SABER IN ACTION PARTNERSHIPS FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS JUNE | 2016 The World Bank Group’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative produces data on education system pol icies and institutions, analyzes and evaluates their quality, and provides decision makers and stakeholders with an assessment that fosters structured and informed policy dialogue on how to most effectively strengthen education systems. During its tenure, SABER has grown rapidly to become a key component in the design of education programming across the globe, providing countries with quality data and information. By generating a broader knowledge base on education systems worldwide, these tools are helping reform education at the country level while also building a high-quality knowledge base for education reforms at the global level. As SABER has evolved and gained traction globally, international development institutions, regional organizations, and national and local governments have partnered with SABER domain teams and adapted SABER tools for more effective engagements. Partnerships The quality of SABER engagements has benefited greatly from partnerships with international, regional, and national organizations and governments. These partnerships have generated feedback that led to the design and evolution of SABER tools, contributed to government and stakeholder buy-in of SABER engagements, and increased SABER’s global profile. Work on SABER has been possible with support from numerous donors and partners including the United Kingdom ’s Department for International Development, the Russia Education Aid for Development Trust Fund, and the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Additional support from the Netherlands, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, Education for All Teacher Task Force, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, and the World Food Programme have also been instrumental in establishing SABER. World Food Programme (WFP) Popular among many governments, school feeding serves as a safety net for children, especially in poor and food insecure areas. PHOTO: BILL LYONS / WORLD BANK Evidence shows that these programs have the ability to improve the health, nutrition and education of children, and offset lost income for struggling families. In many cases, they can also support local and national economies and food security. The World Food Programme has adapted the SABER-School Feeding tools to provide initial assessments of countries’ school feeding programs. There are currently eight publicly available reports and associated data generated using the SABER-School Feeding tools available on the SABER website. The WFP has applied SABER tools in a number of additional countries, using the findings to develop country-specific school feeding action plans. Because SABER tools are openly accessible and provide detailed instructions on how to apply the tools, the WFP team has taken the lead in data collection and analysis with the SABER-School Feeding team providing operational support where necessary. Saber.worldbank.org P1 SABER IN ACTION: JUNE 2016 PARTNERSHIPS FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) The Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality (ARAIEQ) was developed by the World Bank Group in close association with the ALECSO and UNESCO. ARAIEQ aims to address key dimensions of education quality by bringing together regional specialists, producing and disseminating knowledge and policy tools (including SABER), and holding regional workshops, conferences and trainings. ARAIEQ’s efforts focuses on five pillars: assessment, early childhood development, curriculum, innovation and ICT, teachers, and entrepreneurship. PHOTO: BART VERWIJ / WORLD BANK The SABER-Student Assessment tool was applied across 16 countries as part of a regional benchmarking exercise. ARAIEQ hired the principal consultant and oversaw data collection and government engagement with the Student Assessment team providing data quality assurance and analysis. This partnership was an effective way of leveraging each team’s respective expertise—ARAIEQ’s local and regional familiarity and the SABER team’s deep technical knowledge. The partnership resulted in a comparative analysis of student assessment policies across the region as well as country-specific data, analysis and policy recommendations. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) SABER-Early Childhood Development (ECD) and UNICEF have partnered on a number of SABER engagements with UNICEF’s involvement ranging from contributing to funding and operational support to providing local and technical knowledge. For the SABER-ECD engagements in Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, UNICEF created a more in-depth tool to take a deeper look at ECD components highlighted by the Pacific Region as priorities for quality early childhood care and education (ECCE). The UNICEF National Situational Analysis-ECD tool was applied in conjunction with the SABER-ECD tool to provide a region-specific snapshot of ECD policies with an added focus on policy, legislation and governance; human resources; curriculum, child assessment, and environment; performance monitoring and assessment; and community partnerships. Education for All (EFA) Teacher Task Force The EFA Teacher Task Force, a multi-stakeholder partnership, recently partnered with the World Bank Group to use the SABER-Teachers tools to analyze 25 countries’ policies. Findings from the analysis will inform a global report on teacher policies as well as provide country specific data and analysis. The countries involved are spread around the globe and include a wide range of income levels, from Namibia and Haiti to Italy, Norway, and Qatar. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) The PISA for Development initiative aimed to build countries’ national capacity in the areas of assessment design, data analysis, and use of results for monitoring and improvement. An analysis of each country’s capacity with regards to the different aspects of student assessments was completed using the SABER-Student Assessment tools and PISA technical standards. The SABER-Student Assessment framework and data were also used in a jointly-commissioned World Bank Group-OECD report on middle-income countries’ experiences with PISA. Better Education Results SABER’s continued success is predicated on maintaining and fostering partnerships in the application and improvement of SABER tools and the collection and analysis of SABER data as a contribution to the global knowledge base of education systems. Strong partnerships offer new perspectives, create wider and stronger stakeholder buy-in, and expand SABER’s scope beyond what would possible for the World Bank Group on its own. saber.worldbank.org P2