Systems change in education: Lessons from LiftEd

In the context of constrained aid flows, philanthropic donors face growing pressure to use existing resources for more durable and deep impact. This has renewed interest in systems change approaches within global development, and specifically within the education sector.

At its core, systems change in education focuses on engaging with the underlying structures, rules, norms, relationships and power dynamics that shape how education systems function. It calls for addressing root causes rather than visible symptoms, as projects and people change, but systems endure.

Moving from quick fixes to systems change

Despite sustained philanthropic investment in education, learning outcomes across many low and middle-income countries have remained persistently low. Evidence from the past two decades suggests this is largely due to structural limitations in philanthropic practice, including a preference for short-term, visible investments and limited coordination across donors and initiatives. As a result, many promising pilots and time-bound interventions fail to scale, prove costly for governments to sustain or are dependent on parallel delivery structures that weaken once external support ends.

Adopting systems-oriented approaches can unlock deeper and more durable impact

Adopting systems-oriented approaches can help address these challenges and unlock deeper and more durable impact, particularly when an issue requires cross-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and when the ambition is to shift long-term mindsets and behaviours rather than deliver short-term fixes.

A collaborative and systemic approach

At the British Asian Trust, our experience in supporting education initiatives in developing countries has yielded three key lessons on systems change. 

First, achieving scale and long-term sustainability is only possible when solutions are designed and implemented in close partnership with government systems. 

Second, government adoption does not occur organically; it must be intentional and embedded in the design from the outset. 

Third, interventions need to be lean and cost-effective to enable government adoption at scale. 

These insights culminated in the creation of LiftEd, an outcomes-based initiative aimed at strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes for children across India. A central element of LiftEd is a Development Impact Bond that takes a systemic approach to improving foundational literacy and numeracy for over 1m children in government schools across grades 1-3 over four years. It achieves this by focusing on three core levers: data-backed governance; mindset and behaviour change in government officials to see themselves as educators and not just administrators; and improved classroom practices. 

• Read more: Expert Insight: Why development impact bonds’ complexity is a guardrail not a roadblock

Our learnings from LiftEd have challenged several common perceptions and myths on systems change.

Myth 1: Donors are reluctant to fund systems change

The LiftEd Development Impact Bond syndicated $14.7m of funding for foundational literacy and numeracy systems strengthening, involving many first-time funders of systems change. The Development Impact Bond works with more than 12 partners, comprising philanthropic foundations from the UK, US and India, CSR donors, investors, evaluators and civil society partners.

This experience taught us that donors are willing to support systems change when a few enabling and confidence-building measures are in place. These include: 

• Alignment with government priorities to add value to, not crowd out government’s role
• Evidence-backed interventions implemented by high-performing organisations with strong track record of engaging with government
• Clear outcomes, targets, verification methodologies, such that the long and slow process of systems change can be transformed from a nebulous idea to a tangible pathway, with markers, milestones and deliverables 
• Collaboration with other credible, like-minded donors that can help to reduce risks, pool financial and non-financial resources and provide different capital stacks that can be used to complement each other
• Pathways for donors to not just act as passive financiers but co-create, problem-solve, and be strategic thought partners.

Myth 2: Systems strengthening is too difficult to measure

Measuring systems strengthening and its ultimate outcome is often perceived as challenging due to longer timelines, interconnectedness of multiple factors needed for success, complexity of defining appropriate metrics, difficulties with attribution of success, and the challenge of quantifying system-level outcomes, particularly in data-constrained contexts and over extended time horizons.

While there is truth in this perception, LiftEd has demonstrated a solution by adopting an outcomes-based financing approach, which is widely recognised for its rigorous standards of measurement and evaluation, where funding is explicitly tied to the achievement of defined outcomes. 

Recognising that interventions that strengthen the education system take longer to trickle down to classrooms and therefore improvements in student learning outcomes emerge over a longer duration, the framework combines interim outcomes such as process improvements in the system with eventual improvements in children’s learning. Both these are independently verified through fit-for-purpose methodologies that help in establishing attribution. 

The framework also examines coherence across system components, ie policy intent, administrative processes, capacity-building, and classroom practice as well as institutional capacity for data use, feedback loops, and adaptive learning. 

At the halfway mark, interim results show that our system strengthening has resulted in over two and a half months of additional learning in terms of literacy and numeracy gains for children.

By balancing methodological rigour with operational feasibility and emphasising co-creation with stakeholders, the approach demonstrates that complex, nonlinear systems change in education can be meaningfully measured. 

Myth 3: Systems change requires sweeping reforms 

There is a common perception that systems change entails big reforms; but in reality even small, well thought out interventions when implemented consistently, can bring about tangible and durable impact. 

The LiftEd Development Impact Bond embodies this by working within existing governance structures and institutional roles rather than introducing new mechanisms. It helps to strengthen the on-ground implementation of the aspirations captured in the government’s national mission, strengthening capabilities and processes within the current system and thus bridging the gap between intent and impact. 

One intervention centres on strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy data review mechanisms at the local block level, an existing administrative unit in India, by fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making. Another focuses on building the capacity of the mentor cadre that already exists within the Indian education system, where LiftEd’s role is to catalyse motivations, behavioural shifts and strengthen technical know-how needed to function effectively in their jobs on supporting school teachers. Together, these small but incremental changes are designed to accumulate over time, improving system performance, complementing and not disrupting existing governance arrangements.

A mindset shift

Ultimately, systems change is not just a funding strategy; it is a mindset shift for all stakeholders – government, donors and civil society. If this mindset takes root, the sector can move beyond fragmented efforts into big and bold solutions that endure.

LiftEd offers one illustration of how such approaches can play out in practice and while the focus of this piece has been on education, the underlying idea of working with systems rather than around them speaks to challenges and opportunities that extend well beyond any sector or geographical setting. 

• Anushree Parekh is associate director, social finance, and Shraddha Iyer is a senior manager, social finance at the British Asian Trust
   

All photos courtesy of the British Asian Trust