WISE, RewirEd, EXPO2020 and UNESCO: key events roundup
17 December 2021
We are delighted to have taken part in no fewer than eight key events this month. Since 7th December, we have participated in fascinating events across the WISE summit and RewirEd summit, as well as with the Department for International Trade (including at the EXPO 2020 UK Pavilion), and with UNESCO.
We are delighted to have taken part in no fewer than eight key events this month. Since 7th December, we have participated in fascinating events across the WISE summit and RewirEd summit, as well as with the Department for International Trade (including at the EXPO 2020 UK Pavilion), and with UNESCO.
WISE Summit, Qatar
At the WISE summit, held by the Qatar foundation, we presented three sessions. Firstly, we hosted an in-person session presenting insights on system leadership, which showcased the findings from the learning partnership research we recently conducted with the Education Commission, WISE, and the Rwanda Education Board (REB), which focused on professional learning communities in Rwanda. On the second day of the summit, we facilitated a workshop – ‘Can educating girls create change agents in the climate crisis?’ – following an in-depth piece of work conducted by one of our consultants on this important topic (read more here).Finally, we facilitated a virtual session on women in leadership, sharing perspectives from our research on female school leaders in Ethiopia, including how to unblock bottlenecks that prevent women from taking up leadership roles, and insights from our work around subject-specific school leaders in Rwanda.
Department of International Trade (DIT), EXPO 2020
In addition, our Education Director, Tony McAleavy, joined a DIT-run panel as part of the UK’s ‘How will we learn’ event – part of the UK Pavillion programme at EXPO 2020. We joined Andria Zafirakou, Global Teacher Prize Winner (2018), as well as Gideon Sappor, Senior Teaching Fellow at UCL Institute of Education, and Vikas Pota, founder and CEO of T4 Education, to talk about ‘What makes teachers great?’. We were delighted to be able to bring in the learnings from our recent think piece on Transforming teacher professional development: a case study from England.
We were also delighted to attend a high-level networking reception at the UK Pavilion at EXPO, where we were able to discuss the work of our organisation with key stakeholders in the education sector.
RewirEd Summit
Meanwhile, we were also involved in the RewirEd summit, run by Dubai Cares and timed in line with the ‘Knowledge and Learning week’ at EXPO 2020. The RewirEd summit aimed ‘to be a catalyst in redefining education to ensure a future that is prosperous, sustainable, innovative and accessible to all” and was attended by over 2000 attendees from over 60 countries. We attended various parts of the three-day event, which included many high-level speakers – from heads of state to education ministers, to leaders of global organisations such as the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO.
At RewirEd, we were pleased to host a high-level plenary session on the main stage in partnership with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), focusing on effective domestic financing for education, featuring an address from President Kenyatta (Kenya’s Head of State), as well as H.E. Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, Former President of Tanzania and Chair of the Board of Directors of GPE. This was followed by our own Chief Executive, Patrick Brazier, moderating a conversation with:
- H.E. David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation, Sierra Leone
- H.E. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, Minister of Education, Cambodia (by pre-recorded video)
- H.E. Prof. George Albert Omore Magoha, Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kenya
- H.E. Joyce Ndalichako, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Tanzania
- Maryjacob Okwuosa, Global Partnership for Education Youth Leader, Nigeria
We also convened a panel session discussing how better education financing commitments can really deliver gender equality in education, again moderated by Patrick Brazier. The participants were:
- Alicia Herbert, OBE, Director of the Education, Gender and Equality Directorate (EdGE) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom
- Ruth Kagia, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Policy and Strategy Office of the President of Kenya
- Roland Hancock, Partner, Education, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
- Rosa Muraya, Deputy Director for the Girls Education Challenge (GEC), Wasichana Wetu Wafaulu (WWW, ‘Let our Girls Succeed’), Kenya (virtual attendance).
This session was a candid discussion intended to unpack how these senior civil servants and trusted advisors see the unprecedented global financial commitments to girls’ education delivering value for money and impact for marginalised girls.
UNESCO
Finally, on 17th December, we were delighted to participate in a UNESCO virtual event – “Understanding lifelong learning opportunities and policies for refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons”, where we presented our work with teachers of refugees in Lebanon. We shared how our programme aims to build teacher capacity in English language teaching as a medium of instruction, and how the programme has grown since its launch in 2017, now impacting the learning of 4500 students per year.
We are delighted to have been part of such excellent events and look forward to many more in the coming year.