COALITION BUILDING WITHIN THE EFA FRAMEWORK: ANCEFA EXPERIENCES

1. COALITION BUILDING WITHIN THE EFA FRAMEWORK: ANCEFA EXPERIENCES A PRESENTATION BY ANCEFA www.ancefa.org 22 May 2009

2. OUTLINE • 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’)

3. 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

4. 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

5. CURRENT EFA ISSUES IN AFRICA • 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.

6. 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). • ANCEFA drew its mandate from this pledge

7. 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.

8. 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

9. CONCEPT OF COALITIONS • 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.

10. ADVANTAGES OF COALITIONS • 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 • 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

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Country Case Studies • 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.

14. KEY CHALLENGES FOR COALITIONS • 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.

15. Recommendations for Success in Coalitions (DOS and DONTS) • Factors for Success (DOS and DONTS) • 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

16. ANCEFA’S PLANS IN COALITION BUILDING • 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).

17. 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.