Transcript THE ROLE OF REGIONAL NETWORKS IN ADVOCACY: Case …

COALITION BUILDING WITHIN THE EFA
FRAMEWORK: ANCEFA EXPERIENCES
A PRESENTATION BY ANCEFA
www.ancefa.org
22 May 2009
OUTLINE
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The EFA Framework
The EFA Framework & Civil Society
ANCEFA Mandate
Concept of Coalition Building
Coalitions & Policy Influencing-Select Case
studies
• Success Factors for National Coalitions (Dos
and Don’ts’)
THE EFA FRAMEWORK
• In 2000, the World Education Forum in
Dakar, Senegal, concluded with the
declaration of the Dakar Framework for
Action as a key strategy to accelerate
progress on Education for All (EFA) in the
post Jomtien era
• The Framework challenged countries to
achieve six EFA goals by 2015
FOCUS OF THE SIX EFA
GOALS
– Goal1: Expand Early Childhood Care and education
– Goal 2: Provide free and compulsory universal basic
education for all including children with special
education needs
– Goal 3: Promote learning and skills for young people
– Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50%
– Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005 and gender
equality by 2015
– Goal 6: Enhance quality of Education
CURRENT EFA ISSUES IN AFRICA
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The biggest scandal: High levels of illiteracy: World -wide, 774 million adults
are illiterate and 75 million children are not in school. Nearly 33 million
children are out of school in Sub Saharan Africa. This represents 45% of the
world’s out of school children, of whom 54% are girls.
Marginalisation of disadvantaged Children: Orphans, Disabled children
Girls, rural children.
Some of the EFA Goals are not being emphaised eg: ECD, Adult Literacy,
Youth and Life skills Training.
Shortate of Teachers: Millions of teachers need to be trained and recruited
Poor Living Conditions of Teachers
The Negative impact of HIV and AIDS: Thousands of teachers and pupils
are affected in Africa.
Huge gender disparities in schools: The Gender parity goal was missed by
many countries in Africa in 2005
Financing of education: countries are spending less on education; in
addition transparency and accountability of resources are deficient.
EFA FRAMEWORK & CIVIL SOCIETY
PARTICIPATION
• In the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action, participants
pledged to “ensure the engagement and participation
of Civil Society in the formulation, implementation
and monitoring of strategies for Educational
development.”
• This is a very significant shift, moving beyond seeing
NGOs as partners in implementing projects to
recognizing their contribution to both policy dialogue (in
the formulation of plans) and independent monitoring of
plans (acting as watchdogs, tracking budgets etc).
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ANCEFA drew its mandate from this pledge
ANCEFA MANDATE
• ANCEFA exists to promote, enable and build
capacity of African civil society to advocate and
campaign for access to free quality education for
all.
• It was started after the 2000 Dakar Forum by 19
national education coalitions
• For the past 9 years ANCEFA has been involved
in Coalition building, thereby increasing number
of national coalitions involved in EFA advocacy
from 19 to 32 in various parts of Africa: Southern
Africa, Eastern Africa, Central Africa and west
Africa. ANCEFA is working towards reaching out
to North Africa.
ANCEFA VALUES & STRATEGIC
PROGRAMS
• Core Values of ANCEDFA Include
– Respect, integrity, commitment, professionalism and
excellence, inclusiveness, active engagement, and
non partnership.
• Strategic Programs:
– Capacity Building of Civil Society Actors in Education
– Strategic Campaigns and Lobbying at National,
Regional and International level
– Facilitating Education Policy Dialogue in Africa
– Monitoring Progress on EFA/MDG Implementation
– Documentation of EFA/MDG Processes
– Institutional Strengthening of ANCEFA and Members
CONCEPT OF COALITIONS
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Coalitions can be defined as groups of people or organizations working together to
pursue a single goal. Coalitions often have a more formalized structure with the
members making a long-term commitment to share responsibilities and resources.
Their permanence often gives clout and leverage. Whenever possible, organizations
should seek to build or join a coalition to strengthen the impact of their advocacy.
Coalitions are related to Networks and Alliances.
Networks consist of individuals or organizations that share information, ideas and
resources to accomplish individual or group goals. Networking is a process of
acquiring resources and building power by using or creating linkages between two or
more individuals, groups, or organizations. Networks tend to be loose, flexible
associations of people and groups brought together by a common interest or concern
to share information and ideas.
Alliances generally involve short term relationships among members and are focused
on a specific objective. Being limited in time and goal, alliances tend to be less
demanding on members.
ADVANTAGES OF COALITIONS
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Coalitions are formed around a common interest or problem for the purpose of uniting
resources to be used toward a common goal. Coalition building is a powerful tool to
create healthy, supportive groups and environments for Education Advocacy.
Building successful coalitions requires deliberate and intentional processes to engage
a broad array of people, ideas, relationships and actions to support educational
development. In early stages of coalition formation, ANCEFA recommends thorough
mapping of stakeholders, consensus building, as well as mechanisms for
coordination, communication, fundraising, and legal framework
(Constitution/Registration). During consensus building apart for agreeing on advocacy
issues, and advocacy/lobbying strategies, members agree on issues for capacity
building and coordination.
The following are some advantages of coalitions
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Increased access to decision makers and other contacts
Improved credibility and visibility
Opportunities to broaden public support
Opportunity to strengthen civil society on the whole
Key Milestones in ANCEFA Coalition
Building Agenda
• National Education Coalitions linked to ANCEFA now present in 32
countries in Africa
• Enhanced capacity building for coalitions through training in areas
like policy analysis, research, advocacy.
• Financial and technical support to coalitions to undertake country
specific advocacy campaigns or funds for office start up e.g.
Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Senegal.
• Development of training manuals for coalitions
• Development of Campaign materials including newsletters,
calendars, clocks, website, stickers, videos, etc.
• Intensified networking and partnership with international
organizations like UN, AU, SADC etc.
• Sharing information
• Policy influencing at national and international levels.
COALITIONS AND POLICY INFLUENCING:
SELECT CASE STUDIES
• Since its involvement in coalition building, ANCEFA has noted key
areas of policy influencing by National Coalitions:
• Some select Case Studies
– Most Coalitions are recognised and participate actively in
stakeholder activities e.g. by Government and Donors: Through
Sector Reviews, Sector Meetings, Planning Forums etc.
Involvement of CSOs in policy analysis and monitoring
– Most of the Coalitions are involved in country level education
policy making process including formulation, policy
analysis/research and monitoring e.g. EFA Plans, Education
Sector Strategies (F9or access to FTI Funds), Budgets etc.
– Budget Tracking: For accountability and also increased
resources for education
Country Case Studies
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KENYA: Influencing Policy through Election Cycle Campaign
– ANCEFA supported an election cycle campaign in Kenya that helped
the Coalition there influence policy related to Secondary education.
– The Elimu Yetu Coalition in Kenya during the election cycle campaign in
2007 developed an Elections manifesto that demanded for free
secondary education.
– In response in January 2008 the Kenyan Govt declared free secondary
education and a taskforce comprising CSOs was appointed to look at
details .
Zambia, Malawi: Budget Tracking
– National Coalitions in Zambia (ZANEC) and Malawi (CSCQBE) have
been involved in budget tracking in their respective countries.
– The tracking involves following up allocations to education and tracking
the use of the resources during budget implementation.
– Results of this work includes: Increased allocations to education,
accountability and transparency in use of government resources.
KEY CHALLENGES FOR COALITIONS
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Governance Challenges: Weak governance can bring down the Coalition. Moist
challenges include lack of accountability, lack of a binding constitution, confusion of
roles between Board, Secretariat and members, incompetence of those in
Management, Greed, and lack of communication. Recent governance problems in
Kenya and Malawi threatened the collapse of the Coalitions.
Capacity: Inadequate capacity in competence areas like policy analysis and
advocacy, research, coordination, reporting and M & E can cause the Coalition to
lose focus and become ineffective in the EFA advocacy agenda.
Funding: Inadequate funds make it difficult for Coalitions to operate. Most Coalitions
are suffering from donor dependency syndrome. There is need to explore various
fundraising mechanisms and secure core funding.
Broad-based Participation of NGOs: Coalitions end up being driven by few
individuals/NGOs. This leads to questions of their mandate and credibility. ANCEFA
recommends National Coalitions to include and involve a variety of stakeholders like
National Teachers Union, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Academia
(Institutions of Higher Learning-Universities, research Institutes etc), Child/Human
Rights Activists, The media, and Youth Organizations.
Recommendations for Success in
Coalitions (DOS and DONTS)
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Factors for Success (DOS and DONTS)
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Common agenda, identity and drive
Broad -based nature to build a critical mass.
Visionally leadership: Well Functioning Board (Governance is Key)
Good mechanism for addressing conflicts
Strong strategic direction (Strategic Plan/ Action planning)
Strong Coordination mechanism: Having a competent and well managed
Secretariat
Strong Communication strategy (Explore various forms of Communication)
Involving all members in the activities of the Coalition: It should not be one man
show.
Continuous capacity development of members in key skills
Networking and Information sharing : including sharing good practices
Evidence based Advocacy: Research & Advocate
Don t relax in fundraising (Especially ensuring Core Funding).
Effective monitoring and Evaluation
ANCEFA’S PLANS IN COALITION BUILDING
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In line with the strategic mission for the next three years (2009-2011),
ANCEFA is planning to undertake the following:
– Expand the coalition building agenda more especially by establishing
and supporting New Coalitions in North Africa, Countries in Conflicts,
and Linguistic Sub Regions (Arabic and Portuguese speaking)
– Strengthen already existing Coalitions especially those with weak
capacity (New Coalitions) e.g. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde,
Ethiopia, Sudan etc. through institutional and technical support
– Strengthen evidence based advocacy by national coalitions especially in
areas such as inclusive quality teaching and learning, education
financing, address school related gender based violence, and national
and international accountability.
– Strengthen policy engagement with international and regional bodies
(AU, UN Agencies, IMF, World Bank, SADC, ECOWAS, Parliamentary
Bodies (FAPED) etc).
CHALLENGES ANCEFA WILL NEED TO
ADDRESS TO IMPLEMENT PLANS
• Institutional Capacity Challenges: Staffing and
skills for member national coalitions and staff.
• Financial challenges- ANCEFA will need to
diversify its financial base to support effective
implementation if its strategic plans
• Monitoring and Evaluation: ANCEFA will need
to put in place an effective and efficient M & E
plan to collect data for better planning.
• Coordination & Communication Challenges:
These will be key more especially at national
and sub regional levels.