Impact case study database

Dyer’s career-long research has: (i) helped set the international agenda by raising global awareness of pastoralist’s education needs, providing an evidence base to inform and shape global policy effort, and; instituting livelihood-sensitive approaches to pastoralists’ education inclusion within national policy strategies in (ii) Ethiopia and (iii) Mongolia.

(i) Raising awareness and providing an evidence-base for global education policy and practice for international organisations and NGOs

Dyer’s research has played a crucial role in helping key global and national education actors to understand pastoralists’ educational needs for global advocacy and national policies. Global efforts to raise awareness and inform an educational agenda for change widely use her research, and international organisations regularly commission her technical expertise to generate research evidence and policy advice. For example, several UN Global Education Monitoring Reports (GEMRs) have drawn upon her evidence and analyses. Established in 2002, the GEMR is an annual agenda-setting report with thematic foci, used by state and non-state decision makers seeking evidence to inform their actions on inclusive and equitable quality education at national, regional and global levels. These Reports play a crucial role in informing educational stakeholders on policy ‘best practice’ and presenting evidence that supports educational policy reforms aiming to achieve SDG4. The 2019 GEMR, which argues that ‘nomad and pastoralist education needs are not addressed’ ( [A] p. 22 ), for example, makes six citations of Dyer’s Educate A Child (EAC)/German International Cooperation Institute (GIZ) commissioned, co-authored study [6] and presents her evidence on networked schooling [1] in its reporting on global efforts to adjust education to livelihood-related mobility [A]. Dyer’s 2014 Background Paper (which became **[4]**), commissioned for the 2000-2015 global overview of Education for All in the 2015 GEMR, is cited as key evidence seven times within the four paragraphs devoted to nomadic pastoralists [B]. The 2019 GEMR’s use of Dyer’s updated evidence [6] to argue that nomads’ needs are not addressed, that education should be adjusted to seasonality and mobility, and its relevance to their livelihoods improved, shows how her research has raised issue awareness and sharpened understanding ( [A] pp. 21-22).

Dyer’s research has highlighted evidence gaps and this has led to collaborations aiming to close them, including with UNESCO, Save the Children [C], the British Council, the UN’s GEMR team, EAC and GIZ [D]. Dyer engaged with non-academic stakeholders via events in Doha (2017), Berlin (2016), Atlanta (2017), and the University of Leeds (2018 and 2019 conferences w/ Save the Children, ca. 60 participants). The Executive Director at EAC commends Dyer’s innovative suggestion of adding interviews to supplement the desk research it commissioned, which ‘ increased our reach’ as a ‘ wide range of actors wanted the opportunity to discuss issues and contribute’ and enabled EAC to ‘ share through our global network the practical and policy challenges faced when providing quality education for children from mobile populations’ [D]. The research highlighted for EAC and ‘implementing partners’ the ‘ need to programme in specific ways to provide education to some of the hardest to reach children’, with ‘ clear examples of how policy and programmatic approaches can be implemented to meet the educational needs of children who find themselves “on the move”’ [D].

A Senior Education Advisor at Save the Children describes Dyer as a ‘thought leader’ who is ‘ internationally recognised as an authoritative source on pastoralist education research’ [C]. Her research is understood as ‘ critical for policy and practice as it highlights the urgent need to intervene in a unique, pastoralist centred approach if we are to reach those children who are left behind, and contribute to the realisation of SDGs’. The charity uses Dyer’s research as a ‘ great resource and addition to our knowledge bank’ and ‘ point of reference when designing new projects’ to ‘ inform our education programming and advocacy in various pastoralist contexts we work’ [C]. In particular, Dyer’s work on ‘networked schooling’ [1], which Save innovated and Dyer sharpened, resulted in ‘ an impact in Ethiopia by providing a model enabling hard to reach communities to gain education access’ [see below] with ‘ very good potential for other international applications with mobile populations’, and will also ‘inform […] our future programming’ [C].

In Mongolia (2019), the collaborative research methodology Dyer shaped to fit the ‘distinctive education and development context’, outlined below in (iii), has inspired UNESCO to revise its internal guidelines for best practice on how to carry out further Education Policy Reviews [E]. Her applied research ‘ contributed to UNESCO’s Major Programme I (Education) and the specific expected result “improved national education policies and plans to advance access to equitable and quality [early childhood care and education], primary and secondary education through a system-wide lifelong learning approach”’ . Dyer’s expertise contributed to ‘strengthening UNESCO’s esteem as a respected knowledge organization providing policy analysis and advice’, whilst some of the EPR’s conclusions ‘are relevant far beyond Mongolia to the global debate on education and learning’ [E].

(ii) Changing education policy in Ethiopia to better include marginalised pastoralists

Ethiopia’s pastoralist population comprises ca. 12-15 million people and rates of education participation among pastoralist children fall far below national averages [F]. Dyer was appointed as the international expert to conduct research and co-author Ethiopia’s Pastoralist Education Strategy 2017 (PES 2017) by the government’s Quality Education Strategic Support Programme (QESSP). A former educational consultant for UNICEF Ethiopia explains that Dyer’s ‘expertise greatly assisted in formulating a policy that was more focused, and progressive in terms of intent and language’ [G]. Her review of international evidence on delivery modalities and empirical analysis of implementation of the Pastoralist Education Strategy 2008 changed the strategic emphasis of the new 2017 Strategy to focus on a wider range of delivery approaches, and embedded lessons from her long-standing research by including details of modalities and extensive guidance on stakeholder roles and responsibilities for implementation [1,4]. Dyer led stakeholder workshops with field teams of UNICEF and Save the Children, and with three government Regional Education Bureaux, which evidenced high dependence for pastoralists’ education inclusion on under-resourced, poorly managed Alternative Basic Education Centres. This evidence, and its equity implications, was discussed at a national consultation meeting (Addis Ababa, April 2016) for 20 key ministerial, inter-agency and civil-society stakeholders. The discussion ‘greatly supported development partners to identify best practices and highlight the great needs within this nomadic/semi nomadic setting’ [G]. For UNICEF, the situation analysis was a ‘ strong independent piece of empirical research’ which prompted UNICEF to commission its own external evaluation of Alternative Basic Education to ‘determine the pitfalls’ [G]. In July 2017, Dyer was an expert respondent for the evaluation, which makes 16 references to the situation analysis findings [H]. In combination, both bodies of research ‘ showed a gap in understanding the considerable investment needed to deliver quality pastoralist education’ [G]. UNICEF subsequently ‘ decided to shift its focus to improving the quality of education in these settings and creating a more equitable standard, instead of supporting large scale ABE [Alternative Basic Education Centres] construction, without adequate follow through’ [G]. UNICEF affirms that under Dyer’s guidance and co-authorship, PES 2017 departed from ‘ a litany of different approaches borrowed from other countries that were often not implemented, and/or not adequately supported or monitored’ and ‘ instead allowed the Government to reflect more internally on the shortcomings in pastoral settings and narrow the focus based on lessons learned from the situational analysis’ [G]. The PES 2017 and revised ABE guidelines, along with the system strengthening focus that Dyer emphasised, are reported as outputs of the now completed QESSP ( [I], p. 12), setting the policy agenda of the government and development actors’ support for the years ahead [F].

(iii) Re-focusing education policy in Mongolia to emphasise lifelong learning and education’s role in sustainable pastoralism and rural futures

The official with responsibility for managing the 2019 UNESCO Education Policy Review ( EPR), commissioned by the government of Mongolia (where some 30% of the 3.2 million population is involved in mobile pastoralism), explains that Dyer’s globally recognised promotion of pastoralists’ education inclusion, underpinned by her ‘deep intellectual enquiry and sustained commitment to the well-being of these communities’, led directly to UNESCO commissioning her as international lead for the EPR [E,J] . Dyer ‘ brought research findings from Kenya, Ethiopia and India to bear on the policy debates in Mongolia on ‘productivity’, access to quality and relevant education, and the long-term national vision for sustainable development’ [E]. Her grasp of global evidence and Mongolia-specific research findings brought ‘ new perspectives to counterparts and national education stakeholders’ and enabled the UN team to integrate into the EPR recommendations to re-orient education to support pastoralism, rural development, and national Green Economy pledges; and to challenge the narrow focus on industrial employability in the technical and vocational (TVET) sector [E]. At the beginning of the EPR process, Dyer advised the Mongolian Institute of Education Research (MIER) to include a new, separate section to highlight pastoralists’ education status in the Country Report that MIER authored, which the UN then used as the foundation document for the EPR. As a result of Dyer’s input, the UN’s EPR [J], which focuses on lifelong learning for all, included a specific, separate Policy Domain for pastoralists’ education (Policy Domain 3, pp. 103-118). Furthermore, the UN’s EPR team leader found that Dyer’s expertise on pastoralism ‘ significantly enhanced the credibility and standing of the EPR team, in the eyes of national officials and stakeholders, and international development partners, such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, and the Asian Development Bank’ [E]. The EPR provides a range of prioritised policy recommendations, including improved and equitable provision for pastoralists [J]. Many of Dyer’s recommendations have been included subsequently in Mongolia’s forthcoming 2020-30 Education Master Plan , which is the policy framework for all education sector activity for the next ten years and directly draws on the EPR. As a result, in the UN EPR team leader’s view, Dyer’s work ‘ will undoubtedly impact on the future governance and strategic directions of education in Mongolia as well as the character of development cooperation’ [E].