Beyond Buzzwords — What Do Real Partnerships Look Like?
Let’s talk partnerships! What’s working? What do real partnerships look like? What’s evolving?
In our first episode of the new EdTech Hub Spotlight Series, we explore what makes partnerships in education technology truly inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. This new series brings you in-depth conversations with thought leaders, practitioners, and policymakers — bringing lessons and experiences across the region.
At a time when the rules of the game are changing faster than ever, from the global funding challenges to the rise of AI and shifting regional dynamics, partnerships are often hailed as the secret ingredient behind successful ed tech. But what do real partnerships actually look like in practice? Who gets to be part of them, and who might be left out?
In this episode, we unpack what makes collaborations in EdTech truly strategic, inclusive, and sustainable, exploring key themes including:
- Redefining partnerships amid global funding shifts and AI disruption.
- Inclusion and power balance: ensuring local educators, researchers, and communities have a voice.
- Evidence-based collaboration: aligning technology with pedagogy, curricula, and national goals.
- Sustainability: focusing on long-term, context-driven, and cost-effective models.
- Future vision: fostering regional cross-learning, empowering local innovators, and scaling what works.
- Final message: Authentic partnerships are built on synergy, trust, humility, and even fun.
This episode draws on expertise from:
- Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, the Director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Secretariat. She is also Professor Honourary at Kyungwoon University, Honourary Fellow at MASA Institute, Board Member of Teach for Malaysia, Advisory Board of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, and Member of Global Advisory Council of Teach for All’s Global Institute. She is the former Director General of the Ministry of Education Malaysia and has extensive experience in policy development, macro planning, programme delivery and evaluation. She played a key role in the development of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Preschool to Post Secondary Education).
- Verna Lalbeharie, the Executive Director of EdTech Hub, leading the Hub in advancing its mission to empower governments and leaders towards evidence-based applications of technology in education, in service of building an evidence-driven movement for the use of technology to help address the global learning crisis. Verna has over 25 years of experience in strategic leadership and business development in education technology, personalised learning, research, and technical assistance. She has focused her career on evidence and the advancement of education technology to create a more equitable future for all students.
Watch the episode
Read below for a play-by-play of the core questions.
Question 1: In today’s global climate, with a funding crisis, AI is changing the rules and shifting regional politics. How are partnerships being redefined? Who’s getting to sit at the table and who might be getting left out?
Verna highlighted the importance of staying true to the core values of mutual respect, trust, and transparency, while ensuring power dynamics remain balanced. She emphasised that teachers, students, and communities in low- and middle-income countries must be actively involved in shaping education decisions, not just consulted after the fact. Authentic partnership, she argued, starts with inclusion and listening, especially as AI begins to influence education policy and classroom practice.
Datuk Dr Habibah noted that partnerships must now move beyond traditional donor-recipient or vendor-client models to more collaborative, problem-solving ones. She cited Malaysia’s digital education policy as an example of inclusive design that brings together multiple sectors, including government, NGOs, communities, and private actors.
However, both speakers warned that 1) educators, unions, and marginalised groups are still too often left out of AI discussions, and 2) without equitable participation, technology risks deepening existing inequalities. The future of EdTech partnerships, they concluded, depends on co-creation, inclusivity, and purpose-driven collaboration that centres people—not just technology.
Question 2: How do we know when a partnership leads to real impact? What are some indicators of partnerships being considered successful or unsuccessful?
Datuk Dr Habibah shared that a successful partnership is one where technology supports pedagogy and aligns with national goals, such as Malaysia’s integration of digital content into its curriculum. She emphasised that providing tools alone isn’t enough – teacher readiness, confidence, and well-being are critical to success. Partnerships often falter when they push “solutions looking for problems,” overlook long-term sustainability costs, or fail to evaluate outcomes. As she put it, “a partnership without evaluation is based on hope, not evidence.”
Verna reinforced the need for evidence-based collaboration and ongoing research to understand what truly works across different contexts. She highlighted that adoption depends not just on technology but on teacher development, community engagement, and flexibility to blend online, offline, and low-tech approaches. Successful partnerships, she noted, are marked by intentionality, humility, and complementarity. Partners who build on each other’s strengths, avoid duplication, and focus on scaling what already works.
Ultimately, impactful partnerships are not only effective and evidence-driven but also grounded in trust, enjoyment, and shared purpose.
Question 3: How can partnerships be more inclusive and equitable, especially between large and small organisations?
Verna emphasised that building more inclusive and equitable partnerships starts with acknowledging power dynamics and ensuring transparency around what each partner gains. True equity, she argued, comes from co-design – creating solutions with communities rather than for them. When local voices and lived experiences shape decisions from the outset, inclusion follows naturally. Verna called for intentionality and humility as guiding principles, reminding us that partnerships must honour the knowledge, needs, and contributions of local stakeholders.
Datuk Dr Habibah added that in Southeast Asia, digital divides, especially between urban and rural areas, make context-critical partnerships essential. Large organisations must go beyond deploying global solutions to adapting them locally, supporting initiatives like open educational resources (OER) in local languages and formats suited to low-connectivity environments.
She highlighted the Philippines’ offline OER library as a strong example of context-driven collaboration. For partnerships to be equitable, she noted, big players should also empower smaller and local organisations through funding, research investment, and capacity-building.
Together, the speakers underscored that inclusivity in partnerships is achieved when power, voice, and value are genuinely shared.
Question 4: Moving from inclusion to sustainability, what do you think it takes to move beyond short-term projects to partnerships that last and evolve in Southeast Asia?
Datuk Dr Habibah emphasised that true sustainability in education technology requires a long-term, systemic vision, not ad hoc or short-term projects. Drawing from the 2023 GEM Report and Malaysia’s Education Blueprint, she noted that integrating EdTech into the national education strategy, across all 10,000 schools, is key to creating lasting change. Sustainability, she explained, depends on building local capacity and fostering regional collaboration through organisations like SEAMEO, which supports teacher training and cross-country consistency. Initiatives such as the SEAMEO–EdTech Hub HelpDesk exemplify this approach, providing technical assistance and capacity-building that have strengthened ministries and education centres across Southeast Asia.
Verna echoed this focus on joint learning and adaptive collaboration, highlighting how the HelpDesk model has evolved to meet local needs through agile, evidence-based support. She described sustainability as a journey – one that requires shared goals, continuous learning, and financial foresight. Lasting partnerships, she said, emerge when stakeholders align around a common vision of impact, remain flexible to adapt over time, and account for the real costs of long-term implementation. Moving from isolated pilots to sustainable systems means investing in relationships, evidence, and local ownership—the foundations for enduring impact across Southeast Asia.
Looking Ahead: If you had to describe the kind of partnership you’d love to see in Southeast Asia’s EdTech ecosystem over the next five years, what might that look like?
Verna highlighted the region’s vibrant diversity in infrastructure, access, and capacity, emphasising the need for intentional, cross-country partnerships that promote shared learning rather than duplication. She called for stronger regional collaboration around open educational resources, scalable digital platforms, and cost-effective solutions that work even in low-connectivity environments. The goal, she said, is to create a connected ecosystem where countries learn from each other’s successes while adapting innovations to local realities.
Datuk Dr Habibah built on this by envisioning partnerships that scale proven, evidence-based solutions rather than chasing new, untested technologies. She noted that true regional impact depends on identifying what works, contextualising it, and expanding it sustainably, anchored in a shared vision across Southeast Asia.
Both speakers underscored the importance of grounding innovation in evidence, with Verna pointing to the EdTech Hub’s Five Questions Framework as a guide for decision-makers to assess whether technology truly enhances learning, equity, scalability, and alignment with national priorities. As Verna cautioned, the future of EdTech should resist the allure of “big shiny objects” like AI and instead focus on solutions that are practical, inclusive, and transformative for all learners.
If there’s one message our listeners should take away about partnerships, what would it be?
In their final message, Datuk Dr Habibah and Verna reminded listeners that the best partnerships are built on synergy and joy – working together to create something greater than any one partner could achieve alone.
Beyond effectiveness and sustainability, they emphasised that true collaboration should also be meaningful, trusting, and enjoyable, rooted in shared purpose and a commitment to inclusive, lasting impact in EdTech.
This has been the first episode of the EdTech Hub Spotlight Series, where we explore the ideas shaping the future of education across Southeast Asia and beyond. We hope you’ll join us for upcoming episodes as we continue to unpack what works, what needs to evolve, and how we can build a more equitable and effective education system together.
The next episode will unpack EdTech Financing in a time of global education funding crisis. Stay tuned for the discussion in the coming weeks.
Interested in similar topics? Explore more of our work.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Verna Lalbeharie, Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim, Neema Jayasinghe, Sangay Thinley, Jazzlyne Gunawan, Sophie Longley, Jillian Makungu, and Laila Friese for the support with developing this first episode of the EdTech Hub Spotlight Series.
This publication has been produced by EdTech Hub as part of the ASEAN-UK Supporting the Advancement of Girls’ Education (ASEAN-UK SAGE) programme. ASEAN-UK SAGE is an ASEAN cooperation programme funded by UK International Development from the UK Government. The programme aims to enhance foundational learning opportunities for all by breaking down barriers that hinder the educational achievements of girls and marginalised learners. The programme is in partnership with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Office, the British Council, the Australian Council for Educational Research, and EdTech Hub.
This material has been funded by UK International Development from the UK Government; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies and equitable digital learning.
