Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is a recognised policy expert, specialising in public-private partnerships in education. She is a Fellow of the Centre for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution and Founding MD of The Education Partnership Centre (TEP Centre), Nigeria’s pioneering education partnership organisation.
The Education Partnership Centre (TEP Centre) is a pioneer in the emerging field of education partnership, specialising in research, design, implementation, support and evaluation of education programmes, projects and initiatives across the public, private and non-profit sectors. They seek to improve the overall design, implementation and evaluation of education initiatives through effective, enduring and scalable partnerships.
The pan-African Education Innovation Summit (NEDIS) was established under Mo’s leadership. Now in its 8th year, NEDIS is a platform for identifying and scaling meaningful innovations in the education sector. She is leading the implementation of LEARNigeria, Nigeria’s tech-enabled citizen-led household assessment and advocacy programme, which in partnership with government and corporate sector, is assessing the foundational learning competencies of thousands of children and youth aged 5-18 in Nigeria.
In 2020, Mo was appointed a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) charged with the responsibility of developing ‘Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plans’ and the country’s strategic plan. She has been co-convener of the Federal Ministry of Education’s summit – Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference (NAEC) – since 2019. She also wrote a section of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Strategic Plan for Education (2011-2015). She was previously Monitoring and Evaluation Workstream Lead with UK-DfID’s ESSPIN Programme, Business Analyst with Accenture, Vice President at Junior Achievement and worked in banking for two years.
She serves as a Board Trustee of dynamic and impactful non-profit organisations: Malala Fund, Human Capital Africa, and Slum2School Africa. As a young person, she was a trustee of the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council, London, and a Crans Montana Fellow, Geneva.
She has been a commissioner on the ‘Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges’ at McMaster University, and an Advisory Committee Member of the 15-member People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network which is committed to citizen-led assessments in the global South.
Modupe is a Fellow of the Asia-Global Institute in Hong Kong and an Honorary Fellow of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Nigeria. As a Centenary Scholar (Africa), she received a PhD in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London where her thesis proposed a model of public-private partnership in education. She earned a Masters with Distinction from the same institution.
