Research

Dubai Cares curated the “Secondary Education in Africa (SEA) Report” and its background paper on refugee education to inform policy dialogue and programming for adolescents in low-resource and crisis-affected contexts. Developed for the Mastercard Foundation’s flagship report, the paper examined how humanitarian emergencies impact access to and quality of secondary education, with case studies from Kenya and Uganda.   It identified key barriers—including cost, credentialing, language of instruction, safety (especially for girls), and teacher management—and recommended integrating refugees into national systems, creating flexible certified pathways, and strengthening teacher support. These insights shaped the SEA report’s recommendations and reinforced Dubai Cares’ advocacy for inclusive, equitable secondary education for displaced learners.

The Evidence for Education in Emergencies (E-Cubed) Research Envelope was launched in 2017 by Dubai Cares in partnership with INEE to strengthen the evidence base in EiE through contextually relevant research and global public goods. INEE manages proposal submissions and reviews, while Dubai Cares makes final funding decisions. An independent advisory panel of academics, practitioners, and policymakers has reviewed over 360 proposals in four languages.   From 2017 to 2021, E-Cubed established itself as a respected global fund, transforming how evidence for EiE is financed by promoting research that is locally driven and inclusive. The call for proposals closed in 2022, and a lessons-learned evaluation is underway to inform future investment and potential scaling through global mechanisms such as Education Cannot Wait.

This program focused on enhancing both the quality and reach of the REACT digital hub, a platform designed to effectively mobilise private sector engagement and resources in support of education in emergencies. REACT serves as a bridge between private sector actors and implementing organisations, enabling sustained and scalable delivery of education solutions in crisis contexts. The platform facilitates contributions in various forms, including financial and in-kind support, technical expertise, strategic consultancy, and employee volunteer engagement. By strengthening REACT, the programme aimed to create a more robust ecosystem for collaboration, ensuring that private sector capabilities are harnessed to complement humanitarian efforts and drive long-term impact in education for vulnerable populations.  

In 2019, Dubai Cares provided targeted technical assistance to support the dissemination of the Fursa kwa Watoto (FkW) Learning Agenda in Tanzania, ensuring that insights from the programme’s endline evaluation informed both regional and national education policy. The research engaged local education authorities to build consensus around quality pre-primary models and encourage uptake at scale . At the national level, Dubai Cares supported advocacy efforts by packaging key findings on teacher practices and student learning outcomes into presentations and an online evidence library, developed in partnership with Mathematica and other stakeholders. By fostering dialogue among government, civil society, and development partners, Dubai Cares also helped drive demand for quality pre-primary education, contributed to the integration of FkW elements into the national curriculum, and supported increased budget commitments from local authorities. This initiative reinforced our commitment to evidence-based advocacy and systemic change in early childhood education.  

Dubai Cares joined forces with the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics through the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF) to help reshape the global education agenda—from focusing solely on access to education, to prioritizing access plus learning.   As both a strategic and financial partner, Dubai Cares played a pivotal role by providing bridge funding to sustain the LMTF Secretariat, supporting the development of global frameworks and tools to measure learning outcomes, and championing the integration of learning metrics into the post-2015 education agenda—now reflected in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).   This partnership positioned Dubai Cares as a global thought leader in education policy, embedding us within a coalition of over 80 organizations across 70 countries. Together, we contributed to the creation of robust assessment systems and built consensus around key learning domains and indicators. Conducted in two phases between 2012 and 2016, the LMTF’s work directly informed the SDG 4 targets and left a lasting legacy through initiatives like Learning Champions, ensuring that quality learning remains at the heart of global education efforts.    

Dubai Cares in partnership with Pedago designed and scaled a blended secondary education model that helps vulnerable Jordanian and Syrian refugee students complete high school and progress to further study or employment. Using Pedago’s award‑winning, mobile‑first Smartly learning system, the initiative developed content aligned to host‑country curricula and combines in‑class facilitation with independent, technology‑enabled learning. Structured as a multi‑year technical assistance and research engagement with milestone‑based delivery, the program focused on improving learning outcomes and national exam pass rates while generating evidence for policy and practice.