Standards and Practice Working Group
***The 2018-2021 INEE Working Groups have concluded their work as of May 2021. A consultation and review of a new structure of INEE network spaces is in process and will soon be shared with INEE members.***
The INEE Standards and Practice Working Group (SPWG) is a group of 28 NGOs, UN agencies, and academics from around the world that work together within a humanitarian and development framework to facilitate access to quality education and safe environment for all in emergencies and post-crisis recovery. The current group (2018-2020) builds on the WG’s achievements since 2004, including around knowledge management, capacity development, and contextualization and application of the INEE Minimum Standards. The SPWG leads INEE’s efforts to mobilize knowledge and develop innovative strategies to professionalize and build capacities within the field of EiE.
Priorities and Objectives:
In its current iteration, the SPWG prioritizes the following areas of work:
- Harmonizing professional development for EiE practitioners;
- Strengthening EiE monitoring and evaluation; and
- Improving EiE knowledge management.
Each of these areas of work carries forward the SPWG’s abiding mission to champion the INEE Minimum Standards (INEE MS), with a primary objective of continuing to operationalize this global tool.
These priorities also further INEE’s overall strategic priorities, especially:
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Strategic Priority 2: To increase the availability and accessibility of knowledge and information which contributes to the existing evidence base required to inform research, policy, and practice.
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Strategic Priority 4: To strengthen the capacity of INEE members to deliver quality, safe, and relevant education for all.
SPWG members also continue to devote their energy toward key thematic areas, including Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TiCC), Psychosocial Support and Social & Emotional Learning (PSS-SEL) and Conflict Sensitive Education (CSE).
Click to read the INEE Standards and Practice Working Group Charter (2018-2020)
Key Activities: (Updated April 2021)
- Harmonized Professional Development for EiE Practitioners: the Professional Development (PD) workstream identified the lack of a harmonized, inter-agency approach to professional development as a gap in the sector. To address this, the workstream developed the EiE Competency Framework, which builds on the INEE Minimum Standards to articulate a set of required, valued and recognized competencies for the humanitarian and EiE sectors. The group is currently conducting a mapping of available courses online resources to support the Competency Framework and developing an E-Learning module on the INEE Minimum Standards.
- Strengthened EiE Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): the M&E workstream prioritized strengthening M&E systems to improve EiE practice, accountability and evidence-based learning, by developing the INEE Minimum Standards Indicator Framework. The Indicator Framework was designed with flexibility and contextualization in mind, and provides a way for EiE stakeholders to demonstrate alignment with and progress towards the INEE Minimum Standards. The workstream is now piloting the Indicator Framework with the intention to update this key tool in the future.
- Improved Knowledge Management (KM): The KM workstream chose to focus their efforts on improving knowledge management and sharing to increase access and use of critical INEE tools and resources, with the ultimate goal of improving delivery of EiE. From 2018-2021, the group has worked to update and streamline the Minimum Standards section of the INEE website and has completely updated and redesigned the INEE Toolkit.
Other Key Activities:
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Conflict Sensitive Education: In order to support the integration of conflict sensitivity in education policies and programs in conflict-affected and fragile contexts, INEE developed a series of tools and guidance documents that make up the INEE Conflict Sensitive Education Pack (CSE Pack). In 2017, members of the Standards and Practice and Education Policy Working Groups hosted a CSE Training of Trainers. The four-day workshop was hosted by UNRWA and made possible thanks to two EPWG member organizations, USAID and EAA-PEIC. Forty education practitioners from agencies working in conflict-affected settings participated in the workshop. The ToT was part of an INEE CSE capacity building initiative, which aims to support the integration of conflict-sensitive education strategies into programming and policies of agencies working in crisis-affected and fragile environments.
Key Resources:
- INEE Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies
- INEE Conflict Sensitive Education Pack
- Teachers in Crisis Contexts Peer Coaching Pack
- Teachers in Crisis Contexts Training for Primary School Teachers
- INEE Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support
- Education in Emergencies Competency Framework for Professional Development
- INEE Minimum Standards Indicator Framework
Standards and Practice Working Group Members, 2018-2020
- ChildFund International
- Creative Associates International
- FHI 360
- Finn Church Aid Foundation
- Global Education Cluster (GEC)
- Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
- International Rescue Committee
- Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) / Fordham University
- Mavi Kalem Social Assistance and Charity Association
- Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
- Oxfam IBIS
- People in Need (PIN)
- Plan International Norway
- Reach Out to Asia, Education Above All
- Relief International
- RET International
- Right To Play
- RTI International
- Save the Children International
- Save Youth Future Society
- Teachers College, Columbia University
- UNESCO
- UNICEF
- University of Geneva, InZone
- UNRWA
- USAID
- War Child
- World Vision International
Meeting Minutes and Reports
- Virtual Meetings, November 2019
- Helsinki, Finland, May 2019
- Nairobi, Kenya, October 2018
- Oslo, Norway, May 2018
- Florence, Italy, October 2017
History
INEE first established a working group on minimum standards in 2003 to oversee the development of the the network’s foundational tool, the INEE Minimum Standards (INEE MS). Since then, the WG has been reconstituted several times to advance, promote, and expand global efforts around the Minimum Standards, including a name change to the Standards and Practice Working Group (SPWG) in 2016. For more information on the history and development of the INEE Minimum Standards, click here.
Click to read about the key accomplishments of this working group from 2004-2015.
The focus of each working group to date is listed below:
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2015-2017: Led in the mobilization of EiE knowledge, contextualization and implementation of the INEE Minimum Standards, and developed innovative strategies to professionalize and develop capacities within the field of EiE with an overall emphasis on having a clear impact at the field and country-levels.
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2013-2015: Expanded its focus to support education policy and programming in all phases of emergency response at the national level through the use of the INEE Minimum Standards and to support knowledge management and the strengthening of the evidence base around EiE through research, evaluation and knowledge sharing.
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2011-2013: renewed mandate and reconstituted membership to enhance knowledge and implementation of the INEE Minimum Standards.
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2009-2011: Led the update of the INEE Minimum Standards, the creation of the INEE Toolkit, and supported the wider promotion and application of the Standards.
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2005-2009: Oversee the promotion, training, analysis and implementation of the INEE Minimum Standards
For more information about this Working Group, contact minimumstandards@inee.org