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

Sun, March 23, 2:45 to 4:00pm, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, The Ashland Room

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The rise of new technologies and advanced analytics offers a promising opportunity to transform the educational process, fostering innovations in pedagogical strategies and generating vast amounts of data to guide more impactful educational policy decisions. For instance, collecting data on key educational indicators can help ministries of education design and implement evidence-based policies that better support children’s holistic development and learning, while also addressing global learning disparities. (UNESCO) However, many ministries are often unable to fully capitalize on these opportunities due to challenges such as a lack of credible evidence, insufficient processes, or limited capacity to effectively link data with decision-making.

This panel addresses the need for collaboration with governments to enhance their capacity for data collection and utilization in developing evidence-informed priorities, programs, and policies. Research and policy organizations are meeting this need through embedded labs—dedicated teams within government agencies focused on strengthening the integration of data and evidence into public policy. Embedded Evidence Labs aim to enhance public policy by incorporating evidence into decision-making processes, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for individuals. For instance, these labs can generate evidence on the effectiveness of new interventions, support the scaling of evidence-based policies or programs, and implement Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) strategies to optimize policy implementation at scale and amplify their impact. Moreover, these labs work to adjust the processes, structures, capacities, and resources within government agencies, fostering the institutionalization of data and evidence use. As a result, Embedded Evidence Labs not only influence policy but also change systems.

Designing and implementing an Embedded Lab requires a blend of technical expertise in evidence production and utilization, along with a deep understanding of the institutional context. This includes, for example, knowledge of existing structures, legal frameworks, and key actors, as well as their power dynamics. To ensure that these Labs are both relevant and effective, they must be tailored to the specific context in which they operate, balancing what is necessary, effective, and feasible. As a result, Embedded Labs can vary significantly depending on the agency in which they are established. Differences may include the services they offer, the structure of their teams, and the strategies they employ for implementation and institutionalization. This customization enables Labs to effectively address the unique challenges and opportunities within their specific environment.

Through three case studies of Embedded Labs with the Ministries of Education in Côte d’Ivoire, Peru, and Rwanda, this panel will explore how these Labs influence educational policy and transform the systems in which they operate. Paper 1 discusses the journey of the Côte d’Ivoire Education Lab to date, sharing findings and lessons learned from its early activities and its institutionalization process. The authors examine the successes and challenges encountered during the creation and implementation of the Lab and offer insights that can guide future activities in Côte d’Ivoire as well as the establishment of similar Labs in other countries. Paper 2 focuses on MineduLab, the Peruvian Ministry of Education’s innovation Lab established in 2016. The authors detail how the context in which this Lab emerged influenced its design, particularly its focus on generating low-cost interventions evaluated through randomized controlled trials (RCTs). They discuss the Lab's ability to endure through multiple presidential administrations and education ministers, as well as the challenges it faces, especially in scaling interventions sustainably. Paper 3 delves into the Rwanda Education Lab, describing how this Lab has addressed the specific needs of the Ministry of Education in Rwanda, focusing on how stronger data and information systems can support the scale-up of evidence-based educational policies by pairing administrative data with the day-to-day needs of decision-makers as programs grow. It also details how the Lab structure was designed to align with the governance of Rwanda’s educational system.

Leveraging the experiences from these different contexts, the panel will examine how these contexts informed decisions regarding the design of the Labs and their creation strategies. We will delve into the differences in the Labs' characteristics in their fundamental components, such as the services they offer and the structures they adopt, and how this, in turn, shapes the pathways through which they seek policy impact, as well as the system-level changes that were necessary for their establishment. This exploration of the interaction between context, design, implementation, and pathways to Lab impact will shed light on the mechanisms, challenges, and opportunities for these evidence uptake strategies. By examining cases from Latin America and the Caribbean, Francophone West Africa, and East Africa, the insights derived from the panel will be of great value to researchers and practitioners interested in promoting the use of evidence in similar contexts.

UNESCO. Global Education Monitoring Report 2023: Technology in Education: A Tool on Whose Terms? 26 July 2023, https://doi.org/10.54676/uzqv8501.

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