The USAID/EQUIP2 Associate Award for Phase II of the Southern Sudan Technical Assistance Program (TAP) was signed in August 2007. Phase II will continue for four years until September 2011. The Academy for Educational Development (AED) leads the program with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as EQUIP 2 partner.

Phase II of the TAP consolidates, builds on, and expands the capacity-building work initiated in Phase I (September 2005-August 2007) in the areas of policy development, planning, budgeting, system development, and program implementation. Phase II continues a particular focus initiated in the latter months of Phase I on capacity building in program implementation at the state level, increasing the quantity of teachers, improving their quality, and strengthening the systems that support teachers.

During the first year of TAP Phase II, AED continued to place a Senior Education Advisor at the Government of Southern Sudan, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (GoSS-MoEST) in Juba while expanding to place three Senior Education Advisors at State Ministries of Education (SMoEs) where the each Advisor shared two states. In the second year of the program, TAP is expanding to provide a full time Senior Education Advisor at seven SMoEs. The program has also expanded to represent a larger GoSS-MoEST State Advisor Program (SAP) where GoSS-MoEST places Senior Education Advisors in the remaining three SMoEs with Multi-Donor Trust Fund funding. TAP also places 10 Diaspora Technical Assistants (DTA) in each the ten SMoEs to provide further support to the ministries in education management and program implementation.

The State Advisors build capacity within the state ministries to work efficiently and implement programs at the state, county and school levels. The TAP emphasizes strengthening linkages between SMoEs and GoSS-MoEST, thus assisting the entire education system to deliver enhanced quantity and quality of education at the local level.

The Technical Assistance Program works in a highly integrated manner with GoSS-MoEST and SMoEs. TAP offices are located within the ministries, aligning programs with GoSS-MoEST and SMoE priorities, and building capacity primarily through the implementation of priority programs funded by major donors such as MDTF. TAP Phase makes a particular effort to work closely with other USAID-funded programs, local and international NGOs, donors such as UNICEF, and GoSS-MoEST programs funded through the MDTF.