 when McGovern-Dole funding ended.
Staffing & skills
Delivered in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, Uses onebillion's tablet-based instructional software; grades 1-3 target
Conditions for success
Prior successful RCT validation of the underlying software/delivery model in Malawi
Sustained donor funding stream (this case shows what happens when it is not sustained)
Common failure modes
Single-donor dependency: the programme ended entirely when USDA McGovern-Dole funding concluded in May 2025
No independent outcome evaluation was conducted or published specific to the Burkina Faso deployment before discontinuation
Where it fits
Governance type
NGO/donor-funded programme in partnership with government primary schools
Scale
16 schools, targeting 7,500+ students (discontinued before full scale reached)
Income level
low-income, rural, food-insecure region (Sanmatenga province)
Commonly funded by
Philanthropic / foundation funding
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
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Claim it —
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Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
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