Exploring the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in delivering TaRL interventions in Brazil

• In Event: Building for Local Realities: How Partnerships from the Global South are Enabling Education Transformation

Proposal

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, education systems across the globe faced a deepening crisis in foundational learning. In Brazil, where challenges in literacy and numeracy were already pressing, the pandemic significantly impacted children’s ability to acquire essential skills. Recognizing the urgency, a diverse group of actors came together to tackle this issue — leading to a unique, multi-stakeholder partnership focused on adapting and scaling the evidence-based Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach in the country. This paper, using applied research, highlights how partnerships at diverse levels have helped to deliver TaRL programming in Brazil. So far, collaborations have included a partnership between Pratham International and Motriz — two organisations with genesis in the Global South — as well as with implementation partners like Elos Educacional and government entities, who are based locally and in regions within the country.
The co-creation of the TaRL program in Brazil started in 2021, when Motriz, a social impact organization supported by the Lemann Foundation, approached Pratham International to adapt TaRL interventions for Brazil’s decentralized education system. With support from Elos Educacional and in collaboration with local governments, TaRL has been contextualized to suit state and municipal structures. An intentional, phase-wise adaptation has thus emerged, with an emphasis on gradually building capacity and ownership within government systems to deliver the intervention at scale and over time. Since 2022, TaRL interventions have reached ~660 schools and over 17,700 learners across 13 territories.
Pratham’s experience supporting TaRL programs since 2016 across India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa has shown that successful adaptation relies on co-creation, flexibility, and long-term engagement. It is critical to work with partners who understand local systems and realities, and to ensure government stakeholders are actively involved from the outset. The paper will build on which principles guide Pratham’s engagement with partners like Motriz and Elos in the context of Brazil, and also outline best practices that Motriz has developed to cultivate partnerships across different states and municipalities within Brazil that have now adopted TaRL. The successes and lessons learned from the continuous technical and strategic collaboration among Pratham, Motriz, and Elos include discussing key activities undertaken and the decisions made, as well as an overview of the learning outcomes from different programs.
As one of the first TaRL initiatives in Latin America, the Brazilian experience provides valuable insights for other countries in the region that are facing similar foundational learning challenges. It also sheds light on how to integrate foundational learning programs into public education systems through a multilingual, multi-year, and multi-stakeholder partnership.

Authors

• Tanvi Banerjee, Pratham International

• Fernanda Patriota Salles Ribeiro, Motriz