USAID Opportunity 2.0 Program Higher Education Learning Summit

April Mattix Foster, PhD (Center for International Education, CEHD) and Jennifer Lebrón, PhD (USAID Higher Education Learning Network Leader and Education Development Center International Technical Advisor, CEHD ’22) were invited to participate in the USAID Opportunity 2.0 Program Higher Education Learning Summit in Manila, Philippines. The Summit brought together 200 delegates from 15 cities throughout the Philippines to provide a spotlight on the role of colleges, universities, and other academic institutions in helping resolve challenges on out-of-school youth (OSY) advancement together with their respective Youth Development Alliances. The goals of the Summit were to highlight the unique and pivotal role of higher education institutions to advance systems and opportunities for Filipino out-of-school youth; raise awareness of stakeholders, from both academia and other sectors, on the role of higher education institutions in strengthening and enable environment OSY-related policy and program development; create spaces for interaction and collaboration among higher education institutions and other sectors to spark new innovations that address persistent and evolving challenges in OSY development and surface recommendations based on tested interventions; and enjoin higher educations to develop, continue, and sustain knowledge-sharing and collaborations through the Higher Education Community of Practice of Out-of-School Youth Development and Lifelong Learning in the Philippines. In addition to presenting at the Summit, Dr. Mattix Foster and Dr. Lebrón also provided a post-Summit follow up workshop designed to explore how to develop and sustain lasting and productive communities of practice among university and community partners.