This episode of the KIX EAP Podcast, hosted by Ryan Allen, Assistant Professor, Chapman University (USA), features Dr. Ludmila Malcoci, the Executive Director of Keystone Moldova and Regional Director (Central and Eastern Europe) of Keystone Human Services International. In the podcast, Dr.

NORRAG and the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) organised the KIX EAP Learning Cycle on the Equitable Access to Education with Geospatial Data course. This professional development course enabled participants to apply basic mapping techniques using QGIS, a geographic information system (GIS). This course was aimed at understanding the geospatial dimensions of education planning and management, with a specific focus on equitable access to education. National experts from 21 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific were eligible for the course.

This case study aims to analyse gender parity in access to education at the lower-secondary level using geospatial data and the QGIS software. It includes the following:

Organised by the KIX Europe I Asia I Pacific Hub on 7, 14, 21, 28 October 2021, the first Education, Policy, and Innovation Conference aimed to create a forum for intensifying dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and beyond.

This paper synthesises six of the insightful case studies related to successful education innovations. It illustrates the complex interaction between innovations and context, as well as deriving universal recommendations for scaling beyond the national context. The following questions are addressed:

• What innovative elements were successful and which enabling factors contributed to the success?
• How can innovative elements be scaled according to depth, sustainability, spread and ownership?

The final day of the KIX EAP Education Policy Innovation Conference (EPIC) on the topic of Teaching Quality and Learning was held on 28th October 2021. The keynote address was delivered by Freda Wolfenden, Professor of Education, and International Development at Open University.

On 21 October 2021, the third day of the KIX Education Policy Innovation Conference (EPIC) focused on Educational Assessment. Dr. Isak Froumin, Professor and Academic Director of the Institute of Education of the Higher School of Economics National Research University, Moscow, delivered the keynote address titled ‘Contemporary educational outcomes: what to assess’.

On 14 October 2021, the second day of the KIX Education Policy Innovation Conference (EPIC) focused on gender equality and social inclusion. Zsuzsa Millei, Professor of Early Childhood Education at Tampere University, delivered the keynote address titled “Becoming with a (gendered) world”. Building on research findings from the Hungarian context, she examined how histories, politics, hierarchies of power, new relations of economic and social life shape children’s lives and can lead to gender discrimination or denial of individual rights.

The first KIX EAP Education Policy Innovation Conference (EPIC) was a 4-day conference held on October 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. The conference created a forum for intensifying dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and beyond.

Day one of EPIC paid attention to COVID-19 response and digital learning. The conference opened with a keynote address from Margarita Focas Licht, Manager of the Partnerships Team at GPE and Valtencir Mendes, Senior Education Programme Lead at UNESCO.