Workshop participants from Plan country offices discuss the value of education
At the end of June in Burkina Faso, the international development organization, Plan International, brought together education advisors from their country offices in Benin, Burkina Faso, Canada, Cameroon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, the U.S. and Togo.
I joined them for a three-day workshop on the vital role of civil society in the Global Partnership for Education – and to discuss ways for civil society actors to not only participate in the development of national education plans, but to ensure they are implemented with the full ownership of citizens, communities and organizations.
The workshop, entitled, “Education Advocacy and Policy: Opportunities and Strategies for National and Regional Engagement,” allowed Plan International’s staff to explore their own role in helping to represent the public interest in national education policy processes.
Empowering local communities to advocate for their education rights
Plan International is taking a proactive role to ensure that the communities where they work are heard and served. The organization is a member of the Local Education Group and partners with national education coalitions in advocacy campaigns and budget tracking, developing strong evidence-based policy recommendations and ensuring that education sector reviews benefit from local input.
By placing a high priority on strategic advocacy to protect and guarantee education rights, Plan International and other civil society actors recognize that civic oversight and local ownership are just as vital as service delivery if the benefits of education are to be enjoyed by all.
An engaged and informed citizenry, equipped with the tools and capacity to advocate for their education rights is the only antidote to the inertia of policies which lack resources or political will to be implemented— as a participant aptly remarked “We need to stop acting like a text will solve the problem.” The concept of ‘national ownership’ must expand beyond official arenas by moving from the capital cities to the school communities, where education stakeholders are best placed to monitor the realization of their right to education. Good education governance requires that this experience then informs the national policy dialogue and influences the practice of development actors.
Recognizing this, the Global Partnership for Education has developed a framework to guide education actors at the country level, including ministry officials and bilateral donor agencies, to ensure that the public interest is represented at the education policy table. But while civil society participation is being codified throughout GPE policy, only the active engagement of partners like Plan International and other civil society groups will ensure that the seat for an informed citizenry is occupied and the policy of truly national ownership becomes practice.
Thanks for all of the comments – I believe they demonstrate the need for a clear focus on civil society participation in the GPE’s processes and the strong support that this area of work has, not only from Plan International but from our CSO partners around the world. Just today the Global Partnership for Education’s new strategic plan was approved by the Board of Directors, in which it commits the GPE to the task of supporting greater participation of civil society:
“The Global Partnership will support greater civil society, teaching profession and private sector and private foundation involvement in LEGs and in policy dialogue at the country level. The meaningful inclusion of civil society (including international NGOs, local NGOs and associations, teacher unions as well as community based organizations and local stakeholder groups such as parents and students) will require greater and more timely participation of these partners in the development of national education plans, program implementation grant applications and joint sector reviews. By ensuring that GPE processes are inclusive of civil society, the Global partnership can help promote national education strategies which are responsive to the needs of communities and empower local actors to demand and monitor the implementation of quality education services.”
Over the coming months, the GPE Secretariat will develop better systems to support CSO participation – and in the meantime please feel free to contact me at sbeardmore@globalpartnership.org to share any ideas, thoughts or concerns you have. As we develop this agenda, CSO participation is welcome from the outset!
Thank very much for this report. The workshop was a big sucess in the sense that it showed the positive influence the partnership in advocacy campaigns, budget tracking and quality education improvement between the GPE and the CSOs can have on both rightholders and other dutybearers.
Hello on behalf of Canadian Teachers’ Federation International Programs.
I am excited to see the work of Plan,GPE and other critical stakeholders as described in your blog. CTF has had tangible success in partnership with teachers making sure that the schools on the ground are healthy, supportive and pedagogically relevant to girl students through teacher training and community action. There remains a great need for action with regard to such matters as sanitation, safety and teacher training on inclusion and counselling, in order to ensure that it will be a positive experience for girls. I will be happy to discuss collaboration opportunities with interested parties.
Barbara MacDonald Moore
Director, CTF International Programs
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for your offer to explore opportunities to collaborate with others to ensure that school level experience for girls is positive – an area which needs much greater attention in many parts of the world. The Canadian Teachers Federation has a lot to share on this and has done very important work to support inclusive quality (and girl-friendly) education; thanks for all of your efforts. Please do email me at sbeardmore@globalpartnership.org as I would love to hear your thoughts on how to accelerate progress in gender equality, and ways that country-level education policy processes can impact on this agenda.
Sarah, thank you for such insightful release you published. We are hopeful that the partnership between GPE , Plan International and all well meaning institutions will help improve the quality of life for the children all over the world.
This is great news only last week the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) had a teleconference with the GPE specialists for Cambodia and we discussed how can teachers’ representatives become more involved in the GPE at national level. This example of progressive actions and engagement would be very useful for us to look at as model for CSO engagement in Cambodia.
Where can we get the framework for country level engagement with GPE? and is it possible to get the presentations and learning resources from this workshop???
Hi Joseph,
Please e-mail me at ynestel@plancanada.ca and I can forward you some of the workshop materials.
Thanks,
Yona Nestel
Senior Education Advisor – Plan International Canada
Thanks for your comment John. As Yona mentioned in her comment – you can contact her at ynestel@plancanada.ca for the materials from the workshop which Plan designed on this subject. In the meantime, we will be developing guidance for civil society participation in local education group processes, which we will share through our website once they are done. It is great that you are already in touch with the GPE staff working in Cambodia – I hope to see this kind of connection being made in all GPE countries.
Well done to Plan International! Great to see GPE partnering with NGOs in this way to help national and local civil society understand, engage with and influence GPE processes in their countries. There’s a lot more work for GPE to get genuine CSO participation in all Local Education Groups — currently a big deficit. It would be great to see GPE leading initiatives like this in all countries and regions.
Thanks to Sarah for this report. We hope that the partnership between GPE and Plan International will help millions of children to enjoy their deserved right to quality education.
Best wishes.