On 23 May in Bogotá, our Co-CEO Fabio Segura signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Education in Colombia and Fundación Empresarios por la Educación. Signatories to the MoU commit to improving children’s holistic learning outcomes in Colombia through collaborating with different actors in the education sector. They seek to foster dialogue between educational practice and evidence-based decision-making to improve pedagogical practice and ultimately support children’s development and learning.
Fabio Segura said, “Colombia has strong research institutions and evaluation capacity, and our goal is to work with multi-stakeholder partnerships to inject even greater rigor into the creation, connection, and use of evidence in decision-making at all levels of the system”.
Óscar Sánchez, Vice Minister of Preschool, Basic and Secondary Education signed the MoU on behalf of Minister Aurora Vergara, and Executive Director Andrea Escobar signed from Fundación Empresarios por la Educación.
In Colombia, we are also supporting the Ministry of National Education in implementing a strategy to strengthen certified departmental territorial entities, through building capacities at subnational level. This initiative aims to support local authorities to promote scalable and systemic change supported by evidence to tackle educational challenges. Twelve initial territories have been selected to pilot this strategy: Amazonas, Antioquia, Barranquilla, Cauca, Cali, Cucuta, Cundinamarca, Choco, Cartagena, Meta, Manizales, and Quibdo.
Segura was also a speaker in the opening panel of a joint event from GEF Global Education Forum, an initiative of SEK Education Group, and WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation, on 24 May in Medellín. The event was an opportunity to discuss how education institutions can leverage other resources, programs, and spaces in their surroundings and beyond to expand learning opportunities. Watch a recording of the panel here (in Spanish).
Read more about our work in Colombia here.