Reflections from the Education World Forum: what partnering with purpose really means in education reform

For edt, this is not a new agenda, but it is an increasingly urgent one. For more than 60 years, we have worked with governments, donors, schools, and system actors to strengthen education systems, improve learning, and expand opportunity. In light of current pressures, the question is now not whether to partner, but how to do so intentionally, with mutual accountability, and a clear focus on lasting system change.

That challenge is already visible across our work. Partnership means convening governments, funders, system actors, and communities around shared reform priorities, while supporting the relationships needed to move from promising pilots to sustained, system-wide change. On Engeza, funded by the Gates Foundation, this has meant backing Africa-led organisations and strengthening local expertise. On Leaders in Teaching Ethiopia, which we are delivering in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, it involves consortium delivery with national partners and the Ministry of Education. On the SCALE programme, funded by the UK government, success depends on building trust quickly, resisting deficit thinking, and ensuring progress is locally owned.

Recent conversations at the Education World Forum in May 2026, including at our own ministerial breakfast event, prompted us to reflect deeply on what we believe to be important in effective, purposeful partnerships for education reform.

Eight consistent themes stand out in our approach:

1. Locally led reform matters most: governments need to be in the ‘driver’s seat’, with technical assistance playing a catalytic, rather than directive, role.

2. Reforms need to plan for scale from the outset: scaling is not replication, but deliberate adaptation across different conditions.

3. Implementation must be designed into reform, not merely added later: delivery systems, feedback loops, and adaptation are pivotal to the success or failure of reforms.

4. Reliable, usable evidence is essential: partners need evidence that is credible, decision-ready, and grounded in political and operational realities.

5. Middle-tier leaders, school leaders, and teachers are co-creators of reform: they shape, sustain, and improve implementation.

6. Fragile and conflict-affected settings require purposeful partnership even more: support must balance urgency, flexibility, and long-term system strengthening.

7. Technology and AI can support reform, but only when used with purpose: innovation must strengthen human capability, professional trust, and system capacity.

8. Foundational learning remains the essential starting point: it is the bedrock for wider skills, progression, and long-term development.

Together, these themes reinforce why purposeful partnership matters now more than ever. They also clarify edt’s role: as a catalytic technical partner that works with governments, donors, schools, and local actors to strengthen systems, generate usable evidence, and support reform that can last at scale.

The following sections explore these themes in more detail and reflect on what we at edt are learning about how purposeful, effective partnerships can support reform that is locally owned, evidence-led, and scalable.

1. Locally led reform matters most

For us, purposeful partnership centres agency within an education system. Our many years of working with ministries point to a consistent lesson: if reform is to last, expertise must be rooted closer to government systems and local institutions, and external partners must play a different role – less directive, more enabling, and more responsive to national leadership.

Many aid actors are shifting from direct service delivery towards technical assistance as the main route for sustaining education investment. Donors increasingly prioritise approaches that are catalytic, adaptive, and capable of driving systemic change. However, technical assistance can only be effective if it strengthens government capacity, rather than standing in for it. This requires partnerships built on trust, clear roles, and shared commitment, so that external expertise supports change that is both politically grounded and operationally viable.

Partnerships with the UK government through SCALE, and with the Gates Foundation through Engeza, have enabled us to learn fast about what it means to work in partnership with donors and local system actors to unleash capacity and momentum.

2. Reforms need to plan for scale from the outset

Reforms must plan for scale from the outset. Scaling is not replication; it requires deliberate adaptation across different contexts, capacities, and incentives from the beginning. Evidence from our collaborations with organisations such as Brookings and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) reinforces this point: success depends not only on whether an intervention works, but whether it can work across diverse settings.

This is why the best kinds of collaboration test reforms under real conditions, not ideal ones. What works in an urban primary setting may not work in a rural secondary one. What succeeds under strong district leadership may stall where middle-tier capacity is weak. Scaling therefore requires disciplined learning grounded in implementation, bringing together different perspectives across the system.

3. Implementation must be designed into reform, not merely added later

Successful reforms treat implementation as integral to design, not as a downstream phase. Many reforms fail not because the evidence is weak, but because the strategy for how those reforms will be delivered is underdeveloped. Outcomes-led approaches must be combined with flexibility, adaptation, and continuous monitoring that keeps delivery on track and allows course correction in real time. Effective partnerships create the space and discipline for that learning to happen collectively.

For example, across programmes such as Building Learning Foundations (Rwanda), TARGET (Ethiopia), TEACH (Zimbabwe), INSPIRED (Kenya), and the Sierra Leone Secondary Education Improvement Programme (Phase Two) (SSEIP2), we have worked with ministries to embed technical support, strengthen delivery systems, and support implementation. Our more recent work through Engeza and SCALE reflects a more catalytic approach – deeper partnership, targeted expertise, and the combination of global evidence with local ownership.

4. Reliable, usable evidence is essential

If technical assistance is to deliver long-term impact, partners need a stronger understanding of what works, for whom, and under what conditions. Evidence must inform decisions, not simply provide legitimacy. Global guidance such as ‘Smart Buys’ is useful, but must be contextualised. Policymakers are often overwhelmed with information while lacking decision-ready insight. The challenge is not only to generate more evidence, but to produce evidence that is usable, credible, and relevant.

Across our public research, technical assistance, and programme delivery, we work with partners not only to use global evidence but also to strengthen it through implementation learning. This includes working in partnership with organisations such as Brookings on scaling solutions to the learning crisis, and collaborating with Innovations for Poverty Action on pathways for scaling foundational learning. The value lies not only in bringing evidence, but in helping partners interpret and use it in real system conditions.

While this matters everywhere, it is particularly important in crisis-affected contexts, where needs are acute and the evidence base is more limited. In these settings, partnership requires honesty about uncertainty, openness to adaptation, and shared responsibility for learning what works.

"The challenge is not only to generate more evidence, but to produce evidence that is usable, credible, and relevant."

5. Middle-tier leaders, school leaders, and teachers are co-creators of reform

A consistent lesson from our work is that sustainable reform depends on those closest to implementation. Middle-tier leaders, school leaders, and teachers are not simply responsible for implementation; they shape whether reform becomes meaningful in practice.

Those leading reform must therefore engage these actors as owners and co-creators of change. Schools can be places in which policy is shaped, not simply delivered. Middle-tier officials require sustained investment to move beyond compliance-based roles and support improvements in teaching and learning. The most effective policy partnerships recognise these actors not as delivery points, but as co-creators of reform.

Our experience across programmes such as Building Learning Foundations (Rwanda), TARGET (Ethiopia), and TEACH (Zimbabwe) has also highlighted that reform is stronger when ministries build partnerships with district and local actors, and when school communities are embedded in the process. The test of scaling remains the impact a reform has on learning, not simply the expansion of its reach. This is where our expertise in education workforce development and school improvement is particularly important: supporting ministries to strengthen the middle tier, clarify roles, and create the conditions for teachers and school leaders to drive improvement, rather than focus narrowly on compliance.

6. Fragile and conflict-affected settings require purposeful partnership even more

In crisis and conflict-affected settings, reform must balance immediate continuity with longer-term recovery. This requires flexible, politically aware approaches grounded in local realities. Effective support depends on working with complexity rather than simplifying it.

That challenge was reinforced at this Education World Forum, where ministers from Ukraine and Lebanon described the effort required to sustain education while planning for reform. An exclusive focus on emergency response can weaken systems if it displaces attention from institutional continuity and learning recovery.

The challenge is to support governments and communities to respond to immediate pressures without losing sight of what will be needed once the crisis phase shifts. Effective partnerships in these contexts therefore need to be pragmatic and broad-based, aligning ministries, local organisations, and communities while adapting to uncertainty.

Our work across Ethiopia, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, and north-east Nigeria is continuing to deepen this understanding. Alongside ministries and civil society partners, we have supported marginalised communities through initiatives such as the Equitable School Improvement Fund in Ethiopia. We have also worked with local organisations to reach conflict-affected regions through the Leaders in Teaching programme. Through partnerships with organisations such as TaRL Africa and IPA, we are continuing to learn how to combine urgency with system awareness, supporting both immediate delivery and longer-term reform.

7. Technology and AI can support reform, but only when used with purpose

Educational technology and AI are attracting growing attention across the sector, bringing both promise and legitimate concern. They can support delivery and system responsiveness at scale, but must remain bounded by human judgement and appropriate safeguards.

edt's position is clear: these tools should be used only where they address real challenges and add clear value. We do not believe in championing innovation for its own sake, but in helping partners apply it in ways that improve decision-making, support frontline actors, and strengthen accountability. Decisions about adoption should be shared, transparent, and grounded in educational purpose. This is the approach we aim to strengthen in the next round of technical assistance through SCALE.

The potential of technology is especially visible in teacher development at scale, though it should complement, not replace, traditional professional development activities. In Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, our collaboration with FAB Inc has supported real-time data collection and dashboard tools, helping ministries of education track delivery more effectively. This is a good example of how digital tools can support monitoring, decision-making, and accountability when aligned to system needs.

"We do not believe in championing innovation for its own sake, but in helping partners apply it in ways that improve decision-making, support frontline actors, and strengthen accountability."

8. Foundational learning remains the essential starting point

Foundational learning is the starting point for addressing the learning crisis and wider skills challenges. Without strong literacy, numeracy, and learning foundations, learners cannot progress effectively or participate fully in society.
At the same time, these foundations must connect to broader pathways. As labour markets evolve, education systems need to link foundational learning to technical, vocational, and lifelong learning routes. Our programme experience – including TEACH, Building Learning Foundations, and SCALE – shows that foundational learning is not a standalone priority, but a thread connecting school improvement, workforce development, inclusion, and progression.

This has implications across both school and post-school systems. Flexible pathways, including micro-credentials, and stronger emphasis on transferable skills are increasingly important. Effective partnership is critical here: it helps connect education, training, employers, and communities around learner outcomes, while ensuring that stronger skills pathways are built on secure foundations. Our expertise lies in helping partners make those connections in practice, so that foundational learning becomes both a policy priority and a practical route to stronger, more equitable education systems.

Conclusion

Purposeful partnerships are defined by shared outcomes, complementary strengths and a clear understanding of how change will happen. They move beyond transactional relationships or short-term delivery arrangements and instead create the conditions for trust, adaptation, and locally owned reform.

edt is committed to acting as a catalytic, evidence-led partner that works with governments and local actors to strengthen systems, not simply deliver for them. We add value by helping partners design for scale from the outset; strengthen implementation; generate and use credible evidence; invest in teachers and middle-tier leadership; respond effectively in fragile settings; use technology with purpose; and keep foundational learning at the centre of reform.

Partnering with purpose is not a slogan but a discipline. It requires clarity about where we can make the most effective difference, honesty about the limits of external support, and a deliberate commitment to collaboration that strengthens national capability rather than bypassing it. In a sector under pressure to do more with less, that discipline – and the learning that we continue to build through practice – will be essential to creating lasting change for learners around the world.