Reimagining government, donor, researcher and practitioner partnerships for educational transformation at scale

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In a world increasingly marked by division, education systems are being asked to shoulder a growing burden: To deliver learning that not only equips children with skills but also fosters social cohesion and peace. Yet this task unfolds amid unprecedented constraints. Conflicts, climate shocks, humanitarian crises, and deepening inequalities disrupt progress, while international development budgets contract and the multilateral system undergoes profound shifts. These converging pressures demand that donors, researchers, and implementers re-examine how they work together with governments to address the learning crisis and achieve educational transformation at scale.

This panel takes the theme of the Comparative and International Education Society - “Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World” - as a call to reflect on how new approaches to partnership and scaling can advance educational outcomes. We reflect that the current context demands even more inclusive, resilient, and just education systems that can reach all children. The panel asks how education actors can respond to today’s realities of scarcity and division with approaches that are politically smart, evidence-driven, and grounded in government leadership.

One response lies in shifting the paradigm of scaling. Traditional models of aid-supported pilot projects have too often struggled to transition into sustainable, system-wide reforms with genuine government ownership and domestic funding behind them. With fewer resources available, and greater urgency to protect and accelerate learning gains, a change of approach is needed: to design for scale from the outset. Central to this is establishing a partnership of equals with governments to identify and embed evidence-based interventions within education systems. These investments must be aligned with national priorities, grounded in government demand, and ensure genuine local ownership. This requires not only technical expertise but also the ability to forge strong development partnerships with governments, balancing political realities with what evidence shows to be effective in each context.

The panel brings together voices from donors via representatives from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), research organizations via representatives from Innovation for Poverty Action, and implementers via representatives from TaRL Africa, who are jointly testing such an approach through the early experience of the FCDO’s Scaling Access and Learning in Education Programme (SCALE). Together they explore questions of: How can scarce aid resources be deployed to maximize foundational learning for all children? What does it take to identify credible opportunities for scale in fragile and resource-constrained contexts? How can evidence of effectiveness be translated into government-owned strategies for education reforms at scale? And what does meaningful co-design with governments look like in practice, particularly where systems are under pressure from conflict, poverty, and/or political transition?

By engaging with these questions, the panel reflects on the potential of re-imagined donor, government, researcher, and practitioner partnerships to create more equitable pathways to scale. Early lessons from the programme suggest that while the challenges of co-designing for scale through government systems from the outset require significant flexibility and adaptation, new ways of working and partnerships also open up possibilities for more sustainable and locally owned approaches to educational change.

In presenting this reflection, the panel invites participants to consider how, at a time of contraction and crisis, innovative ways of working with governments may chart new paths toward inclusive and peaceful futures through education.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Scott James McInnes, UK FCDO

Individual Presentations

• Rewriting the playbook: supporting government-led education reform in a new donor landscape - Emily Gray, FCDO

• Designing for scale: using scalability assessments to support government-led scaling - Karla Petersen, Innovations for Poverty Action

• From pilots to system change: co-creating scalable foundational learning solutions with governments. - Ashleigh Gillwald Morrell, TaRL Africa; Hafsatu Hamza, TaRL Africa

Discussant

• Benjamin Piper, Gates Foundation