IIEP Strategic Debates
Using data and evidence to transform educational policy and planning
IIEP is launching a new series of four Strategic Debates focusing on evidence-informed policy and planning – from design to implementation.
Each debate will focus on a specific theme and will facilitate discussions on challenges, innovations, and prospects in the use of data and evidence to inform sectoral analysis, as well as plan development and implementation.
The amount of data and evidence available to decision-makers, educational planners, and managers has grown exponentially over the past decade. Yet, in many countries, the use of evidence in formulating education policies and plans remains limited. To develop impactful and relevant policies, education stakeholders must not only collect data and evidence but translate and use it.
About the Strategic Debate Series
Join our enriching debate series featuring researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners across the globe.
In each session, panelists and audience members will gather to share their experiences, insights, and successful and promising practices to help education actors use the data, evidence, and research, available to them to foster quality education systems for all.
Our debates will take place on 13 June, 11 July, 10 October, and 5 December 2024.
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.
Provisional agenda
Debate 4: OpenEMIS and open school data to inform educational policy and planning
- When: Thursday, 5 December 2024
- Modality: Online
New technologies open unprecedented avenues to share data with more stakeholders at each level of the education system. OpenEMIS, for instance, promotes technological innovations and EMIS architectures to ensure that education data are available to stakeholders at all levels of government from central to school level. Similarly, open school data policies rely on the establishment of new digital portals to share detailed statistical information with the public. Nevertheless, in both cases, effective use of data both by public officials and the school community remains a challenge in most contexts. This debate will focus on promising strategies encouraging the uptake of open data, including by the public.
Past debates
Debate 1: Using EiE data and evidence to inform crisis sensitive educational planning
- When: Thursday, 13 June 2024
- Modality: Online
Governments, humanitarians, and development partners increasingly recognize the need to adopt evidence informed risk reduction strategies. This requires timely and reliable data and evidence to quantify and analyse the extent to which crises (including those due to climate change) affect education systems. But critical lack of timely and quality data both on risks and during crises, or data that are inconsistent, hamper planning and efficient implementation of education service delivery. This Debate will discuss strategies to strengthen ministries of education capacities for the use of crisis-related data and information, including through using data from ministries of environment and natural resources, or ministries of disaster management.
Speakers:
- Diogo Amaro, Programme Specialist, IIEP-UNESCO
- Frosse Dabit, Senior Education Program Specialist, UNRWA
- Benjamin Kohoun, School and University Administration Adviser, Burkina Faso
- Galo Mauricio López Lindao, National Director of Education Analysis and Information, Ministry of Education, Ecuador
Martín Benavides, Director, IIEP-UNESCO, chaired the Debate.
Debate 2: Using evidence in a situational analysis to move policies forward
- When: Thursday, 13 July 2024
- Modality: Online
Once an issue is on the policy agenda, a situational analysis must be conducted to understand the conditions and context. For example, when a country pinpoints foundational literacy, a situational analysis would entail assessing the current state of literacy, literacy teaching methods, educational resources, and existing barriers by mapping, collecting, and analyzing evidence such as large-scale national assessment data, information about teacher training and qualifications, results of research studies and stakeholder perspectives – including those of teachers, youth, and marginalized populations. This Strategic Debate will delve into strategies for using evidence to comprehensively understand the issue at play.
This webinar was organized as part of IIEP's Strategic Debate Series and the FA1 Learning Series.
Speakers:
- Diane Coury, Programme Specialist, IIEP-UNESCO
- Soumaya Maghnouj, Policy Analyst at the Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD
- Alpha Bah, Head of EMIS and ICT units under the Planning Policy Analysis and Budgeting Directorate of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, The Gambia
The debate was opened and chaired by Martín Benavides, Director, IIEP-UNESCO, and closed by Gwang-Chol Chang, Chief of Education Policy Section, Division of Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems, UNESCO Education Sector.
Debate 3: Using evidence to operationalize, cost and implement policy plans
- When: Thursday, 10 October 2024
- Modality: Online
Moving from a policy solution to an operational plan requires the use of data and evidence to design and cost-specific actionable steps for implementation. Data and evidence allow education actors to assess resource availability, analyze risks, estimate costs, identify bottlenecks, and project implementation timelines. Developing a robust operational plan is key to convincing political decision-makers to formally adopt a proposed policy. This debate will focus on how to leverage data and evidence to accurately project resources in view of the operationalization and costing of feasible and effective policy plans.
This webinar was organized as part of IIEP's Strategic Debate Series and the FA1 Learning Series.
Speakers:
- Jean-Claude Ndabananiye, Senior Programme Specialist, IIEP-UNESCO
- Javier Gonzalez, Director, SUMMA
- Stefania Sechi, Education Specialist - Education Finance, Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
- Bénéwendé Bonaventure Segueda, Permanent Secretary of the Strategic Development Plan for Basic and Secondary Education (PSDEBS), Ministry of National Education, Literacy and Promotion of National Languages (MENAPLN), Burkina Faso
Martín Benavides, Director, IIEP-UNESCO, moderated the Debate.
Closing by Gwang-Chol Chang, Chief of Section of Education Policy, UNESCO. What is the FA1 Learning Series and what is yet to come?
Organized by IIEP, the 2024 Strategic Debates take place within the framework of the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism for SDG 4, and the activities of the SDG 4-Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC).
Learn more about HLSC’s Evidence and Policy Technical Committee, which IIEP is technical co-lead with UNESCO/EDP and the OECD.
Contact
Muriel Poisson is the acting Team Leader for IIEP’s team on Knowledge Knowledge Generation and Mobilization (KGeM). In this capacity, she coordinates and develops the foresight, research, communication, publication, and library functions of the Institute. She is also managing IIEP’s new research project ‘Using digital tools to promote transparency and accountability,’ as well as capacity-building activities targeting Civil Society Organisations.
In addition, she is the task manager of the Institute’s capacity-building programme on Ethics and Corruption in Education. She coordinated several international research projects on related issues, including open school data, open government in education, and teacher codes of conduct. She trained more than 3,000 people in the area and provided technical assistance to national teams in charge of developing an integrity risk assessment, a public expenditure tracking survey, or a teacher code of conduct. She is also managing ETICO, a dynamic clearinghouse on transparency and accountability issues in education.
Prior to this, she was involved in the preparation of studies on non-formal education in Asia and on education in cities. She participated in the organization of meetings on curriculum change for the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva. She was also involved in activities led by UNESCO within the framework of the Dakar follow-up as assistant to the Assistant Director-General for Education. Finally, she acted as Team Leader a.i. of IIEP’s Research and Development team from 2014 to 2017.
Muriel has authored a number of articles and books, including: ‘Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?’
Education
- PhD in Education, Université de Picardie Jules-Verne (co dir. Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne), France
- Graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux (Public Service Section), France
- BA in History, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Publications
- Corruption Risk Assessment of the Georgian Preschool and Technical and Vocational Education Sectors: Integrity Assessment. 2022.
- Developing Open School Data Policies: Basic Principles. 2021.
- Open Government in Education: A Conceptual Framework. 2021.
- Open School Data: What Planners Need to Know. 2021.
- ETICO. Programme de renforcement des capacités sur l’éthique et la corruption dans l’éducation. 2021.
- OECD Reviews of integrity in education: Ukraine. 2017.
- Corruption-risk assessment in the Kosovo education sector: findings and recommendations. 2015.
- Consequences of corruption in education and implications for economic growth and development. 2014.
- Corruption in the education sector. 2014.
- International standards and national regulatory frameworks to realize the right to education. 2013.