In reflecting upon a decade of research at NYU Global TIES aimed at supporting children's holistic development within contexts of conflict and crisis, this white paper encapsulates our collective learnings from working with a network of actors in low- and middle-income and conflict affected contexts who aim to understand what works, how, and for whom. The goal of this paper is to distill insights from the diverse perspectives and experiences of dedicated researchers, inspire action, and provide recommendations for a future distinguished by inclusive and impactful outcomes.

The Holistic Learning Assessment System (HOLAS) Bank is a curated inventory of educational tools/assessments and relevant monitoring and evaluation (M&E) resources designed for use and/or implemented in Colombia and Peru.

This report summarizes the results of a survey the Gobee team launched to better understand the experience of stakeholders in the Education in Emergencies (EiE) sector when it comes to EdTech in low-resource settings, with a special focus on digital assessments and what it takes to develop and maintain open-source models (OSS) and data protection regulations.

This report is intended to be a living framework for thinking and talking about distance education interventions, beginning in low- and middle-income (LMIC) and humanitarian contexts and expanding over time to include distance education interventions designed for high-income contexts.

In response to the influx of some 488,000 Syrian refugee children since 2011, international and local NGOs working in Lebanon have provided formal and non-formal education services designed to promote both children’s academic skills and their social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. However, the majority of SEL-related frameworks and materials used are typically grounded in theory and research from western, educated, industrialized, rich, democracies (WEIRD), which are not always coherent or aligned with Lebanese societal cultures and norms. Towards the goal of generating contextually meaningful evidence to guide program and policy decision-making in Lebanon, our research-practice-policy partnership has engaged in a rigorous, multi-method, iterative process to develop and contextualize an SEL framework for children in Lebanese primary schools. In this paper, we will describe the process of engaging experts in education, psycho-social support, and SEL from the Government of Lebanon, World Learning, Harvard’s EASEL Lab, and NYU Global TIES to empirically code existing frameworks and identify priority SEL constructs. We will reflect on the development of systemic and transformative relationships across partners as a means toward contextualization, and conclude by sharing a first version of a National SEL Framework for Lebanon.

Various chapters in this volume describe efforts on behalf of governments, civil society, and researchers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to ensure that children gain the social and emotional skills and competencies that enable them to thrive personally and professionally while promoting collective peace and prosperity. We cannot, however, most effectively design and target such efforts-or know the extent to which we are succeeding (or not) in such efforts-without tools that provide information about the nature and extent of children's social and emotional skills, how such skills change over time, and the aspects of children's school, family, and community environments that promote or impede the development of such skills. In this chapter, we introduce a “Measurement for What?” framework to guide emerging efforts to develop and adapt measurement tools to assess and promote children’s holistic learning and development in the MENA region. This includes assessments of social and emotional skills, as well as the quality of programmes intended to promote such outcomes. We illustrate the utility of the framework using examples from the Education in Emergencies: Evidence for Action (3EA) Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) Measurement Consortium.