The 2021 GEM Report will focus on non-state actors in education. It will examine:

• four types of activities in which these actors are involved: provision, financing, governance, and influence and innovation; and
• across all levels: early childhood, primary and secondary, technical and vocational, tertiary, and adult education.

The concept note provides the 2021 GEM Report’s proposed approach and kickstarts the report preparation process.

For the first time this year, the report team is reaching out to its constituencies to gauge their interest and solicit their inputs in the preparation of background research. The aim of this call for expressions of interest is to broaden the scope of expertise and voices that inform the GEM Report’s work.

Out of the target 30 background papers, the process will involve:

• This first call in December is inviting potential contributors to:

1. express interest for papers in 10 areas selected by the GEM Report team; and
2. propose your own ideas for papers in other areas for new, previously unpublished research drawing on already established or previously unexplored sources of quantitative and qualitative data which in their view would be essential for the 2021 GEM Report

• A second call in mid-February, after the completion of the consultation, inviting potential contributors to express interest for papers in 10 areas also selected by the GEM Report team.
• Authors and themes for up to 10 more papers will be identified by the GEM Report team as in previous years during the report preparation cycle.

Information on this call for expressions of interest

As part of this first call for papers, the GEM Report team is inviting experts to express interest for the following options for a high quality contribution to inform the 2021 GEM Report:

a. A background paper in an area of your choice

Consulting the 2021 GEM Report concept note, propose a relevant topic that you think should be reflected in the 2021 GEM Report on non-state actors and describe your recommended approach.  The paper:

• should address at least one of the four thematic areas:

1. provision
2. financing
3. governance
4. influence and innovation

• could have a national, regional or global geographic scope
• could refer to early childhood, primary and secondary, technical and vocational, tertiary or adult education

b. A background paper in one of the following ten areas identified by the GEM Report team

The average paper is about 8,000 words long.

The proposed timeline for reviewing and providing feedback to the submitted contributions is:

• 9 December 2019: First call for expressions of interest
• 31 January 2020: Deadline to submit expressions of interest using the information form below
• 28 February 2020: Finalization of review of submissions
• March 2020: Notification of outcome of review and beginning of negotiation for contracting

Successful contributions may result in commissioned background papers. Such commissioning will take place between March and April 2020 and papers commissioned will need to be completed by September 2020.