Transcript Title 1: Courier New 48

Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
ANCEFA PERSPECTIVE ON THE
ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN
DELIVERY OF ECCE
Presented by Mr. Maurice Akelo Misori,
ANCEFA BOARD MEMBER
At REGIONAL WORKSHOP.
Pretoria. December 2013
Contact: [email protected]

www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
PURPOSE OF PRESENTATION


The objective of this presentation is
to discuss the role of civil society in
the delivery of ECCE in the region.
Areas to be tackled include the
justification for civil society
involvement; the rationale for
investing in ECCE; outline of some
examples of civil society advocacy
work; constraints and
recommendations.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
MOTIVATION 1

Our task is to identify those reforms
that have the highest impact on
student achievement, fund them
adequately; early childhood education
for every child, so they are not
already behind on their first day of
school...and the recruitment and
training of transformative principals
and more effective teachers. -Barrack
Obama, The Audacity of Hope, (2006:
161)
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
MOTIVATION 2

A critical contribution of NGOs as
advocates is to empower the people to
become active citizens “who use their
rights to improve the quality of political or
civic life, through involvement in the
formal economy or formal politics, or
through the sort of collective action that
historically has allowed poor and excluded
groups to make their voices heard”
(Green, Duncan, From poverty to Power, 2008:12).
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
1. BACKGROUND: ANCEFA




ANCEFA is a regional network
advocating for EFA since 2000.
Has membership of 35 National
Education Coalitions.
Program offices in Lome, Nairobi, &
Lusaka while Head office is in Dakar.
Core areas: Coalition building,
capacity building, monitoring and
policy advocacy for EFA.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
2.THE ROLE OF CIVL SOCIETY


The world Education Forum in Dakar at which the six
EFA goals including the goal of expanding early
childhood education were agreed identified civil society
organisations as key stakeholders in the whole EFA
agendas, and thus emphasised their active participation.
The Dakar forum recognised that “civil society has much
experience and a crucial role to play in identifying
barriers to EFA goals, and developing policies and
strategies to remove them, ” and thus participants made
a pledge to “ensure the engagement and participation of
civil society in the formulation, implementation and
monitoring of strategies for educational development;”
(UNESCO, April 2000:8) .
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
3.SPEFIC ROLES OF CIVIL
SOCIETY

According to the expanded
commentary on the EFA goals
developed by the World Education
Forum Drafting committee, civil
society participation should not only
be limited to endorsing decisions of,
or financing programmes designed by
the state, but be fully involved in the
planning, implementation, monitoring
and evaluation of basic education”
(UNESCO, May 2000:18). www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
4. PREREQUISITES FOR CSOS


To carry out their responsibilities as
advocates, NGOs require having
adequate resources, skills and
competences.
The Dakar framework for action
foresaw this, and advised that to fulfil
their roles, “capacity will often have
to be developed in the civil society
organizations” (UNESCO, May
2000:19).
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
5.WHY INVEST IN ECCE?




ECDE is the foundation of education.
children who participate in early childhood
education programmes have positive early
learning experiences and make a better
transition to primary school, and are more likely
to begin and complete it.
Moreover, early childhood programmes increase
the rate of return of investment.
ECDE programmes help accelerate equity in the
education system by addressing the needs of
poor and vulnerable children at an early age.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
6.WHY CSO ROLE IS CRUCIAL
IN ECD DELIVERY NOW?



EFA goal 1 calls upon expansion of access for
ECDE programs by 2015.
Effort has been made, but progress is slow.
Many children especially the poor, needy, and
vulnerable are denied access.

Many countries are off track.

Overall continent access is below 20%.

In SADC levels range from 3% to 40%. Most of
the countries access is less than 20%.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
7.FACTORS AFFECTING ECCE
DELIVERY

Weak policy environment


Most countries lack comprehensive ECDE
policies
 Some operate on Draft policies
Underfunding – ECCE is provided less than 1%
of education budget. ECCE accounts for less
than 01.% of the GDP inmost countries.
Coordination weakness - across ministries,
partners, stakeholders.

Weak monitoring and evaluation framework.

Weak advocacy initiatives by CSOs.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
8. LIMITATIONS ON ADVOCACY
FOR ECCE ACCELERATION

There are no BIG Champions for
ECDE especially politically



Parliamentary committees rarely talk about
advocacy issues
Very limited and disjointed civil
society advocacy
Networks of ECDE advocacy suffer
from limited technical and financial
support..Many of them at risk of
extinction.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
9.EXAMPLES OF WHAT CIVIL
SOCIETY CAN DO


1. The Ethiopian based, Basic Education Network (BENE) lobbied the government to formulate ECCE policy and
the policy along with guidelines and strategy is in place.
Consequently, the children ECE participation rate grew
from 4.2% in 2008 to 6.9% in 2009/10.
2. civil society budget monitoring and oversight in
Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania that have resulted in
increased spending in education; and advocacy around
inclusive education by conducting research and actively
engaging in policy dialogue, which resulted in
development of a special needs policy framework and
enhanced knowledge about inclusive education.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
10.OTHER EXAMPLES of CSO WORK


In 2012 national coalitions in Africa were
mobilised by ANCEFA and the GCE to
commemorate the campaign on the Early
Childhood Education with the slogan “Rights
from the Start: Early Childhood Care and
Education Now!” (GCE, 2012).
From 2009, GCE and ANCEFA have managed the
Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) project
financed through the Global Partnership for
Education (GPE. This has provided an
opportunity for scaling up civil society
monitoring and advocacy initiatives around the
EFA goals.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
11. CONSTRAINTS FOR CSOs
1) Financial limitations to carry out successful
advocacy campaigns
2) Capacity gaps in evidence- based advocacy
around ECD
3) Unfriendly political environment and legal
frameworks that hinder advocacy work of CSOs
4) Inadequate coordination at national, regional
and international levels
5) Limited opportunities for NGOs/CSOs to share
and learn from each on what works and what
does not work in ECD advocacy
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
12. RECOMMENDATIONS
1) ANCEFA and partners should identify funding opportunities to
support civil society advocacy work at national and regional level
2)
ANCEFA and partners should support CSOs to undertake capacity
building for civil society in advocacy and governance,
3) There is need for improved partnership between civil society and
government at country level Partners should initiate dialogue for
closer collaboration, and especially addressing legal and political
barriers.
4) Stakeholders should encourage learning platforms and intercountry learning and publication of good practices in advocacy.
5)

Stakeholders including the African Union, Regional Economic
Communities, governments and civil society organisations, should
ensure that ECDE features highly in post 2015 education and
development framework.
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT ECCE
www.ancefa.org
Africa Network Campaign on Education For All
ANCEFA Regional Office,
Amitie III, No 4566/B,
Dakar – Senegal,
BP 3007 - Dakar -Yoff
Tél: +221 33 824 22 44,
Fax
+221 33 824 13 63,
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ancefa.org
www.ancefa.org