R4D is partnering with USAID’s Center for Education to generate learning about optimizing the results of current and future investments to help advance USAID’s education priorities.
The Challenge
Millions of children and youth do not have access to high-quality educational opportunities, teachers often lack the training and resources they need to be most effective, and conflict and crises around the world continue to limit and disrupt learning opportunities. However, the evidence base of effective approaches to achieving inclusive, quality education for all is growing, and there is an urgent need to ensure investments in education are continually grounded in evidence-based best practices that are adapted to the local context and respond to country demand.
The Opportunity
The USAID Center for Education within the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI EDU) advances the USAID Education Policy, which aims to achieve sustained, measurable improvements in learning outcomes and skills development. The Center for Education currently supports six mechanisms – Data and Evidence for Education Program, Global Book Alliance in Action, Youth Power 2: Learning and Evaluation, Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education, Youth Excel, and Leading through Learning Global Platform – which were designed to improve the availability and use of evidence in the international education sector, foster continuous learning throughout the program cycle, and improve overall organizational learning around USAID’s education priorities.
The Rapid Feedback Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (RF MERL) Consortium, led by R4D, is conducting a two-phase rapid feedback study to support the Center for Education by examining the effectiveness of those mechanisms in achieving their intended objectives and translating those findings into inputs to help DDI EDU determine its strategic areas for future investment.
R4D’s Work
During Phase I of the engagement, R4D conducted a mixed methods evaluation that explored the design, implementation, and progress toward outcomes across all six DDI EDU learning mechanisms mentioned above. The main purpose of this cross-mechanism study was to assess the effectiveness of those mechanisms and determine whether they achieved their intended results of improving the availability and use of evidence in the global education sector, both individually and jointly.
During Phase II of the engagement, R4D is building off the Phase I evaluation findings by taking a closer look at how the Center for Education’s current and recent work align with broader USAID strategic objectives and policies on education. R4D will then support Center leadership to engage with the findings to help inform their decision-making process on determining strategic areas for future investment.
This study is one of several pilots R4D is carrying out in partnership with the Rapid Feedback MERL Consortium as part of the USAID Global Development Lab’s MERLIN program.
