Giving Compass' Take:

· The Gates Foundation just announced the launch of a new global education strategy with a $68 million budget for the next four years. In an interview with Devex, Girindre Beeharry, director of global education at the Gates Foundation, explains the ongoing issues revolving around teaching and learning, and the plans the foundation has to improve outcomes and break down barriers.

· What is the purpose behind this initiative? What went in to creating this new strategy the foundation will use?

· Learn about the key role education plays in global development.

On June 1st, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched its global education strategy, to provide education systems in India and sub-Saharan Africa with better resources to improve teaching and learning.

Building on its investments in global health and international development, and expanding its work on education beyond the United States, the new global effort has a $68 million budget for the next four years.

In a blog post announcing the strategy, Girindre Beeharry, director of global education at the Gates Foundation, notes the progress the world has made on education over the past 15 years, but explains that expanded access has not translated to better outcomes.

“What we’re trying to do here is stay with the problem a bit longer, as opposed to going to a solution mode,” he told Devex ahead of the announcement. “Instead of saying, ‘This is the answer,’ we are trying to say: ‘It is likely that every country will need to find its own path in solving the education problem.’”

The strategy has four pillars: At the classroom level, the foundation will identify cost-effective approaches to supporting teaching and learning; it will work with partners to assess the causes of poor performance and identify solutions best suited to those needs; it will support efforts to make data on learning outcomes comparable across countries so progress can be tracked over time; and it will seek to understand barriers holding girls back.

Efforts to advance learning outcomes’ success depend on technically correct interventions, a system that is able to deliver those interventions at scale, and a political environment that is supportive of those interventions, Beeharry said.

Read the full article about the Gates Foundation's new global education strategy by Catherine Cheney at Devex International Development.