Jacobs Foundation signs Memorandum of Understanding to boost holistic education in Colombia

This alliance, signed by the Vice Minister of Preschool, Basic and Secondary Education, Óscar Sánchez, on behalf of Minister Aurora Vergara; Fabio Segura, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation; and Andrea Escobar, Executive Director of the Fundación Empresarios por la Educación, seeks to find a constant dialogue between educational practices and evidence-based decision making to improve pedagogical practices, with the ultimate aim of supporting children’s development and learning.

Speaking about the Memorandum, Jacobs Foundation Co-CEO Fabio Segura said: "Colombia has strong research institutions and evaluation capacity, and our goal is to work with multi-stakeholder partnerships to inject even greater rigor into the creation, connection and use of evidence in decision-making at all levels of the system.​”

The Memorandum of Understanding is a part of the Jacobs Foundation’s commitment to Colombia. The Foundation is also supporting the Ministry of National Education in the implementation of a strategy to strengthen certified departmental territorial entities, especially those with significant experiences in education, and specifically territories affected by the armed conflict and climate change and located in dispersed rural areas.

Twelve initial territories, including cocoa-growing communities, have been selected to pilot the strategy (Amazonas, Antioquia, Barranquilla, Cauca, Cali, Cucuta, Cundinamarca, Choco, Cartagena, Meta, Manizales, Quibdo).