Africa's EdTech Breakthrough — Operational Reference
This document is the operational reference for the Breakthrough Project's Legacy Attribution system. It defines the rules governing Founding and Scaling Attribution, lists the canonical attributable artifacts, and specifies the attribution format. For the rationale behind the system — why founding attribution is permanent, why institutional hosting is a distinct form of legacy, and how the system aligns with the Breakthrough Project's financial architecture — see Essay 24: Funding RESPECT™, Section 7.
The Founding Circle (no more than two members) provides the catalytic capital for the Breakthrough Project's Tranche 1 — the high-risk seed funding that allows the Project to exist. To reflect this economic reality, the Project employs a dual-mode attribution system:
Founding Attribution ("Founded by")
Definition: The Founder of a Project is the Development Partner that funds that Project's Tranche 1 allocation. Founding Attribution is permanent and is not affected by subsequent funding from other sources.
Function: Signals the existential role of the contributor in the creation of the asset.
Scaling Attribution ("Scaled by")
Nature: Time-bounded attribution (e.g., five-year terms).
The "Scaled by" attribution is applied only during the scaling process (e.g., "Founded by [Founder]; Scaled by [Scaler]"). Thereafter, attribution reverts solely to the Founder.
Tranche 1 Lock-In: Funding a Planet-Project's Tranche 1 allocation is sufficient to secure permanent "Founded by" attribution and, where applicable, Institutional Hosting rights for that Planet-Project. If a different Development Partner funds the same Planet-Project's Tranche 2 and/or Tranche 3, that partner receives "Scaled by" attribution for the remaining duration of the Project — after which the attribution reverts to the Tranche 1 funder alone.
Four institutions within the Breakthrough System are proposed for domicile in the Gulf. Two constraints govern Institutional Hosting:
Hosting Cap: No single Founding Circle member may claim more than two of the four hostable institutions (GEOS Organization, SOCLE Board, IMPACT Board, PREMIER Institute). The cap ensures that the hosting portfolio is distributed across the founding coalition, so that the initiative reads as Gulf-led rather than dominated by any single member or country. The remaining institutions are hosted by the other Founding Circle member or another Gulf state.
Planet-Project Dependency: Institutional Hosting rights for a given institution are available only to a Development Partner who funds the related Planet-Project's Tranche 1 allocation:
The Project shall engage an independent historian to document the entire Project (budgeted within V&P_Core). The Historian serves as custodian of the attribution framework, ensuring that all recognition remains accurate, proportionate, and historically grounded for future generations. The historian holds no governance authority, funding discretion, or operational role within the Project.
| Legacy Artifact | Description | Attribution Form | Nameable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa's EdTech Breakthrough Project | The seven-year initiative designing and launching the system. | Founded by… | Yes |
| AUDA-NEPAD EdTech Task Force Secretariat | The continental coordination body for policy domestication and trust preservation. | Founded by… | Yes |
| RESPECT Platform | The Free and Open Source reference implementation of Africa's DPI-Ed. | Institutional Hosting | No — trademark primacy |
| Ecosystem Fund DP Bridge | The $180M bridge financing mechanism for AppDevs and Localizers during ramp-up. | Founded by… | No — funder neutrality |
Note on non-nameable Sun-Project artifacts: The RESPECT Platform's identity is governed by its trademark (RESPECT™), which is essential to the platform's economic sustainability model (see Essay 8). The Ecosystem Fund DP Bridge is a multi-contributor financing mechanism whose credibility depends on independence from any single Development Partner's brand.
Nine of the ten Planet-Projects are independently fundable, independently nameable legacy assets. The tenth — the EdTech Task Force coordination programme — funds time-bounded coordination overhead, not institution-building; it carries no Legacy Attribution (see Essay 26, Section 4.10).
| Legacy Artifact | Description† | Attribution Form | Nameable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| PREMIER Institute | Platform Research and Engineering for Modern Infrastructure in Education Readiness. $28.9M over 7 years (Institute + Little Easies). Institute Founder has Right of First Refusal on both Big Easies (ECM, Easy FLN Localization). | Founded by… + Institutional Hosting | Yes |
| ECM Research Program | Easy Curriculum Mapping: building the Curriculum Intermediate Representation for Africa's DPI-Ed. $10.7M over 48 months. PREMIER-housed, independently funded. | Founded by… | Yes |
| Easy FLN Localization | Easy FLN Localization: building the Writing Intermediate Representation for FLN courseware localization. $8.6M over 48 months. PREMIER-housed, independently funded. | Founded by… | Yes |
| CRADLE Research Program | Continental Research Architecture for Data Linkage in Education. $10.7M over 2 years. | Founded by… | Yes |
| RBF4Ed Evidence Infrastructure | Results-Based Finance for Education: building finance-grade evidence infrastructure. $23.5M over 7 years. | Founded by… | Yes |
| IMPACT Board | Infrastructure Mastery for Professional Accreditation, Certification, and Technology. $15.0M over 7 years. | Founded by… + Institutional Hosting | Yes |
| PROMISE Program | Professional Resources on Mobile for Instructional Skills in Education. $9.6M over 3 years. | Founded by… | Yes |
| SLATE Program | Secure Learning Appliances for Teaching and Education (LearnTab™). $10.7M over 3 years. | Founded by… | Yes |
| BEINGS Program | Building Educational Infrastructure Norms with GovStack. $7.5M over 3 years. | Founded by… | Yes |
†Planet-Project budgets are stated gross of the 7% coordination levy; base amounts (pre-levy) are specified in each Planet-Project's proposal.
Note on the IMPACT Board and PREMIER Institute: Both are nameable ("The IMPACT Board, Founded by [Development Partner]"; "The PREMIER Institute, Founded by [Development Partner]") and proposed for domicile in the Gulf. Each funder receives a dual legacy: permanent naming attribution and Institutional Hosting prestige (see Section 2 hosting rules). Each counts as one of the funder's two permitted hosting claims under the Hosting Cap.
Two institutions — the GEOS Organization and the SOCLE Board — derive their authority from demonstrated independence and cannot carry a funder's name; for these, hosting is the primary form of legacy. Two — the IMPACT Board and the PREMIER Institute — can carry a funder's name (see Appendix B) and are also eligible for hosting, giving their Founders a dual legacy.
| Legacy Artifact | Description | Requires Funding Of | Attribution Form | Nameable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEOS Organization | Global Education Outcomes Standards Organization: the independent standards body for finance-grade educational outcome signals. Gulf-based. | RBF4Ed | Institutional Hosting | No — independence essential |
| SOCLE Board | SOCLE Board (Standard for Open Curriculum Logic in Education): independent governance of the Curriculum IR specification. Gulf-based. | ECM | Institutional Hosting | No — neutrality essential |
| IMPACT Board | Professional certification body for Mappers, Impletors, and DPI Engineers. Gulf-based. | IMPACT Board | Founded by… + Institutional Hosting | Yes (see Appendix B) |
| PREMIER Institute | Platform research institute ("Easy X" capabilities). Gulf-based. | PREMIER Institute | Founded by… + Institutional Hosting | Yes (see Appendix B) |
Hosting Cap: No single Founding Circle member may claim more than two of the four hostable institutions. The remaining institutions are hosted by a different Founding Circle member or Gulf state.
Planet-Project Dependency: Hosting rights require funding the related Planet-Project's Tranche 1 allocation. See Section 2 for the complete dependency mapping.
The following artifacts represent enduring professional and institutional outputs of the Breakthrough System. Each inherits its Founding Attribution from the project that created it.
| Legacy Artifact | Description | Created By | Attribution Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| DPI Engineer (DiPian™) Certification Pipeline | The global certification pipeline for DPI Engineers. | IMPACT Board | Inherits from IMPACT Board Founder |
| DPI Engineer Global Fellowship Program | Flagship program seeding DiPians in Ministries of Education. | IMPACT Board | Inherits from IMPACT Board Founder |
| Annual Africa DPI-Ed Summit | Flagship annual convening of Ministers, practitioners, and partners. | V&P_Core | Inherits from V&P_Core Founder |
| DPI-Ed Case Study & Knowledge Series | Peer-reviewed documentation of the Breakthrough experience. | V&P_Core | Inherits from V&P_Core Founder |
| DPI Engineer Certification Curriculum | Canonical curriculum for the DiPian™ discipline. | PREMIER Institute | Inherits from PREMIER Institute Founder |
Note: These artifacts carry the Founding Attribution of their parent project's Founder automatically. A Development Partner who funds the IMPACT Board's Tranche 1 receives "Founded by" attribution on every artifact the IMPACT Board project creates, including the Certification Pipeline and Fellowship Program.
As the RESPECT Ecosystem matures, Product Associations — representing App Developers, Localizers, and other commercial participants — will be formally constituted. These associations are expected to begin as African bodies and expand internationally as the ecosystem grows (particularly following the Accelerate Learning XPRIZE (2026–29)). Naming and hosting rights for Product Associations are reserved for the Tranche 2 funding round and are therefore excluded from this document. Founding Circle members will receive Right of First Refusal on Product Association attribution when these bodies are constituted.
V&P_Core's First Mover (via the Luqmān Project) will receive:
The Second Mover selects from remaining available Planet-Projects and hosting opportunities.
All legacy naming follows the format:
"The [Artifact Name], Founded by [Development Partner]"
Never: "Founded by [Development Partner]: The [Artifact Name]" or any other ordering.
Examples:
For Scaling Attribution during the scaling phase:
"The [Artifact Name], Founded by [Founder]; Scaled by [Scaler]"