By: Anna Cristina d’Addio and Daniel April
Since 2020, the Global Education Monitoring Report’s Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews (PEER) website has provided a platform for understanding how countries design education systems through legislation and policy. With the launch of this year’s 2026 GEM Report, the platform has moved from a repository of country ‘snapshots’ into a dynamic tool tracking policy change over time, starting with two areas critical for equitable access to education: inclusion and equitable finance.
This change marks more than a redesign. It reflects a conceptual shift in how to monitor, interpret and ultimately use information on global education policy.
The original PEER: a global policy snapshot
When the PEER platform was initially developed, it was designed to systematically document national education legislation and policies. This was for two key reasons:
- To ensure every country was covered in the annual GEM Report thematic focus and strengthen the analysis on inclusion (2020), private actor regulation (2021/2), technology (2023) and school leadership (2024/5).
- To provide structured evidence base for policy dialogue and peer learning in these and future themes.
The platform was intentionally descriptive, providing a detailed picture of what policies existed at a given moment, rather than how they evolved. But in a global policy environment increasingly focused on results and accountability, this limitation became more visible.
Policies also need to be monitored, not just outputs and outcomes
The need for a redesign emerges at a critical juncture. As the world approaches the 2030 deadline for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), there is growing demand to take stock of progress over time, not just document the current existence of a policy.
To contribute to the shape of a post-2030 agenda, the next three GEM Report editions form part of the Countdown to 2030 seriesThe 2026 GEM Report, which was launched last week, tracks global trends in expanding access to education and examines why some countries have advanced faster than others. Drawing on 35 country case studies, it explores the policies that drive progress and the barriers that still leave millions of learners behind.
Combining both quantitative data on trends, case study material and policy analysis, the GEM Report makes the point that policymakers need to understand what matters in the long-term not just what works in the short term. It emphasizes that progress takes time. While indicators may take several years to show change, there is much to be learnt from the institutional change countries are making in the background in the form of their policies.
The redesigned PEER platform responds directly to this need, providing information that is longitudinal, analytical and actionable.
The new PEER moves toward:
- Policy evolution
Instead of isolated country snapshots, the new platform provides time-series policy analysis over the past 20+ years, beginning with two themes: inclusion and equitable education finance on pre-primary, primary, secondary and post-secondary education. This helps users observe reform trajectories and turning points.
- Indicator-based analysis
The new platform introduces indicator-driven insights, linking legislation and policy changes to measurable dimensions of progress, as has been done this year with a new index on equitable finance. This enables cross-country comparison grounded in data and stronger alignment with the SDG 4 monitoring framework.
- Continuous monitoring
Unlike its legacy site, the new PEER website is designed as a living platform reflecting a move from periodic to continuous reporting.
The decision to begin by mapping changes over time in inclusion and finance is deliberate. The 2020 GEM Report on inclusion and education emphasized that exclusion persists due to fragmented policies, weak implementation and insufficient financing alignment. Similarly, recent GEM Report work on equity and financing highlights how resource allocation and policy frameworks shape outcomes across education systems. By focusing on these themes first, the new PEER platform demonstrates how legislation translates (or fails to translate) into progress and connects policy frameworks with equity outcomes.
A tool for the post-2030 agenda
Perhaps the most important dimension of this redesign is strategic. As global education stakeholders begin to define priorities beyond 2030, the need is no longer just to ask What policies exist? but rather What progress has been made—and how?
The new PEER platform directly supports this shift by highlighting long-term reform trajectories, enabling evidence-based policy learning, and supporting forward-looking agenda setting.
The post From snapshots to trajectories: the evolution of the GEM Report PEER website appeared first on World Education Blog.
