Global Education Solutions Accelerator (GESA)

Overview

The Global Education Systems Accelerator (GESA) is driven by a bold and transformative ambition: to empower countries in leading the change within their own education systems, unlocking the full potential of human capital and advancing global human development. Rooted in a country-led approach, GESA supports governments in identifying systemic challenges and catalyzing solutions through cross-sectoral collaboration and ecosystem-wide innovation. Guided by its vision of country-led transformation, and its mission to accelerate progress through strategic support and partnership, GESA serves as a dynamic platform for reimagining education systems that are inclusive, resilient, and future-ready.

Guiding Principles:

• Country-centric approach: GESA recognizes countries as primary drivers of their education transformation and supports countries on the principles of sovereignty, localized decision-making, and context-specific operations.
• Innovation as a catalyst: GESA has a keen focus on identifying and supporting innovative approaches and providing the necessary resources for transformative ideas to flourish.
• Cross-sectoral collaboration: Recognizing that education is intertwined with broader societal goals, GESA actively supports cross-sectoral engagement to foster the development of holistic solutions in line with the Framework for Global Education Transformation. 
• Flexibility and agility: GESA’s operations and resource provisions (including funding and funding channels) are guided by the principles of flexibility and agility, prioritizing rapid and iterative outcomes on 6, 12, and 18-month time frames.
• Prioritization of support for the most vulnerable and marginalized: GESA puts human beings at the center of thinking and doing with a strong commitment to the most vulnerable and marginalized in every context.

The Global Education Solutions Accelerator (GESA) is a new catalytic initiative that collaborates with countries to help them achieve their education transformation goals. This partnership focuses on facilitating rapid innovations in critical and underfunded sectors, essential for achieving transformative changes (for teachers, learners, and their communities) at the system level. The GESA focuses on centering countries as the key drivers of transformation and supporting the rapid identification of roadblocks towards long-term transformation goals led by the needs and aspirations of individual nations, while providing critical connections to technical assistance and funding to accelerate progress on innovative solutions to bring these goals on track in shorter time frames, with the end-aim of driving country-led transformation of education systems. GESA is envisioned as a practical platform to support countries in identifying roadblocks to education transformation and connecting countries to the resources and partnerships they need to rewire education systems for people and planet. 

The GESA looks to serve as a complement to key actors driving education transformation by providing support through assessment and funding mechanisms. By bringing an ecosystems approach to underserved themes that play a critical role in creating education systems of the future, the GESA provides national actors with tools, guidance, and connections to address the biggest roadblocks on their road to transformation while avoiding duplication with existing efforts.

Given the scale of these challenges, countries need every available tool in their toolkit. The GESA seeks to provide additive support (complementary to existing initiatives) to make education transformation an accessible aspiration for countries through continued innovation and experimentation to accelerate progress on long-term goals. It is important to note here that GESA does not seek to be an additional layer nor a duplicative mechanism in an already crowded space in the sector. GESA was born out of the need to strengthen and support systems at multiple levels.

Ensuring that GESA will be a complementary mechanism is a matter of both principle and process. GESA’s commitment to complementarity as a principle is evident in its membership structure and partnership-driven model; ensuring that it is a platform that brings all stakeholders to the table both the usual and unusual players. Through this composition (and governance structure) GESA is continuously informed, shaped and guided by those members who, given their own mandates and areas of work, will be able to inform GESA on where the gaps exist and therefore where its efforts are needed to complement and contribute. And so, from a strategy level, GESA’s decisions across all levels of operation, will be based on a solid understanding of the needs rather than a prescriptive approach/mandate. From a process level, it is important to remember that GESA is demand-led. 

Putting its vision to action, GESA’s functions will focus on a few key pillars including:

1-     Advisory and technical assistance on systems transformation with a view to specific roadblocks and/or opportunities (ex: GPE might, through its work with countries, identify broad areas for support such as digital transformation, and within that identify niches and/or cross-sectoral challenges/opportunities that either require further exploring or concentrated specialized technical expertise, where GESA can respond to that through the provision of those needs). Technical assistance cuts across both needs identification and across all layers of implementation and evaluation including capacity building where needed.

2-     Funding where after assessment of needs, and development of implementation plans to put transformation of agendas into action, funding needs are identified that are otherwise not covered by other mechanisms, GESA will provide that funding through various approaches with a focus on innovative financing.

3-     Implementation where transformation agendas are implemented through various interventions in which GESA leverages its extensive network to provide the necessary resources and tools to deliver those interventions (this could range from secondments of a few experts, to brokering new partnerships amongst innovative actors, to deploying full operations teams).

4-     Advocacy at local and global levels on particular thematics in which gaps/opportunities have been identified (ex: financing and policy gaps for ECD and where it intersects with climate). This could range from members collaborating on particular areas or specific in-country advocacy in particular communities in which GESA provides the technical or material support.