Why Evidence-Informed Accountability Matters for Education System Transformation

Across Africa, governments, together with a broad coalition of education partners, continue to invest heavily in strengthening education systems to drive change. During the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX 2026), hosted by the Government of Malawi and convened by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and its partners in Lilongwe from 15–17 July 2026, over 42 African governments came together to share progress and exchange experiences on strengthening foundational learning. Countries showed a wide range of reforms, including recruiting and supporting teachers, strengthening school leadership, reforming curricula, integrating digital technologies, and increasing investments to expand access, improve quality, and strengthen learning outcomes. These efforts reflect strong political commitment and encouraging progress. However, they are often implemented as standalone initiatives rather than as part of an integrated system that links implementation, evidence generation, accountability, and continuous learning. 

The real measure of success is not the number of reforms introduced or the resources invested, but whether these efforts lead to stronger education systems and better learning outcomes. Achieving this requires robust mechanisms that enable governments and partners to monitor progress, identify implementation challenges early, generate and use evidence, strengthen accountability, and make timely adjustments throughout implementation. 

This was one of the central messages emerging from FLEX 2026. The event brought together Ministers of Education and Finance, policymakers, researchers, practitioners, development partners, and civil society organisations. Discussions consistently emphasised that increasing investment alone is insufficient. Transforming education requires ensuring that investments deliver measurable improvements in teaching, learning, and system performance. 

This shared commitment was reflected in both the discussions and the Ministerial Communiqué adopted at the close of the forum. Together, they underscored a growing consensus across Africa that lasting improvements in education require more than sustained investment. They require education systems that routinely generate and use evidence, monitor implementation, strengthen accountability, and continuously learn and adapt to improve policy and practice. 

FLEX 2026 represents an important milestone in Africa's education journey, bringing countries together to share progress, exchange experiences, and strengthen collective commitment. Its long-term value, however, will not be determined by what happens during the forum, but by what happens between one annual convening and the next. 

Evidence Without Accountability Has Limited Value 

Across the continent, governments and their partners have made investments in generating and using education evidence. Education management information systems, national learning assessments, implementation research, programme evaluations, and policy analysis are becoming increasingly common. Governments routinely collect administrative data, while researchers continue to generate valuable evidence to inform education reform. 

Evidence alone does not improve education systems. Research findings are often published but not translated into policy. Monitoring reports are produced but rarely inform implementation decisions. Evaluation recommendations identify important lessons, yet many are not systematically integrated into programme improvements. Too often, data are collected to satisfy reporting requirements rather than to guide action. The challenge, therefore, is no longer generating more evidence; it is ensuring that evidence strengthens accountability. 

Accountability should extend beyond demonstrating that activities have been completed or funds have been spent. While financial stewardship and compliance remain essential, they provide only a partial measure of success. Meaningful accountability asks whether investments are improving teaching, strengthening school leadership, reducing inequalities, and enabling more children to learn. 

Evidence provides the foundation for answering these questions. It helps governments and their partners understand what is working, identify implementation challenges, assess whether reforms are achieving their intended outcomes, and make informed decisions about where adjustments are needed. When evidence is routinely used to guide decisions, accountability shifts from a reporting requirement to a mechanism for improving implementation and achieving better learning outcomes. 

Rethinking Accountability: From Compliance to Continuous Improvement 

If evidence is to improve education systems, accountability must move beyond compliance. Traditional approaches have focused on demonstrating that activities have been completed and resources have been spent. Success is often measured by whether budgets have been executed, schools constructed, teachers trained, policies launched, or reports submitted. 

These indicators remain important because they demonstrate commitment and implementation progress. However, they provide only a partial picture of performance. They do not reveal whether reforms are strengthening education systems, improving teaching and school leadership, reducing inequalities, or delivering better learning outcomes. 

A more effective approach is to embed accountability throughout the implementation process, using evidence to guide decisions, improve performance, and support continuous learning. Rather than asking only whether programmes have been delivered, governments and their partners should routinely assess whether implementation is achieving the intended results, what challenges are emerging, why they are occurring, and what adjustments are needed to improve outcomes. 

This requires embedding evidence across the entire policy and programme cycle, from planning and implementation to monitoring, evaluation, learning, and policy review. Routine monitoring can identify implementation bottlenecks before they become systemic challenges. Implementation research and evaluations can explain why reforms are succeeding or struggling, while structured reflection, policy dialogue, and learning reviews create opportunities to interpret evidence collectively, identify practical solutions, and adapt implementation as new lessons emerge. 

Viewed in this way, accountability is no longer a periodic reporting exercise. It becomes a continuous process of learning, adaptation, and performance improvement that helps governments maximise the impact of their investments and accelerate progress towards better learning outcomes. 

Institutionalising Evidence-Informed Accountability 

Strengthening evidence-informed accountability requires more than good policies and robust data systems. It depends on the capacity of governments and institutions to interpret evidence, make informed decisions, and continuously improve implementation. Building this capacity is therefore central to achieving sustainable education reform. 

Many governments and partners have access to valuable data and research but face constraints in analysing evidence, strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems, facilitating policy dialogue, or translating recommendations into practical action. Addressing these challenges requires sustained capacity strengthening that equips institutions with the systems, skills, and processes needed to embed evidence across the policy and programme cycle. 

Technical assistance is an important approach to delivering this capacity strengthening. Rather than providing external solutions, it involves working alongside governments to strengthen institutional capability, improve monitoring and evaluation systems, support the use of implementation research and evaluations, facilitate evidence-informed policy dialogue, and establish learning processes that enable programmes to adapt throughout implementation. Over time, these investments help institutionalise evidence-informed decision-making and accountability within government systems. 

This is the approach that ESSA seeks to advance. By partnering with governments and development partners, ESSA combines implementation research, evidence synthesis, monitoring and evaluation, policy dialogue, and capacity strengthening delivered through technical assistance to help countries embed evidence-informed accountability throughout the policy and programme cycle. The objective is to provide technical expertise and to strengthen national ownership and institutional capability so that governments have the systems, skills, and processes to routinely generate, interpret, and use evidence to improve implementation, inform policy decisions, and achieve better learning outcomes. 

Sustainable improvement depends on institutions that have both the capacity and the commitment to learn continuously. When governments are equipped to generate, interpret, and use evidence as part of routine decision-making, monitoring and evaluation become more than reporting functions; they become powerful tools for learning, accountability, adaptation, and continuous improvement. 

Turning Commitment into Results 

The FLEX forum has emerged as more than an annual convening. It is a continental platform where governments, development partners, researchers, and practitioners come together to reaffirm their commitment to improving foundational learning, share progress, exchange experiences, and identify collective priorities for strengthening education systems across Africa. In doing so, FLEX creates an important opportunity for mutual accountability and collective learning. 

Yet this also raises an important question: if FLEX is a continental platform for learning and accountability, how do countries continue learning once the forum ends? How are implementation experiences captured, shared, reflected upon, and translated into improved policy and practice before governments reconvene the following year? Without a structured mechanism for continuous learning, there is a risk that each FLEX becomes a collection of annual updates rather than the culmination of a year of shared learning, adaptation, and measurable progress. 

Answering this challenge requires thinking beyond accountability as a reporting function. Africa needs a continuous learning mechanism that connects countries between annual forums, one that enables routine monitoring of implementation, evidence generation, peer-to-peer learning, policy dialogue, and adaptive decision-making throughout the year. In this way, accountability becomes a driver of learning, while learning strengthens accountability. 

This requires education systems that routinely embed evidence-informed accountability into planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and policy review. It also requires sustained capacity strengthening, delivered through technical assistance, to ensure that governments have the institutional capability to generate, interpret, and use evidence as part of everyday decision-making. Equally important is creating opportunities for peer-to-peer learning across African countries, enabling governments to exchange practical solutions, learn from one another's experiences, and accelerate the adoption and adaptation of effective approaches. 

Organisations such as ESSA contribute to this agenda by working alongside governments and development partners to strengthen institutional capacity through implementation research, evidence synthesis, monitoring and evaluation, policy dialogue, and technical assistance. The objective is not simply to provide expertise, but to support governments in institutionalising evidence-informed accountability as a foundation for continuous improvement. 

The true measure of FLEX's success will not be the commitments made during the forum, but what happens between one forum and the next. Annual convenings should mark milestones in a continuous continental learning cycle, where countries monitor implementation, generate and use evidence, exchange experiences with peers, adapt their approaches, and return the following year able to demonstrate not only what they have done, but what they have learned, what has changed, and what impact has been achieved. When evidence informs decisions, accountability drives action, and learning shapes implementation, commitment is transformed into results and investment into lasting impact.