Recent research by international organisations has found that teachers do not sufficiently participate in key discussions on educational reform in developing countries, therefore depriving the process of teachers’ input and undermining teachers’ sense of ownership and commitment. The UNESCO project ‘Improving Teacher Support and Participation in Local Education Groups (LEGs)’ sought to address this deficit. Having run since 2015, ECOPER and Ockham IPS evaluators have recently completed an evaluation of the intervention. A mixed method approach was used for the evaluation, involving interviews with stakeholders at international and national levels, an online survey and field missions to Ivory Coast, Nepal, and Uganda, which provided a deeper understanding of how the project had operated at a country level.
Funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and run under the Global and Regional Activities for Education (GRA) Programme, the project had a regional and global focus and was active in eleven countries: Uganda, DR Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nepal, Haiti, Benin, Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone. Its aims included engaging teachers more systematically in policymaking through improving the technical and organizational capacity of teachers’ organisations and improving the organizations’ (and country governments’) capacity to analyse and discuss human resources issues affecting teachers.