Building Evidence in Education (BE2) is a working group of over 40 bilateral education donors, multilateral education agencies and foundations active in education research. It is led by a Steering Committee that is composed of the UK government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank and a United Nations (UN) representative agency (currently, UNESCO).
The objectives of BE2 are to:
- Strengthen donor research collaboration and coordination,
- Advance the quality and relevance of evidence in education, and
- Promote the availability and use of research that supports decision-making to improve education outcomes.
BE2 achieves its objectives by:
- Organising member meetings on key education research topics, for example implementation research or evidence uptake;
- Regularly convening special interest groups, for example on learning variability, climate smart education, and knowledge systems strengthening; and organising learning series; and
- Co-creating guidance notes to advance the quality of evidence, as well as other knowledge products that progress the relevance and uptake of evidence, for example:
- Guidance Note on Using Implementation Research in Education
- Assessing the Quality of Evidence in the Education Sector
- Guidance Note on Qualitative Research in Education
- Guidance Note on Cost Measurement
- Generating Evidence in Education: Impact Evaluations
- Compendium of Education Systems Diagnostic Tools.
BE2’s role as part of the What Works Hub for Global Education
The What Works Hub for Global Education leverages tools and resources that have been developed by BE2, for example on implementation research, cost measurement, or systems diagnostic tools. BE2 will work with the What Works Hub for Global Education to enhance standards of research in the sector with new tools in relevant countries. The Hub can also leverage BE2 special interest groups for input and guidance.
