KIX Latin America and the Caribbean hub
The Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), a joint endeavour between the Global Partnership for Education and IDRC, aims to contribute to the improvement of education policy and practice in the Global South.
A key component of KIX is a knowledge sharing and exchange function, where country representatives come together to share information, innovation, and best practices related to education policy and programming and to inform knowledge gaps and policy priorities. Four regional hubs act as knowledge brokering units for KIX. This page provides information on the hub that primarily oversees activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Consortia: SUMMA, and Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Countries: Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Who are we?
The Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) Latin America and the Caribbean hub (LAC) facilitates cross-country knowledge exchange and mobilization, learning, synthesis, and collaboration among national education stakeholders in eight Global Partnership for Education partner countries. The hub functions as a regional forum within KIX.
A consortium of two organizations manage the LAC hub:
- SUMMA (Laboratory of Education Research and Innovation for Latin America and the Caribbean)
- The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
What do we do?
The eight LAC countries represented by this hub face significant challenges across their education sectors. These will be addressed through a systemic approach that includes:
- Setting a regional agenda on knowledge gaps for scalable policy and practice options for priorities at sub-regional, national, and local levels.
- Identifying evidence oriented to innovative and scalable policy solutions and mobilizing and socializing it through knowledge synthesis, seminars, workshops, and virtual colloquiums with the participation of experts and education stakeholders.
- Building regional and local capacity and networking spaces among key stakeholders by creating a regional network of national representatives convening on a regular basis and a program of internships and exchange programs for ministry of education professionals.
About the region
Latin America has a diversified, active, and well consolidated research community on education topics. The KIX LAC hub will tap into this strong regional capacity and relevant contextual evidence. There is significant heterogeneity in terms of language, population, and economic situations across the eight LAC hub countries.
Setting regional priorities
On June 9th, 2020, the LAC hub hosted an online meeting to introduce the hub to its partners and share information about the hub’s priority setting process. The event was attended by more than 50 participants that included representatives from Ministries of Education and civil society from 8 countries that are members of the KIX Regional Hub for Latin America and the Caribbean.
To identify the priorities of the GPE-partner countries that the hub oversees, the LAC hub led a process from March to July 2020 to identify shared policy challenges for public education systems. The LAC hub consulted country representatives, policymakers and local education group (LEG) members to identify key knowledge gaps across the 8 countries that the Latin America and Caribbean hub oversee to inform the regional knowledge & research agenda.
The summary of the report on the results of the consultation process allowed KIX to identify the following priorities:
- To sustainably enhance the capacity of national education systems to improve equity in education in rural communities through culturally responsive approaches that combine support programs for rural students, teachers and schools.
- To build, systematize and/or adapt efficient, contextually relevant and cost effective mechanisms to support capacity building efforts within the education sector, with focus on technical teams, mid-level authorities and school principals on areas that are key for a successful implementation of national policy reform processes within education systems.
- To develop adapted approaches (e.g., tools, resources, actionable frameworks) that introduce and reinforce gender equity and inclusion perspectives in education planning and practices towards more equitable access and increased learning opportunities for all children, regardless of gender.
For the most up to date information of the hub's progress, activities and upcoming events, visit: https://www.gpekix.org/regional-hub/kix-lac .