Driven by the recognition that the provision global public goods can greatly enhance national level educational policies and outcomes, and that funding of global public goods in education is minimal, on December 6^, 2017, the GPE Board of Directors approved the launch of GPE’s knowledge and innovation exchange (KIX) mechanism.

KIX will enhance the partnership’s work to support stronger education systems with sound education sector plans and policies.

Through KIX GPE will harness the full knowledge and innovation capabilities of its members and of new and non-traditional partners, amplifying the impact of GPE support for education systems through improving sector plans, their implementation and their monitoring.

Two components to increase knowledge about what works

KIX has the mandate not only to accelerate progress towards GPE 2020 but towards longer-term goals, notably the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Its design, implementation and management will ensure strong linkages to core country-level education policy processes and will also be used to amplify and leverage the work of civil society actors, which will be supported through GPE’s advocacy and social accountability (ASA) mechanism.

This ambitious and dynamic mechanism will go live from mid-2018 and have two operational components – the Learning Exchange and KIX thematic funding windows.

The KIX Learning Exchange will anchor GPE’s efforts to ensure that there is a strong exchange of policies, innovative approaches and lessons on good practice across the partnership. Comprised of a suite of activities, including a digital knowledge sharing platform, clearing house of tools and approaches and various face-to-face opportunities for peer learning and capacity development, the Learning Exchange will enable GPE to fully capitalize on the expertise, knowledge and innovation capabilities of its membership, in direct support of developing country partners and national education systems. All knowledge curated through the Learning Exchange will be made publicly available as global public goods.

KIX thematic funding windows will be launched in six areas that are core to educational progress: 

• Early childhood care and education,
• Gender equality,
• Strengthening learning assessment systems,
• Strengthening data systems,
• Improving teaching and learning,
• Equity and inclusion.

With the goal of promoting better policies and approaches to address educational challenges, KIX thematic funding windows will invest in global and regional goods, through a solicitation of proposals from global and regional organizations, think tanks, research bodies, INGOs and other nontraditional partners.

Responding to countries’ needs

The activities supported under the KIX thematic funding windows will be tailored to respond to core national challenges in areas lagging behind in the GPE 2020 and SDG 4 agenda. All funded programs will focus on the development and adoption of new approaches, tools, and innovations. They will be designed to be applied within the context of the education sector policy cycle, including bolstering improved national capacities for planning, execution, and sector monitoring. KIX Thematic Funds will also foster innovation by targeting successful exploitation of a product, process, strategy or approach that aims to alter the effectiveness of education systems.

KIX will be funded through a mix of GPE core funds and targeted financing from partners. GPE will invest minimum of US$60 million and seek to raise, at a minimum, US$20 million from existing and non-traditional partners. Three quarters of this funding will be channeled to thematic funding windows with the remaining quarter supporting the Learning Exchange.

While unrestricted financial contributions to KIX are welcome, KIX is purposefully designed to provide the opportunity for partners to contribute financing along with technical and advocacy expertise in thematic areas, in direct support of national systems and government-led sector planning processes.

In this regard KIX is primed to be a unique mechanism in the global education architecture and promises to add significant value to country level and global level partners to the benefit of national education sector processes.

Next steps

The design and management of the two KIX components will be completed with the support of an external firm and consultations with developing country partners, donors, foundations and other Board constituencies in the coming months.

From July a provider will be contracted to develop and launch the Learning Exchange concept in November, at which time calls for proposals for the thematic funding windows for ECCE, gender, strengthening data systems and learning assessment systems will also be launched. Calls for proposals in the areas of teaching and learning and equity and inclusion will be launched in early 2019.