The Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX) has selected nine new projects from its recent call for proposals for applied research projects to generate and mobilize evidence in support of scaling the impact of innovative approaches to strengthen education data systems and data use in GPE partner countries across Africa and Europe, Asia and the Pacific.
Data systems and data use are essential for education policy, planning and implementation. Scoping studies commissioned by GPE KIX in 2023 identified key knowledge gaps and research needs related to this topic, in consultation with national education stakeholders in Africa and in Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Progress has been made in improving data availability and use by governments, bilateral and multilateral technical and funding agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Most countries have established Education Management Information Systems (EMIS). However, challenges remain in orienting data systems to the nuanced information countries need to address the learning crisis, ensuring the quality and timeliness of data, making data systems inclusive and accessible, and promoting organizational capacities and cultures of data use at the national, provincial, community and school levels. Countries are seeking evidence to help them make their data systems user-friendly and service oriented, and attuned to important factors for gender equality, equity and inclusion.
The selected projects propose different methods to generate and mobilize evidence to scale the impact of innovative approaches to strengthen data systems and data use for education. They each address one or more of the following subthemes:
- Expanding and integrating data sets to understand learners and promote gender equality, equity and inclusion
- Using platforms and tools to enhance data use
- Expanding uses and users of data, including for public accountability
The research will explore effective strategies to adapt, scale, and implement promising or proven innovations in effective, equitable, and sustainable ways. It will also aim to identify what factors enable, incentivize, or impede the scaling of these innovations and how they can promote gender equality, equity and inclusion.
More information on each of these exciting new projects can be found below, with more updates on their activities to follow:
- Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE): Bridging the local, national and global | GPEKIX
- Connecting Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and Education Management Information System datasets to advance gender equality, equity, and inclusion | GPEKIX
- Data Must Speak to Strengthen Education Capacity and Advance Local Evidence Use (DMS SCALE) | GPEKIX
- Empowering districts and schools with data: A digital platform approach to co-create and scale education management information systems innovations | GPEKIX
- Enhancing data utilization and decision-making in Bhutan's education system: Motherboard Integrated Education Management Information System (MIEMIS) | GPEKIX
- From Data to Action: Enhancing education policy and practice through the use of innovative national data systems in Rwanda | GPEKIX
- Scaling enhanced use of education data at sub-national level in support of greater equity and inclusion in Tanzanian schools | GPEKIX
- Scaling up sub-national education data value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa | GPEKIX
- Unlocking data: Scaling up uses and users of data in education systems | GPEKIX
