Counting on Success: Advancing Early Grade Math Learning in Africa and South Asia

The Numeracy Research and Development (NRD) Challenge Fund, led by Genesis Analytics and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is dedicated to transforming early-grade numeracy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Why numeracy?

In low- and middle-income countries, 8 out of 10 children struggle with basic math by the end of primary school. The NRD Challenge Fund tackles this by strengthening teaching quality and scaling evidence-based numeracy solutions.

Goals of the NRD fund

1. Prove what works

● Partner with 5 sub-grantees to strengthen numeracy outcomes at the local administrative level.

● Develop demonstration cases using pedagogical research and development (R&D) to test and refine approaches for achieving ambitious numeracy goals

● Generate evidence on effective strategies for improving mathematics teaching and learning

2. Scale what works

● Support sub-grantees, governments and funders to scale what has been proven to work

● Identify, develop, and share tools and resources to facilitate the scaling of proven, high-impact numeracy models.

3. Share what works

● Develop and disseminate public goods that synthesize learning from across the programs to inform evidence-based, effective guidance for early grade numeracy programs.

● Support knowledge-sharing among governments, implementers, and funders to improve numeracy teaching and learning globally.

Our approach

NRD is designed to catalyze foundational numeracy improvements through three key pillars

Progress to date

We are just at the beginning of this journey: sub-grantee selection stage. We received nearly 50 applications from potential sub-grantees and are now shortlisting candidates.

Once selected, these organisations will be onboarded and supported with funding for innovation, expert training, and mentorship—all within a dynamic community of numeracy innovators.

But the impact goes beyond just our sub-grantees. We're committed to creating and sharing global public goods—resources, research, and best practices—to help educators and policymakers worldwide advance numeracy teaching at scale.