GPE expands its toolbox to partner with civil society
GPE’s new advocacy and social accountability mechanism represents a renewed effort to better integrate the inputs of civil society into sector policy, and improve both transparency and accountability in education systems.
March 20, 2018 by Sarah Beardmore, GPE Secretariat
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6 minutes read
Children at the Shahrinav District, School #39 Tajikistan. Credit: GPE/Carine Durand
Children at the Shahrinav District, School #39 Tajikistan.
Credit: GPE/Carine Durand

The Global Partnership for Education recognizes the vital role of civil society in education governance. In 2009, GPE made its first investment in this area with $17.6 million to support the Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF).

Since then, GPE has steadily expanded its investments to strengthen the participation of civil society and teachers in policy dialogue, increase global advocacy and improve data and transparency in education.

These interventions are helping to build stronger relationship between governments and civil society, and strengthen mutual accountability across the partnership.

Nevertheless, a renewed effort to better integrate the inputs of civil society into sector policy and implementation at the country level is needed. In many places civic engagement – including of teachers, parents and students - in sector dialogue is far from a given.

Expanding support to civil society mandated by GPE’s new financing and funding framework

GPE’s financing and funding framework—adopted in March 2017 to raise significantly greater and more diverse finance for education—acknowledges that political will and civic participation are important drivers of progress in education, and embeds support for the role of civil society into GPE’s operational model.

It does so through the launch of a new funding mechanism for advocacy and social accountability (ASA), which will enable GPE and its partners to invest a minimum of US$20 million annually to support civil society.

This represents a doubling of GPE’s previous level of support for civil society, which will expand its ability to help ensure more inclusive and informed policy dialogue and enhanced transparency and accountability in education systems.

Building on GPE’s investments in the Civil Society Education Fund and Education International/UNESCO programs, ASA’s goal is to enhance civil society capacity to further GPE 2020 goals in learning, equity, and stronger systems. ASA will reach its goal by improving civil society participation, advocacy and efforts to ensure transparency and increased effectiveness in national educational policy and implementation processes.

This goal will be realized through the following objectives:

  • strengthen national civil society engagement in education sector planning, policy dialogue and monitoring
  • strengthen civil society’s role in promoting the transparency and accountability of national education sector policy and implementation, and
  • create a stronger global, regional and transnational enabling environment for civil society advocacy and transparency efforts in education.

Designing the ASA

Over the course of 2017, the GPE Secretariat worked with the Board’s Strategy and Impact Committee (SIC) to explore design options for the ASA funding mechanism. To inform these, the Secretariat organized a series of consultations across the partnership to help crowdsource the rich expertise of partners working in these areas.

Through webinars, in-person focus groups, interviews and exchanges with partners and practitioners, the Secretariat has elicited a huge amount of valuable feedback on the optimal design of the mechanism. 

In December 2017, the Board approved the overarching goals and objectives of ASA and mandated the Strategy and Impact Committee to oversee its implementation planning and launch by early 2019. 

The SIC will be meeting in May, July and October this year to advance its reflections on the operational details of ASA, and members of the SIC will be consulting within their constituencies in advance of these discussions. The feedback from all constituencies of the partnership – including both governments and civil society organizations – will be critical.

A panel of technical experts will guide ASA’s design

In addition, the Secretariat has established a technical advisory panel of experts in the fields of education, social accountability, and grant-making, to provide guidance on key issues in the design of the new mechanism. Some of the issues which need to be unpacked include determining what grant making capabilities are needed to manage ASA effectively, how monitoring and evaluation can inform practice, what kinds of capacity building approaches are effective at strengthening civic engagement, and what is good practice in issuing calls for proposals.

While it will take a huge effort to launch ASA in a year’s time, it will be worth it: if we get it right, ASA could potentially resource a much-needed sea change in the relationships and practices of accountability in the education sector.

As the ASA implementation planning evolves, GPE will be updating its web page with the latest information. For more information or inquiries about this process please contact Sarah Beardmore.

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