Above from right (Panel #1): BEC Co-Chair, Candace Debnam (STS) with Antonio Eskandar (DAI), Sue Swenson (Inclusion International), Jerry Mindes (GCE), and Josh Josa (USAID)
On Thursday, April 4th, BEC co-hosted a symposium on Inclusive Education at DAI, in Bethesda, Maryland. Donors, implementers and advocates convened in-person and via Webex to launch a dialogue about opportunities, lessons-learned, and next level of work in inclusive education for development. Sakil Malik (DAI) gave opening remarks. Panel #1 (pictured above) titled, "Policy Perspectives on Increasing Inclusiveness" responded to the following questions:
What are the key concepts that we all need to understand as we talk about and design inclusive education programs?
What are some of the foreseeable challenges to progress in inclusive education? What lessons have you learned for how to mitigate those challenges moving forward?
How have you seen (or how could you envision) donors and governments successfully supporting inclusive education around the world?
what gaps remain in the evidence base to effectively implement inclusive international education programs?
A second panel, "Implementer Perspectives on Increasing Inclusiveness" featured Deborah Backus (All Children Reading), Josh Josa (USAID), Dr. Lisa Wadors Verne (Benetech), Zehra Zaidi (DAI), and Farah Mahesri (education consultant).