The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) wanted to strengthen its advocacy efforts and increase engagement with donors on the issue of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) in the education sector. However, given the lack of comprehensive data on FLN, it was difficult to accurately estimate the current level of financing for FLN and assess how donors prioritize the issue, which in turn made it difficult to identify key advocacy needs and potential opportunities to influence global agendas.

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SEEK supported BMGF with analyzing existing donor policy and financial support provided to FLN issues, by developing a first-of-its-kind methodology to track bilateral and multilateral financing for FLN based on OECD DAC data. SEEK complemented this quantitative analysis with policy research to identify policy priorities towards FLN of key donors and relevant market insights from key actors in the sector.

In addition to developing the evidence base, SEEK also brought research on FLN directly to advocates through a report, donor profiles, and a webinar series through a new FLN section on the Donor Tracker.

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With SEEK’s support, the BMGF team was able to deepen its understanding of FLN financing and policy priorities and scale up advocacy efforts in partnership with its wider grantee network on FLN issues in a strategic, evidence-based manner.