Launching the Global EdTech Alliance of Alliances
Last Monday, EdTech alliances and associations from across the world came together to mark the launch of the Global EdTech Alliance of Alliances (AoA), a new collaborative connecting regional ecosystems with multilateral partners and policy makers. Its purpose is to create a credible, unified voice in digital education and to accelerate practical knowledge exchange that is grounded in inclusion, safety, and measurable impact.
You can watch the full recording here or below:
and find more information about how to get involved on the EEA website.
Why the world needs an Alliance of Alliances
Across every continent, education leaders have been calling for a mechanism to connect regional EdTech alliances, share lessons, and coordinate actions that serve learners everywhere. While some regions have mature ecosystems and established networks, others are still building theirs from the ground up. The Global EdTech Alliance of Alliances was created to build bridges between all of these groups, foster collaboration, and ensure that every region’s voice is heard in global dialogues on SDG4 and the future of digital education.
Voices from the launch
Borhene Chakroun, Director of the Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems Division at UNESCO, opened the event by emphasising the importance of solidarity and a credible, legitimate global voice **for EdTech. He highlighted that technology itself is not innovation; rather, innovation lies in our ability to work together cohesively. He announced that the Global Education Coalition will act as an incubator space for the Alliance of Alliances, providing a foundation from which a truly global and representative community can grow. The Coalition’s Digital Transformation Collaborative will help participating countries design comprehensive digital transformation strategies that strengthen national ecosystems while connecting them internationally.
Frank van Cappelle, who heads the Global Learning Innovation Hub and is Global lead of Digital Education at UNICEF, described how the organisation’s EdTech for Good Framework and the Learning Cabinet can support ecosystems to evaluate, adapt, and scale tools that are inclusive, impactful, and safe. He presented UNICEF’s initiatives as a model for aligning innovation with government priorities and real classroom needs. Van Cappelle underscored that after twenty years of experimentation, the sector now has both the evidence and the opportunity to achieve the impact long envisioned — if actors coordinate through shared frameworks and collective action.
In a panel discussion chaired by the director of the Global EdTech Alliance of Alliances, Tom Poole, voices from across the world were heard.
Ernest Gavor of the Ghana Society for Education Technology called the launch a “significant day” for all working to address Africa’s learning crisis. He urged the Alliance to focus on connecting the unconnected, noting that fewer than half of African schools have internet access, and proposed the creation of a Global EdTech Innovation Fund to bridge the investment gap facing African startups. For him, the Alliance’s collective strength lies in its capacity to make African voices and innovations visible on the global stage.
Carolina Duer from Fundación Ceibal, Uruguay, shared how peer mentoring and reciprocal learning could transform education systems. She proposed pairing mature and emerging ecosystems so that practical experience can be exchanged quickly, and recommended developing shared evaluation and data governance standards, such as those underpinning the EdTech for Good framework. Duer stressed that global initiatives must always reinforce, rather than overshadow, local ownership and cultural context.
Aditya Gupta of the India Didactics Association highlighted the need for alliances to connect the dots across regions and to learn continuously from one another rather than reinvent the wheel. He encouraged the Alliance to set clear, measurable goals for its first years and to promote responsible and equitable AI adoption. He argued that the true measure of progress will be whether the Alliance helps create equity — not only equality — by ensuring that technology serves humanity and learning, not the other way around.
Jennifer Otieno, co-founder of EdTech East Africa, spoke about the importance of curation and practical collaboration. She called for targeted matchmaking between alliances and working groups that tackle shared tensions such as how to work effectively with governments or how to embed equity and inclusion in cross-regional deployments. She reflected that many of the relationships represented in the Alliance already exist informally, and that this new structure formalises a spirit of collaboration that has long united leaders across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Moving from vision to action
As launch host Beth Havinga, Managing Director of the European EdTech Alliance, noted in her closing remarks, the initiative may have begun in Europe but it belongs to the world. The Alliance will now focus on turning shared intent into practical impact. The coming months will see the development of regional knowledge-exchange activities, co-created evaluation templates and governance guidelines that can be adapted by ministries and alliances, and the creation of targeted, outcome-driven working groups to translate insights into real change for learners and educators.
What’s next
Founding group confirmations and shared resources: rolling through December–January
Membership model and funding architecture: to be finalised in early 2026
In-person milestone: official convening alongside the UNESCO Global Education Coalition in March 2026, including proposals for governance and board structures
The Alliance of Alliances will only succeed if it is truly global and co-created. We invite alliances, networks, and communities of practice to join as founding members or supporters.
Express your interest or contact us at alliance(@)edtecheurope.org.
Together we can connect local innovation to global collaboration and ensure that every region has a voice and a stake in the future of digital education.
