Elimu-Soko is pleased to launch the Teaching Innovation Lab, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation. The Lab will pilot and scale evidence-based, cost-effective interventions for teacher training. This won’t be just another initiative; it will be an opportunity to scale evidence-based, cost-effective innovations within public education systems across Africa.
The wake-up call: The funding landscape has fundamentally shifted in the last twelve months. With major donors reducing billions in Official Development Assistance (ODA) to education, the era of externally-funded programs is rapidly ending. Governments remain the only sustainable sources of education financing. What is desperately needed is the systemic piloting and embedding of innovations directly within public education systems within constrained budgets.
Why teacher training? Most African governments invest heavily in teachers; often 60-80% of education budgets in most countries. The best avenue for sustained improvements in learning outcomes remains investing in teachers. Governments understand this reality. In our conversations across the continent, teacher training consistently ranks as their top priority, making it a compelling starting point for Elimu-Soko.
What happens next: The Lab will launch a pan-African facility that will make strategic investments across 4-5 innovation windows targeting innovations that dramatically improve foundational literacy and numeracy instruction within the fiscal constraints African governments face. These innovation windows will tackle the diverse challenges across our continent, from urban schools with high connectivity to rural areas lacking any connectivity; from well-established education structures to post-conflict/refugee settings; from multilingual environments to single-language contexts. Each strategic investment will follow our tested methodology that has already shown success in Zanzibar and Rwanda.
Calling for innovators: We’re actively seeking innovators with teacher training solutions that have demonstrated measurable impact and can operate within government budget constraints. We’re assembling an innovator community focused on creating solutions that governments can adopt and sustain. This isn’t just another innovation showcase, but a working network that helps us understand what’s possible at the frontier of government-embedded education innovation. We’re seeking innovators with a proven education innovation in Africa or similar contexts, particularly those ready to work within government constraints. We offer connections with government partners seeking specific solutions, strategic guidance on adapting innovations for public sector adoption, and opportunities for funded pilots within government systems through programs such as the upcoming Teaching Innovation Lab.
The commitment goes beyond passive networking. We’re looking for innovators willing to co-design approaches with government partners and adapt their solutions based on real implementation constraints. If you’re ready to move beyond donor-funded pilots toward government-sustained impact, we’d like to hear from you.
