"Education 2030", the new global agenda for educational development, emphasises inclusion and learning outcomes. The top-down programme-based approach, a mainstay of international aid, has up to now failed in helping developing countries to meet these objectives because it tends to overlook where the link is broken between policy implementation from the "top" and results "on the ground". Conversely, those on the ground tackling the learning more directly do not seem to have sufficient capacity to use their experiences to inform institutional and systemic reforms, from the bottom up, as it were. The link between policy, its implementation and the results on the ground could be established through strengthened dialogue between these two approaches. Tapping into the existing knowledge and experience on teaching and learning while at the same time addressing institutional and systemic concerns would be instrumental in facilitating interaction between these two facets of international aid.