In March this year, we launched our annual photo competition on the theme of our forthcoming 2021/2 GEM Report on non-state actors. The brief was for photographers to submit original photographs that capture the many ways in which non-state actors are involved in education systems – providing education (private, NGO, faith-based or community schools); providing ancillary services (school meals, technology, assessments, tutoring); influencing education systems (equity implications; influence over national policies; resource mobilization); and the state role in the process (regulatory frameworks, accountability mechanisms). The winner was to be awarded $500 and the runners up $200 each.

We are very pleased to announce that the winner of this year's annual photo competition is Distance learning in crisis by Stephen Douglas, taken in Kambia, Sierra Leone. Stephen is an award-winning Canadian journalist working in Sierra Leone.  His photo shows the importance of family engagement in education, particularly  in the context of COVID-19 school closures.

"Listening to, and participating in, the daily interactive "Reading on the Waves" radio program has been a whole-family undertaking for the Kamaras," he explained. "The family literacy initiative funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and implemented jointly by CODE, Farm Radio International and the Association of Language and Literacy Educators (Sierra Leone) has helped to sustain learning during COVID-19 school closures in Sierra Leone and Liberia."

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