Global Education Summit

Global Education Summit
Innovation and Education Technology Side Event

H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta has prioritized the advancement of digital learning as a means of curbing the inequalities observed in education access during the pandemic. Education technology is a critical pillar in Kenya’s campaign as co-host of the Global Partnership for Education Campaign. The Government of Kenya is proud to collaborate with EdTech Hub, a global research institute created by the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and KPMG, to host a side event at the Global Education Summit.

Objectives

The event will bring together governments, the private sector, educators, and the civil society to underscore the critical role of innovation and technology in learning. A panel of esteemed guests will come together with the aim of:

Understanding the role of education technology and innovation in improving education access and outcomes; including potential risks / unintended consequences and how to mitigate against them.
Taking stock of the way in which EdTech has been used to support learning continuity in Kenya as well as other developing countries since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic; including gathering perspectives from stakeholders across the education ecosystem such as senior leaders.
Unpacking the required conditions for a successful rollout of digital learning in the education sector and key drivers of success.
Highlighting actionable steps that key stakeholders can take to leverage the power of digital to improve education outcomes for all.

Speakers

Ms Maureen Mbaka

Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs

Maureen Mbaka is the Chief Administrative Secretary, ICT, Broadcasting and Telecommunications at the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, appointed by H.E. the President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2020. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Certified Public Secretary of Kenya. She holds a master’s degree in Energy Law (First Class Honours) from the University of Aberdeen, with her thesis focusing on Nuclear Energy Law. She is also an alumna of the University of Nairobi and Alliance Girls High School.
Mr Julius Court

Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director to Kenya, FCDO

Julius Court is Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director to Kenya. Other senior roles have included his time as Head of DFID’s Strategy Unit, Head of the UK Government Prosperity Fund and Head of DFID Ethiopia. He has also been posted in South Sudan, Nigeria and Japan. Prior to joining the civil service he worked for the United Nations and the Overseas Development Institute.
Mr Fred Hagar

Director of Special Needs Education, Ministry of Education

Fredrick Haga is the Director, Special Needs Education in the Ministry of Education in Kenya. Fredrick has served in the public education sector in different capacities for 24 years: an education administrator in the area of education for learners with disabilities at the Ministry of Education, curriculum developer at the now Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and as a secondary school teacher in different schools across Kenya. Fredrick holds a Master of education degree from Monash University, Australia, specializing in Inclusive and Special Education
Jennifer Cotter Otieno

Education Design Unlimited

Jennifer Cotter Otieno is the Founder and CEO of Education Design Unlimited (EDU), which helps education organizations worldwide create greater impact through engaging, user-centered learning experiences. She is the co-founder of EdTech East Africa, a network of over 3,400 EdTech practitioners and enablers across the region, and a member of the EdTech Hub Specialist Network.
Wanjiku Mbugua

EdTech Hub

Wanjiku Mbugua is the Innovation Manager for East Africa at Brink, where we enable teams to tackle big challenges with clarity and courage. Brink is an innovation practice made of psychologists, strategists, designers, creative thinkers and tech optimists, passionate about impact and doing good, well. Brink is a founding partner of the EdTech Hub and Wanjiku works with the innovations team to help EdTech providers generate evidence to scale their interventions.
David Hollow

EdTech Hub

David Hollow is a Director of Research for the EdTech Hub, helping to build rigorous evidence that will have a long-term impact on education policy and practice. He leads the team at Jigsaw Consult, a social enterprise based in London.
Angela Ng’ang’a

Education Industry Director EMEA, Microsoft

Angela Ng’ang’a leads the education digital transformation team for Microsoft across Midde East and Africa (Emerging Markets). She has over 20 years’ experience in public sector, regulatory and compliance across several industry verticals that includes government, education, judiciary, telecoms, health and the financial services sector
Prof. Ong’ondo

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development

Prof. Charles Ochieng’ Ong’ondo is the Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). Before his appointment at KICD, Prof. Ong’ondo was a lecturer of English Language Teacher Education in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Media (CIEM) in the School of Education at Moi University where he worked for sixteen years, and rose through the ranks of Lecturer and Senior Lecturer to Associate Professor
Mr Afzal Hossain Sarwar

Policy Specialist, Head – Future of Education, a2i, Bangladesh

Sarwar works as a Policy Specialist (Educational Innovation) at a2i under Cabinet Division and ICT Division, Government of Bangladesh. He is responsible for developing an innovative ecosystem for education using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), e-Learning, Blended Learning, policy formulation and nationwide upscaling of innovative ideas in the field of education for Development. He is leading the Education portfolio and he provides advisory/policy support to respective ministries and divisions on addressing 4IR challenges and embracing new opportunities for the future job market in collaboration with academia, industry and civil society..
Ms Faraja Nyalandu

Chief Executive Officer, Shule Direct

Faraja Nyalandu is the Founder and Executive Director of Shule Direct, a social enterprise that digitises national curriculums and leverages technology and innovative teaching approaches to improve learning outcomes for all children and youth. She is a Young Global Leader and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for Education, Gender and Work
Mr Gerald Kasimu

KPMG, Head of Advisory

Gerald has 18 years’ experience in KPMG and was appointed partner in 2005. He has served as partner in KPMG in South Africa for 11 years before transferring to Kenya in 2016. He is head of IT Advisory services in East Africa region; and leads the Public Sector practice in KPMG East Africa
Ms Sabeena Abbasi

Educator

Sabeena Abbasi is the Head of Department, Content Production at the Orenda Project. Her work is focused on delivering learning content to millions of children across Pakistan through animated videos and interactive quizzes. She is also a 2021 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Emerging Leader.
Faith Mwachinga

Dalberg Advisors

Faith is an experienced program management professional in the non-profit management and consultancy industries. Skilled in development project planning and implementation, team management, and event management.
Motunrayo Fatoke

Youth Advocate at UNICEF and TheirWorld.org

Motunrayo is an ardent advocate for quality education and has pioneered awarding winning projects focused on making quality education accessible to children in remote rural communities in Nigeria. She is a YALI RLC fellow, a United Nations Millennium Academic Impact Fellow, a FATE Foundation Alumni and a Global Youth Ambassador of Theirworld. She believes in the wielding power of Advocacy in championing a better world, one community at a time.
Smita Sanghrajka

Partner, KPMG East Africa, International Development Advisory Services

Smita is a Partner in KPMG’s International Development Advisory Services (IDAS) unit in East Africa. With over twenty years’ international development experience, Smita provides oversight to various programmes with Regional, Africa and Global reach in a range of sectors such as Resilience & Climate Change and Inclusive and Innovative Finance. Not only has she spearheaded various service delivery performance initiatives in IDAS, she has also provided quality assurance to large, complex programmes. Smita has experience in programme and fund management, programme design, strategic financial management and sustainability, performance improvement, organisational development and capacity building.
Mr Jerome Ochieng

Principal Secretary, State Department of ICT & Innovation

Mr. Jerome Ochieng is the Principal Secretary for State Department of ICT & Innovation. Until his appointment, Mr. Ochieng was the Director of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) at the National Treasury and a member, Board of Directors at the Information, Communication Authority. Mr. Ochieng has 17 years’ work experience in the field of information and communication technology in the Public Service.