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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]
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.
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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)
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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).
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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.
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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) .
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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).
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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).
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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.
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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%.
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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.
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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.
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9.EXAMPLES OF WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO
1. The Ethiopian based, Basic Education Network (BEN-E) 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.
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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.
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11. CONSTRAINTS FOR CSOs1) 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
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12. RECOMMENDATIONS1) 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 inter-country 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.
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LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT ECCE
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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]: www.ancefa.org
