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CEF/RAPID Workshops, Maputo, Mozambique
17th - 21st July 2006 and Dhaka, Bangladesh, 31st July - 4th
August 2006
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) play an important role
in influencing policies and practices to make them pro-poor.
In the ever changing and complex world of policy advocacy
CSOs are increasingly recognising the need to understand policy
processes better, use evidence to engage with them more effectively
and develop strategies in order to engage with policymakers
in a more systematic way so as to make their contributions
have sustained impact on development policy.
The Commonwealth
Education Fund (CEF) is a collaboration between the UK
Government, leading UK development agencies - Action
Aid, Oxfam and
Save
the Children - and the private sector. The uniqueness
of CEF lies in the fact that it is aimed not at supplying
immediate educational needs (such as new schools and textbooks)
but at creating a social and political environment in which
education becomes the number one national priority for developing
nations. CEF works strategically with civil society organisations
in countries likely to miss the education and gender MDGs,
in order to make education a sustained domestic priority and
to make public schools work effectively for all children.
The CEF builds and supports national coalitions and networks
so as to enable them to advocate for education policy in support
of quality basic education for all.
Following on the workshop
delivered by RAPID for CEF partners in Zambia last year,
these two CEF/RAPID workshops in Mozambique and Bangladesh
focused on how CEF and its partners in Africa and Asia can
better use evidence to promote pro-poor policies. Active participation
was the cornerstone of the approach in the workshops, with
emphasis placed on participants' own knowledge and experience.
The Africa workshop was facilitated by Enrique Mendizabal
and held in Maputo (17-21 July) and attended by CEF partners
from Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Cameroon.
Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Gambia. A similar workshop
was carried out in Dhaka ( 31 July - 4 August) for CEF’s
Asia partners, facilitated by Naved Chowdhury, which was attended
by CEF partners from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.
Workshop participants shared a wide range of other examples
based on their own experience. Several cases discussed during
the workshops illustrate how it has been possible to influence
education policy through participatory research, information
provision and the strategic use of simple policy advocacy
tools. Efforts which have yet to have impact on education
policy in certain countries were also shared.
While it is clearly possible for CSOs to influence policy,
the policy context in Africa and Asia are unique and the complexity
needs to be addressed, keeping in mind local capacities and
strengths of the partners. It was also quite obvious to see
that few CSOs have well developed policy advocacy skills and
therefore a systematic sharing of knowledge is needed. Participants
at the workshops made a number of suggestions for further
work by ODI to help them to promote pro-poor approaches to
policymakers in the education sector, including practical
training, information about policy options from other countries,
key background information on macroeconomic and other related
issues and ongoing support for the full development and implementation
of policy influencing strategies.
Further information on the workshops:
Additional resources:
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