SUMMA, along with 35 participants from 17 countries, 9 of them from the African continent, participated in the International Working Group* (IWG) meeting organized by Education.org in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of the LEARRN (Leading with Evidence to Achieve Real Reform Now) Partnership, who met to discuss how best to evaluate and incorporate the “grey” literature into the wealth of knowledge that influences educational practice and policy making.
On the second day of the meeting, Elyas Abdi Jillaow, Director General of the Kenyan Ministry of Education, on behalf of Ezekiel Machogu, Minister of Education said, “These works, often referred to as ‘grey literature’, are difficult to access or are not valued as evidence by mainstream doctrine, in part because it is not classified and the protocols for valuing it are not well developed or widely used…this is the challenge that the IWG will address. I am particularly pleased that this initiative will help raise the profile and use of research produced in Africa.”
In the same vein, Jillaow noted that the enormous volume of work by NGOs, civil society organizations and local researchers in countries such as Kenya can be far more relevant to their own educational challenges than some internationally published research, as it is contextualized and derived from practice.
In the same vein, Raúl Chacón, director of the KIX hub for Latin America and the Caribbean, who attended the meeting in Nairobi, thanked for the special invitation and said that “we greatly value instances like these that allow us to bring together relevant institutions and actors working for educational improvement. In particular, KIX LAC makes itself available to the needs of the countries to provide evidence for informed decision making”.
Likewise, the IWG focused its efforts on the conversation about how to strengthen educational evidence by broadening the range of sources to capture contextually relevant experiences of those closest to the problems they are trying to address. We are only scratching the surface, but we are grateful for the engagement that is occurring and the constructive disruption that is emerging.
The meeting was attended by the co-host of the event, USAID and representatives of the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, Echidna Giving, Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the Cambridge University, South Africa Centre for Evidence NPC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Forum for African Women Educationalists, Kenya Chapter (FAWEK), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), Jacobs Foundation, SUMMA – KIX LAC, APHRC, Ministry of Education, Kenya, National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) and Dalan Development Consultants.
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Calling for an Education Knowledge Bridge. A White Paper to Advance Evidence Use in Education
*The International Working Group is an initiative led by Education.org and supported by USAID and Education.org’s major funders, who are committed supporters of education research, including Echidna Giving Jacobs Foundation Oak Foundation Dubai Cares, and Porticus.
