 Thank you, Joe. I think you needed the gesture just for the title, right? Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me well? Okay, so thank you very much for joining me in this session. My name is Igor Lesko. I originally come from Slovakia, but I have been living in South Africa since 2003, and I work for the Open Education Consortium. This presentation is part of a much bigger PhD research project that I have been working on, exploring how international organizations are influencing governments around the world in their open educational resources, policy initiatives, or approaches. I am a registered PhD candidate at the Open University of the Netherlands, and I'm also a member of the Global OER Graduate Network, which is supported by the Gleam and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Thank you for that. Now, investigating whether or not government lawyer policies lead to sustainability of open education initiatives is not necessarily within the scope of my PhD research. However, during that project cycle, the research cycle, I tend to learn about and then explore further such matters as well, and this is also part of my professional interest. So, for this particular session, I promised to address the following, conceptual matters, so what is meant by government policy more broadly, but also government lawyer policy more specifically, what are some of the indicators of effective or less effective policies? What are some of the contextual factors that affect the policy cycle? I will also present some examples of government lawyer policy initiatives around the world, and also highlight some of the successes and challenges with these, and this is with an attempt to answer these questions of whether or not governmental policies lead to sustainability. And then finally, I will raise some questions, observations, and recommendations, and hopefully there will be some time for questions at the end. Excuse me. So first of all, what is a governmental policy? I should mention that my own thinking is somewhat fluid in this regard, and that's because the term has got divergent meanings or is used to describe different activities in different countries around the world. My own understanding, which is also informed by various literature sources, is that it is about the type of actions that governments take in relation to a particular challenge or opportunity. And so in the context of OER, I understand governmental OER policy as a type of action, either by the executive or the legislative branch of the government in relation to OER or open education. I would also like to mention that when I speak about policy, and typically when people speak about policies, they refer to a text document or written document of some sort, if that exists. But as a part of my research scope, I'm looking at policy as a policy cycle. So I'm looking at things like agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation. So when it comes to the types of actions that governments have at their disposal, what are they? So governments have a range of policy instruments. This could include legal instruments, which can be legislation or regulation. But governments can also incentivize OER activities through a combination of maybe direct or indirect funding programs through the provision of economic means, or through information campaigns. And this could also include things like press releases, speeches, or declarations by governmental stakeholders. And when it comes to the discussion about the indicators of effective or less effective policies, I find it useful to think about this in the context of symbolic versus material policies. A symbolic policy is typically a policy that is not so strong, that is typically very little commitment to implementation or there are no real resources attached to it. And again, the wording of such policies can also be quite vague or imprecise. So you would have things like a wording such as we encourage you to do something. And a material policy on the contrary, typically has got a stronger commitment to implementation with some significant resources attached to it as well. And such policies would then also typically include an evaluation strategy in order to determine or in order to ensure that the policy means its goal over time. But then there are other factors that have an effect or effect on the success of policy initiatives over time or whether or not policies are adopted or implemented. And this is a range of contextual factors. And this could include things like changes in governments or changes in national priorities. The presence or absence of champions who are located within the state bureaucracy or civil society who are in the position of influence, who are either advocating for policy initiatives or who are advocating for policy initiatives. And then also the availability of applicable support mechanisms. So all of these factors and there are others can have a significant effect on whether or not policies are adopted, implemented or on the overall success of policy initiatives over time. And now coming back to the results that I would like to share with you. So this is the goal to answer this question of whether or not government lawyer policies lead to sustainability. So I would like to mention a few things around the methodology which is part of my PhD research. So this is structured into the data collection is structured into two different phases. The phase one which was completed some time ago in included or involved interviews with representatives from different international organizations. These were intergovernmental organizations, international and government organizations, as well as foundations, including from Hewlett Foundation, by the way, as well. The second phase of the data collection, based on which this presentation is structured, included interviews with policymakers and experts in different countries around the world. And initially, I did an outreach to people or to stakeholders in 76 different countries. And that included states and provinces as well and some federal departments in the United States. And I received these supplies from 48 different countries. And this was inclusive of the applies where respondents clarified that at that particular moment, no government lawyer policies or activities taking place. And by these cases were then excluded from the sort of the next phase, which was the interviews and then follow ups. So I ended up conducting interviews and follow ups with representatives from 36 different countries, states and provinces, eventually during the period August December 2018. So you can see the scope is quite modest. The interview questions were related to the type of government lawyer initiatives taking place in those countries, whether or not there has been an influence from international organizations on these processes and if so in what ways. And then I was also probing respondents on the recommendations regarding the type of regarding how international organizations could support such processes more effectively. Right. So what type of government lawyer policy initiatives are there around the world? So it's a mixed scenario, to be honest. So again, there are still countries and numerous countries with no government lawyer activities or other policies or other activities in place. And there appear to be at the moment, no intentions to introduce such activities in the near future. In other words, open education does not seem to be on the agenda of policymakers yet. But interestingly enough, this is also in those countries that have made considerable advancements in other domains of openness, policy advancements in other domains of openness which could include open access, open data, open science. Then you have countries where OER policies were formulated or are in the process of being formulated, but these are yet to be adopted. So only time will show and you've got examples of these countries on the slide. So I'm not going to specifically be calling out those countries. Then you have countries that have actually explicit OER policies adopted with varying degrees of implementation. Again, time will show how good implementation is. But in most cases, OER is interwoven within other policies or strategies. This could include ICT and education policies, digitization strategies, education reform strategies, or open government partnership national action plans, also open access, open science strategies. And then some countries do not have explicit policies related to OER, but have been incentivizing OER activities through a combination of either direct or indirect funding programs or information campaigns. And again, you have got examples of these countries on the slides. Now coming to that question of whether or not government OER policies lead to sustainability of open education initiatives. The answer, unfortunately, here is it depends. I think that you can point to some successful initiatives and one way of looking at success is by looking at whether or not the government continues supporting OER over a sustained period of time. So you can find some successful examples in countries like US, Canada, India, Netherlands, France, and Poland, and others. But in most cases, it's still not clear. It's a bit too early to tell. Many of these policy initiatives are still very relatively new or young. And so this will require some follow up interventions and research activities. But unfortunately, in most countries also, there are numerous challenges. The picture is actually not looking all that good. There are either cases where the policies were formulated, but were not adopted, or they were adopted, but they were not implemented. And then the implementation strategy appears to be quite problematic in some cases too. And when I'm speaking about the implementation strategy challenges, this could be either very slow implementation or certain, like, for instance, issues related to licensing regimes that are vague or not precisely clear in relation to OER open education. And then one of those other challenges that I would like to speak about is the discontinuation of funding. And this is particularly true for countries that actually do not have explicit OER policies but have been incentivizing activities through provisional funding. And once the funding is discontinued, these kinds of activities are typically sustained by the work of dedicated individuals, champions, or other coalitions on the ground. But these stakeholders typically require external support. And that external support normally involves funding in order to sustain their activities. So what are some of the challenges? What are some of the possible reasons for these challenges? I mentioned some of these earlier. So again, changes in governments or national priorities. This is quite frequent. Or lack of capacity or resources for implementation. And also this is quite important in my view, is the absence of champions in the position of influence who are located either within the state bureaucracy or civil society or both, who are either originally advocating for these approaches or who are currently advocating for these approaches, but lack adequate support. So having said all of these, the following questions and observations and some recommendations come to my mind. And these are just some of those I've got more. So for instance, why do governments in certain countries continue supporting OER over time? Why do or why or how do OER stay on the agenda of policymakers? Why is it that governments in certain countries do not really seem to express an interest in OER open education but in other domains of openness? What can we learn here? What type of arguments with respect to OER open education resonate with policymakers in different countries? This has got implications for policy advocacy and advice strategies. A couple of observations I would like to make also is in relation to the role of champions or national coalitions in advancing OER or open education agenda or policy agenda. In many countries, the so called policy wins can be attributed to the work of individual champions or national coalitions. Are there strategies that we can work on to support the work of these coalitions or national champions in those countries? Or create or work on strategies that will help create the future cohort of leaders and champions in those countries? And the other observation I would like to make is that there are uneven developments in different countries. And so therefore there is no level playing field up on which to build action. And again, the recommendation, one of those is related to the, and this is too close, one of those is related to the need for strategies to support local champions. And the second one is related to the type of policy advice that is given. So I think that there is a need for more nuanced approach to policy advocacy or advice that resonates with policymakers in different countries around the world. There are certain policy messages or policy arguments that are effective in other countries do not necessarily resonate or they are effective in some countries do not resonate with policymakers in other countries. So then this requires a much more nuanced approach, a better understanding of the educational landscape, the socioeconomic challenges in those countries, the kinds of opportunities that there are and then tailor those policy advocacy messages accordingly. Thank you very much. I've got very personal interest in this, but I've probably got a question, but is there any questions from the home? Thanks Igor, that was fantastic. I really appreciated your recommendations in particular in talking about the nuances of policy work and I'm interested. Are there any specific examples of policies that stuck out that you think are either good examples to illustrate some of the nuanced approaches or cases where advocacy can make a difference? I mean, I know obviously I'm speaking from the perspective of the US, but perhaps outside of the US. Yes, there are. Could you please give one? So this would be an example about policies that are contextually relevant, taking a sort of the local landscape into account, but unfortunately these were not adopted yet, but I would be able to point, having seen how thorough these policies are, the draft policies like in countries such as for instance Bangladesh or Malaysia, I think this would be exemplars how to to a nuanced approach to policymaking really. But unfortunately they have not been adopted yet. These documents do exist. You're fast. Thank you, thank you Igor. He is young. I was just curious, when you're speaking about sort of the role of advocates or advocacy groups, and particularly in the wake of government change, because I know that we have a lot of political upheaval and a lot has become very political with relation to open education. Are you seeing any mapping of what sort of government priorities are needed to be in place for advocacy groups or advocates to have success in making a case for open policy? Are there particular hallmarks politically that that map against open success? Yes, I think there is some homework that needs to be done actually, and that's also about the nuanced approach to policymaking. So again if you for instance as an advocate try to give an advice to a government about you know you should you should try to create a policy with respect to open education. It should not be just a generic advice, so you should have a really thorough understanding of the kind of opportunities and challenges in your country and that's actually the kind of homework that you need to do as an advocate, right? So what are the having so looking for that what are the governmental priorities, what are the some of the educational challenges in your country and that's how you can tell daily your messages accordingly. I mean that would be my sort of general advice about it.