The virtual learning series followed an in-person event, the Learning Collaborative on Social Accountability in Education, held from 8 to 12 September 2025 in Manila, Philippines, convened under Education Out Loud (EOL), a programme of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). This initial workshop brought together EOL OC2 grantees, including the Institute of Informatics and Development (IID), Bangladesh; Microfinance and Community Development Institute (MACDI), Vietnam; the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), Pakistan; Karkhana Samuha, Nepal; and the Children and Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN), Philippines, with MDF Asia as the learning partner. During the workshop, the partners decided to continue their collaboration through a series of virtual learning sessions, building on the strategies for strengthening citizen engagement and accountability in education that were shared. IID also presented insights from its e!quality 2.0 initiative on youth-led, inclusive social accountability in Bangladesh, which became a key topic in the subsequent virtual exchanges.
The first virtual session took place on 24 October 2025, hosted by IID with partner organisations from Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Philippines. The discussion centred on inclusive education, community participation, and the opportunities and challenges of advocacy in different country settings. Presentations from MACDI (Vietnam) and I-SAPS (Pakistan) shared practical examples of how collaboration and locally grounded engagement can support meaningful change in education systems. Karkhana Samuha (Nepal), CYAN (Philippines), and MDF Asia also joined the conversation, contributing to a rich peer learning environment.
The second virtual session was held on 5 November 2025 and continued this momentum through partner presentations and peer reflection on how social accountability processes are being applied in different contexts. In this session, CYAN (Philippines) presented its approach and learning, which sparked discussion on community participation, partnership dynamics, and the practical challenges of sustaining accountability work over time. Other partners also shared updates from their contexts, helping the group identify common barriers, compare tools and approaches, and reflect on how to adapt strategies while keeping inclusion and evidence at the centre.
The third virtual session took place on 20 November 2025 and brought the partners together once again to exchange practices and strengthen collaboration. In this session, IID shared recent field experiences and key lessons from youth-led social accountability initiatives in Bangladesh, highlighting how evidence generation, community engagement, and participatory approaches are helping inform and improve education outcomes. The discussion also explored how partner organisations can continue supporting each other’s learning journeys in the next phase, sustaining the collaborative spirit beyond individual sessions.
Building on these rich discussions, IID plans to conduct an internal reflection exercise, revisiting its social accountability programming through the lenses of process, priority, and purpose. This exercise will help identify areas for adaptation and improvement, strengthening IID’s ongoing efforts to deepen the impact of its inclusive, youth-led social accountability models in education. IID will also continue engaging with its partner organisations and networks to co-develop practical strategies that drive meaningful change. This shared journey reaffirms a collective commitment to ensuring that community voices, specially those of youth and marginalised groups, remain central to education governance. The cross-country learning gained through this collaboration will serve as the foundation for sustained, collective action to uphold every learner’s right to quality education.