What is it about?
This study examines how major international organizations – the World Bank, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and the Inter-American Development Bank – work within Brazil’s education sector. While they share global goals, collaboration at the country level is limited. They often operate separately or connect in short-term, practical ways. The findings show that local context strongly shapes these interactions, revealing a gap between global coordination and what happens in practice.
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Why is it important?
Coordination among international organizations at the global level is evident, what happens on the ground remains less visible. This study shows that strong global alignment does not guarantee local collaboration. Focusing on Brazil, it demonstrates how national contexts shape interactions, often leading to competition rather than cooperation, helping explain why global education policies do not always translate into local practice.
Perspectives
This publication reflects my ongoing interest in the global–local nexus in education. I have long been curious about how international organizations’ local staff make sense of their work in specific national contexts. What drew me in was the gap between global ambitions and everyday realities. Studying Brazil allowed me to explore this tension and question assumptions about coordination, reinforcing the importance of taking local perspectives seriously.
Vera G. Centeno
Tampere University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Local Institutional Interplay, October 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004689121_006.
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