GPE’s webinar series: Developing and supporting effective education systems
A school girl in Ethiopia. Credit: Save the Children/Katherine Brown

Presentation title: Books for Every Child - the Global Book Fund

Presenters:

Dr. Penelope Bender (USAID): Dr. Bender's presentation will provide an overview of the Global Book Fund, an initiative involving a wide range of partners which builds on the experience from commodity reforms in the health sector to transform the development, procurement, and distribution of books in the education sector. It is expected that Book Fund activities will increase book quality and availability while decreasing costs. The initial focus will be on books for reading instruction and practice in underserved languages. Dr. Bender's presentation will update webinar participants on progress in developing the fund's activities, engage them in thinking about innovative ways to improve and increase content, transform approaches to financing and procurement, and modernize supply chain management to ensure Books for Every Child, and discuss ways they can get involved.

Shubha Jayaram (R4D): Ms. Jayaram will present major findings from the Global Book Fund Feasibility Study, conducted by R4D and IEPartners and co-funded by DfID, Norad and USAID. The study examined 5 key lines of inquiry: (a) publishing, (b) printing, (c) procurement, (d) distribution, and (e) financing, which resulted in recommendations for the structure, scope, and size of the Global Book Fund. The study provided insight on how interventions have been developed and used in other sectors to address similar challenges, elaborated upon feasible options for intervention at both the country and global level, and laid out structural and operational considerations of importance for the fund.

Tony Bloome (USAID): Mr. Bloome's presentation will discuss the three technology-based interventions that have been supported by the All Children Reading Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) initiative and are included in the Global Book Fund suite of activities. Mr. Bloome will provide a brief overview of the ACR GCD partnership (between USAID, World Vision, and DFAT) and then provide an overview of: Enabling Writers, designed to increase the quantity and quality of appropriate grade-level decodable and leveled text in underserved languages; Global Reading Repository, designed to increase access to book titles and content; and discuss 'Track and Trace' software with field testing currently happening in Malawi to create systems for tracking books' progress from in-country warehousing to classrooms and communities.

Moderator:

Karen Mundy, Chief Technical Officer, Global Partnership for Education

Access to the webinar will be via Webex through the following link

Meeting number: 733753703

Meeting password: 4uxhg5Pr

To access by phone: 1-650-479-3207 Call-in toll number (US/Canada)

Access code: 733 753 703

Global call-in numbers

Language of the Presentation: English

For further details and to request support to connect to the webinar, contact webinars@globalpartnership.org

Instructions on how to join Webex: English, French, and Spanish

A school girl in Ethiopia. Credit: Save the Children/Katherine Brown