What influences decisions in government and increases intrinsic motivation for government officers to pursue holistic learning for all children? What makes it work better in some systems over others?
Through our engagement with education systems across East Africa, ALiVE has learned that influencing government decisions is a complex and context-specific endeavour. Progress is rarely linear; it requires patience, adaptability, and a deep understanding of government action’s motivations and structures.
Our progress has been uneven across our four jurisdictions (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania Mainland, and Zanzibar). However, promising entry points emerged, particularly within curriculum development and teacher training, where government actors have demonstrated an openness to collaboration. These breakthroughs underscore the importance of identifying and investing in the system’s most responsive areas. At the same time, it draws insights into the enablers, relational dynamics, and contextual factors that compel actions for systemic uptake and ownership across the region.
In this blog post, we share some of the key learnings from ALiVE’s experiences in engaging government stakeholders as to what influences their decisions and increases their motivation to pursue holistic education for all children:
Data-driven insights and successful case studies across the four Jurisdictions of our work (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania Mainland, and Zanzibar) have been crucial in opening spaces for meaningful engagement with government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Using the findings from phase 1, Action for Life Skills and Values (ALiVE) has provided robust evidence and irrefutable data that has opened up access to government spaces and motivated deeper collaboration between government officials and the ALiVE initiative.
Data-driven insights and successful case studies have also helped policymakers understand the potential benefits of adopting ALiVE strategies, providing tangible evidence of the initiatives’ positive impact on education outcomes. Some of these case studies include: the school and community immersions that aimed at gathering insights on how teachers, school leaders, parents, and the wider community are supporting the nurturing of values and developing skills among children, which helped policymakers understand the potential benefits of adopting ALiVE’s proposed strategies into the education system. Some of the strategies embraced and being spearheaded by government systems in the four jurisdictions include the collaborative development of evidence-based learning progressions (in Tanzania and Uganda), the Value-based education pilot (in Kenya), the large scale assessment of learners in grade three using a collaboratively developed contextualized tool (in Zanzibar), integration of life skills and values in teacher training (in Kenya) and capacity enhancements for curriculum and assessment specialists (in Uganda, Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar). Other initiatives that have seen strong support from system actors include developing modules and resource materials for nurturing life skills and values across the region and the collaborative research initiative with curriculum institutions, regional universities, and the teacher service commission (for the case of Kenya).
A key lesson is that evidence-based research demonstrating the potential benefits of specific interventions or policies encourages government participation and engagement in the collective pursuit of holistic learning for all children. However, the challenge lies in maintaining momentum and securing long-term government buy-in, particularly as priorities and stakeholders’ interests evolve. As we dive deeper into pursuing impact at scale, we strive for credible data and evidence to sustain the effect of the ALiVE initiative across the region, even as we engage with the evidence to inform policy and practice around competence-based education.
It underscores the importance of understanding and responding to the priorities and goals of key stakeholders, ultimately strengthening partnerships and maximizing the effectiveness of collaborative initiatives.
Navigating complex bureaucratic structures, overcoming potential resistance to change, and ensuring sustained government engagement and buy-in over the long term remain daily challenges in ALiVE. However, our engagements with the education systems across the three East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania have shown that aligning ALiVE activities with government priorities and ongoing initiatives increases motivation for collaboration.
Reading into government priorities and responding to the prioritized strategic goals of the education systems enhanced buy-in from the system actors, such that, it is not unusual to find directors, commission secretaries, and commissioners commit to 3 whole-day meetings facilitated by ALiVE technical teams targeting specific aspects of work that are of interest to the system and support holistic learning for all children. In some cases, our role ended as conversation starters, and government departments steered the conversation further, taking strategic decisions and actions that furthered the initiative to deliver on heights. Examples of such cases include the value-based education pilot in Kenya by KICD, enhancing the implementation of CBC through lesson planning in Uganda by NCDC, and developing skills frameworks for prioritized skills in the national curriculum in Zanzibar by ZIE.
The main focus of Action for Life Skills and Values (ALiVE), is integrating life skills and values assessment into curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher training, for holistic child development across the education systems of three East African Countries. This systems-level work involves a comprehensive methodology of clarifying vision, conducting a systems-wide analysis, identifying key levers within the system, envisioning future changes, establishing existing capacity within the collaborative to respond to the identified need, while developing the strategy for delivering the system change ambition along with learning approaches.
Identifying areas where ALiVE can add value to existing government efforts in a diversified way, such as developing learning progressions for skills in upper primary and lower secondary school grade levels in Uganda, working with teacher training colleges in Kenya, and reviewing the curriculum for teacher training in Zanzibar, are all examples of how ALiVE read into the government’s priorities and aligned the program to respond to the need of the education system in each country.
The process adopts a partnership model that involves co-designing initiatives from beginning to end. The approach has increasingly positioned ALiVE as a government ally. As such, we have collaboratively co-designed assessment tools for classroom use, co-developed and piloted nurturing approaches for value-based education, and co-developed training modules for teacher training institutions. Throughout these processes, ALiVE has learnt that governments are motivated by initiatives that foster solid alliances and collaborative relationships with varied stakeholders. Actively engaging policymakers in dialogue, soliciting their input, and co-designing initiatives that align with their priorities and objectives strengthens relationships and increases their willingness to participate. In a nutshell, alignment from the co-design stage strengthens partnerships with the government and maximizes the effectiveness of collaborative initiatives.
Influencing government decisions and mindsets becomes difficult when innovations that work are not scalable. ALiVE has learned that the government is quite intrigued by the sustainability and scalability of interventions deemed to have a large-scale impact. We have also learned that lasting systems change happens when innovations are effective, practical, scalable, and rooted in the realities of the people who use them. From the contextualization studies to developing and testing tools and approaches for assessing and nurturing skills and values, we worked closely with government partners not just as implementers, but as co-creators, to design tools that help assess life skills and values in ways that make sense in their contexts.
We didn’t bring in something entirely new; instead, we built on what already existed, testing ideas at a small scale, showing that they work, and learning together along the way. These early wins helped us earn trust and open doors for deeper engagement. With solid evidence in hand, we were able to convene honest, reflective policy conversations that moved beyond theory to action. The tools and relationships have made the difference, walking with ministries, national exam bodies, and educators as partners. That’s how we’ve influenced not just programs, but policy and practice, laying a foundation for systems that truly value and grow the whole learner.
In this second phase of ALiVE, we have aimed to demonstrate how initiatives can be effectively scaled up and integrated into existing education systems without imposing undue burden on resources, garnering more significant support and commitment from government officials. We believe that ALiVE’s impact lies not only in the innovations we developed, but in the conditions, we nurture for adoption and scale, including strong partnerships, evidence-informed policy engagement, and a commitment to embedding change within existing government structures.
To influence and sustain government support and engagement for life skills and values education, ALiVE has invested in identifying and nurturing champions within key government institutions. These champions, when equipped with the right tools and knowledge, play a vital role in internal advocacy and anchoring reforms within their systems. ALiVE has also prioritized coalition-building by engaging decision-makers who align with its vision, creating unified fronts that can more effectively drive policy change. Understanding that political capital, both internal and external, is central to systems change, ALiVE has fostered trust through credible relationships, consistent engagement, and evidence-sharing.
We also recognize that systemic reform is rigid, slow and complex. As such, ALiVE has approached resistance with transparency, collaborative planning, and open dialogue to ensure shared ownership and sustained momentum for holistic learning agendas. Our focus has been to ensure that we carry along with us these champions/catalysts wherever the process leads us. In the process they have gained grounding not just in the aspects of the program, but the spirit behind it adequately representing the agenda wherever they go.
By Stella Rose Akongo, Co-PI-Learning Hub, ALiVE
@StellaAkongo
