Côte d’Ivoire Ed Lab Case Study

• In Event: Adapting to Context for Effective Data and Evidence Uptake: A Comparison between Embedded Labs in Côte d’Ivoire, Peru, and Rwanda

Proposal

This paper presents findings from a case study of the Education Laboratory (“Ed Lab”) in Côte d’Ivoire funded by a foundation active in the education space and implemented by the Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA) and a global research and policy nonprofit. The goal of the Ed Lab in Côte d’Ivoire is to enable government partners at both the national and local levels to use data and rigorous research to design, test, and scale evidence-based programs and policies to improve learning for students. To achieve this goal, the Ed Lab has three primary objectives: (1) enhance government demand for evidence generation and use; (2) strengthen capacity of government actors to understand and apply evidence, to get to a place of institutionalizing a culture of evidence-based decision-making and knowledge infrastructure; and (3) create a stronger and ongoing connection between education policymakers and external research. The co-creation and co-design of the Ed Lab in Côte d’Ivoire began in early 2022. The Ed Lab was formally launched in August 2024 within the MENA’s Directorate of Studies, Strategies, Planning and Statistics (DESPS).

We conducted key informant interviews and document review in August and September 2024 for a case study of the Ed Lab in Côte d’Ivoire to understand the process of designing and setting up the Ed Lab and experiences with initial implementation activities. This paper presents findings from this case study. We discuss the Ed Lab’s journey and activities to date including securing government engagement and buy-in, selecting the hosting entity, formally establishing and institutionalizing the Ed Lab, conducting a capacity assessment and developing a Research and Learning Agenda, engaging with researchers, and building technical capacity through trainings on monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL). Additionally, we share findings and learnings from nascent Ed Lab activities including establishing a research committee, developing a Research Fund to finance evidence-generating studies, planning dissemination events, supporting research studies and MEL plans for MENA programs, and providing additional capacity building support to enable the implementing partner to phase out their leadership of the Ed Lab as the Ministry of Education takes full ownership. We examine successes and challenges in Ed Lab creation and implementation and share lessons learned that can inform future Ed Lab activities in Côte d’Ivoire and the establishment of Ed Labs in other countries. We assess the process of institutionalizing the Ed Lab, prospects for and challenges to the sustainability of the Ed Lab, and the contextual factors to consider when initiating and designing an Ed Lab.

Authors

• Swetha Sridharan, Mathematica Policy Research

• Margo Berends, Mathematica