Hosted by the Education GP and the 1818 Society Education Alumni Group
Presenter: Girin Beeharry, Senior Advisor, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Discussants:
Jaime Saavedra, Global Director, Education, The World Bank
Luis Crouch, Chief Technical Officer and Vice President, RTI International
Chair: Robin Horn, Chair, The 1818 Society World Bank Education Alumni Group
Description: As highlighted in Bank analytic and strategic reports, levels of basic reading comprehension and math competency continue to be frustratingly low in countries across the globe despite billions of dollars in World Bank lending, thousands of projects, and hundreds of highly skilled and dedicated education staff focused on helping countries raise outcomes. Drawing on his 2021 IJED essay, Girin will examine the Bank’s global leadership role in addressing this challenge by specifying the problem as “Learning Poverty” and committing to the objective of cutting Learning Poverty in half by 2030. In his remarks, he will emphasize that, if the Bank is literal about this objective, it will not only have to prioritize this objective above all others but will also need to convince the principal multilateral and bilateral partners to join forces with the Bank to help make sure that this objective is achieved. Girin will also argue that achieving this objective will require the Bank to rigorously and openly hold itself accountable on its own efforts and those of its partners.
About the Presenter:
Girindre Beeharry is Senior Advisor, Global Education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Girin advises the foundation’s efforts to support partners that are focused on improving foundational literacy and numeracy in sub-Saharan Africa and India, having initiated and led this program for four years. 
He previously served as director of the foundation’s India Country Office, overseeing their work in health, sanitation, financial inclusion, and agriculture. Before that he was the director of strategy of the foundation’s Global Health Division. Prior to joining the foundation in 2005, Girin worked in business development for immunization at Becton, Dickinson, and Co. and was previously, between 1997 and 2002, a senior health economist for the World Bank in the Latin America and Caribbean Region.
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