COVID-19 global grant: Innovation for inclusion

Funded by a $25 million GPE grant, a consortium composed of UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank leveraged global expertise to generate solutions to the learning crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the landscape of education, exposing deep inequalities in access to quality learning and threatening the future of the world’s most marginalized and vulnerable students.

Even before COVID-19, the world faced a learning crisis with more than half of all 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income contexts unable to read a simple story. These double shocks accelerated the need to make education systems more inclusive and resilient, including through access to quality learning.

Under this consortium supported by a $25 million grant from GPE, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank leveraged their expertise to develop teaching and learning solutions with the potential to be scaled up globally and generated fresh evidence to inform the policy response.

 

Interventions focus on 3 priorities

Regional and global learning platforms
Learning continuity at scale to reach the most marginalized
Monitoring, evidence, learning and preparation for future emergencies
 

Regional and global learning platforms

Leveraging the Global Education Coalition helped match country needs and partner solutions, facilitate knowledge sharing and develop national capacities, including of teachers. To support learning continuity, regional platforms were established for distance and blended learning, supporting teachers and digitizing curricula in sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific.

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Learning continuity at scale

This supported countries to roll out multifaceted remote learning using print, radio, television, and mobile technologies. Partners provided toolkits and multimedia resources to students, teachers, caregivers and policy makers, with a focus on supporting the most marginalized students in low-resource environments. This work encompassed both home-based learning and accelerated learning programs in schools.

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Monitoring and evidence

Robust data, evidence and evaluation are key to understand and inform the education responses to COVID-19 in different contexts and draw lessons to build more resilient education systems. This work produced joint surveys, rapid impact assessments in Asia/Pacific and West and Central Africa, and reports on the gender impact of COVID-19.

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