Enhancing the Education Ecosystem through a Global Dialogue

The Education Performance Improvement, Communications and Knowledge (EPIC) contract supports USAID's Office of Education (E3/ED) and its missions in the areas of organizational effectiveness, professional development, knowledge management, and engagement and communications. EPIC works within a robust education ecosystem that currently lacks a unified CLA approach, so its power and richness is not fully harvested and distributed. While a rich diversity of resources and sector expertise can have an impact, an education ecosystem that effectively engages, collaborates, and adapts can be transformational. EPIC piloted the Global Dialogue through a three-part process of engagement, synthesis and application. EPIC’s activities provide regular field engagement opportunities through trainings, webinars, regional teleconferences and other modalities. These touch points enable us to draw upon field realities, insights, challenges and approaches. During the synthesis stage, lessons from field engagement are recorded in a simple spreadsheet, which the EPIC team interprets and summarizes. This synthesis is presented in a one-page quarterly report that provides a clear snapshot of deeper learning and trends. Application of Global Dialogue findings will inform mission support priorities, development of USAID's education policy, strategic decision-making, knowledge product development and professional development needs. It can also serve as a tool for transparency and accountability, highlighting collective needs, challenges, and lessons learned while holding ourselves accountable for responding to them. We anticipate that the Global Dialogue will build a culture, system and practice of continuous listening, learning and adaptation across the education ecosystem, leveraging the expertise and experience of all its actors.