The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) 2026 conference brought together educators, researchers, and policy actors from across the globe to reflect on the state of education systems and the path forward. Across sessions, presentations, and conversations, four insights stood out to our team at Mizizi Elimu Afrika. In each of the sections that follow, we set what we are learning in our own work alongside what we heard in the room, because the two kept speaking to each other. We share these reflections as both a record of our learning and an invitation to continued dialogue.
1. Resourcing systems change requires a shift
Across our portfolio, Mizizi Elimu Afrika has increasingly sought funding partners willing to commit to long-term, flexible support, recognising that systems change cannot be delivered on short project cycles.
That search reflects a tension we heard in room after room at CIES 2026: the misalignment between the complexity of systems change and the way it is funded. Systems change, by its nature, is long-term, context-specific, and relationship-driven. Yet funding often remains short-term, output-focused, and programme-timed.
If we are serious about sustainable systems change, we must also rethink how we resource it.
2. The challenge is not effort; it is fragmentation
In our Strategy 2040, Mizizi Elimu Afrika has prioritised ecosystem building as a core approach. Our focus is to deliberately support other organisations for collective impact.
CIES 2026 brought the reasoning behind that choice sharply into focus. Across contexts, there is no shortage of actors working in education. Yet impact remains limited where systems are fragmented. Without alignment, policies do not translate into practice, resources are used inefficiently, impact is spread thin, and accountability is weakened. Our own experience of coalition building points to the same lesson.
When systems move from fragmentation to collaboration, change becomes possible.
3. Education is deeply human, not just technical
Over the last year, the ALiVE initiative has supported the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in designing and piloting a whole-school approach for values-based education.
What we are seeing in those schools points to a broader truth that conversations at CIES 2026 kept returning to. What happens in schools goes far beyond academic outcomes. When values are intentionally embedded into the school experience, learner behaviour improves, relationships strengthen, and school environments become more inclusive.
These shifts are foundational to social cohesion and ethical citizenship.
Education does not just shape what children know. It shapes how societies hold together.
4. We are diagnosing faster than we are changing
The Unlocking Data Initiative, a GPE-KIX-funded research project, seeks to improve foundational learning outcomes by closing the gap between available evidence and the action it should inform.
That gap is not ours alone. It echoed throughout CIES 2026. The sector is generating more evidence than ever before, and we now understand where learning gaps exist, what drives inequity, and which interventions work.
Yet systems change remains slow. This raises the harder question.
Are we willing and able to act on what we already know?
Closing reflection
CIES 2026 reinforced a simple but powerful idea.
Education systems do not change through isolated efforts. They change through connection.
Connection between actors. Between evidence and action. Between funding and long-term outcomes.
For Mizizi Elimu Afrika, this is the work we are committed to: not just improving learning outcomes, but strengthening the systems, relationships, and structures that make those outcomes possible.
Because ultimately, the goal is not just better education systems.
It is more just, cohesive, and resilient societies.
The call for CIES 2027 is now open. We extend our best wishes to African organisations wishing to apply and participate, and we leave you with three tips drawn from our own experience.
1. Anchor your submission in evidence. Papers grounded in rigorous, locally generated data stand out and carry weight in international rooms.
2. Frame your work within systems, not just projects. Audiences and reviewers respond to contributions that show how an intervention connects to the wider ecosystem around it.
3. Ask the harder questions alongside us. The sessions that stayed with us were the ones willing to be uncomfortable about who convenes, who funds, and who sets the agenda.
THE QUESTION WE ARE LEAVING OPEN
Africa has attended these conferences for years and has gained immense value from them. Is it time to have a similar conference hosted on African soil?
Acknowledgement
Mizizi Elimu Afrika’s participation at CIES 2026 was made possible through the contributions of many.
We would like to acknowledge our colleagues who participated in person: John Mugo, Margaret Wawira, and Charles Gachoki, as well as all staff who contributed to the development, submission, and presentation of papers, including Vollan Ochieng, Mary Chepkemoi, Elizabeth Owiti, Virginia Ngindiru, Leah Nguata, Maurice Mutisya, and Lydia Wangui Chege.
Your work continues to shape the conversation on education, systems change, and equity, both locally and globally.
