EFA 2000 Assessment > Thematic Studies >
Reason for Hope: The Support of NGOs to Education for All
Co-ordinated by the Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Full Report (PDF) - Rapport francais (PDF)

Introduction NGOs and the unfinished agenda of Education for All

The Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All (CCNGO/EFA) is a thematic partnership mechanism between the Education Sector of UNESCO and NGOs. Its aim is to facilitate professional dialogue and to carry out joint activities to inform educational policies and practices. It undertakes research and exchanges information and experience in the field of edu-cation for all. The CCNGO/EFA also develops activities to strengthen NGO capacity, particularly at the local level.

Objectives and context of the study

The basic learning needs of all can and should be met and edu-cation must be reaffirmed as a fundamental human right. In this respect, no morally valid reason can be found to justify a delay in democratizing education, which must allow equal access for men and women at every level. The democratization of education means that every citizen, of whatever age, and every community, have the right to learn, in order to develop self-confidence, participate in all democratic and development processes, take an active role in the information society and find their place in the process of globalization.

During the World Conference on Education for All, which was held in March 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, the international community committed itself to responding to the basic learn-ing needs of all by the year 2000 and adopted a Declaration and Framework for Action to achieve Education for All (EFA). This enormous challenge has been energetically taken up. Even if the results have not always lived up to expectations, consider-able effort has been made to attain the objectives. Working alongside governments, bilateral and multilateral co-operation agencies, the community of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has invested a great deal of energy in pursuing EFA objectives. These organizations have built up vast networks of partners at the local, national and international levels. The year 2000 is an appropriate time for taking stock, for measuring achievements, identifying bottlenecks and elabo-rating effective and accessible long-term strategies for building the foundations for lifelong learning for all. The present report is part of the critical assessment being undertaken by the members of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All. Within the global framework of national and inter-national evaluations, this study reflects their contribution and their concerns.

The members of the CCNGO/EFA have for the first time under-taken a collective assessment to analyse and document their experiences in respect of education for all. This exercise, based on thematic studies, has been complemented by the reports of several regional NGO consultations which took place in Johan-nesburg, South Africa (December 1999), and Bangkok, Thai-land (January 2000), as well as informal NGO meetings parallel to the EFA 2000 Assessment regional meetings (Arab States and North Africa in Cairo, Egypt, January 2000; Latin America and the Caribbean in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, February 2000). The key moment of the evaluation and consul-tative process, launched by the Annual Meeting of the CCNGO/EFA in Paris in October 1998, was the International Consultation of NGOs at Dakar (Senegal) on 24 and 25 April 2000, prior to the World Education Forum. This consultation involved about 300 representatives of civil society who drew up a joint communication and participated in the various com-mittees of the Forum.

More specifically, the present initiative aims to:

1. analyse NGO activities from a qualitative as well as a quan-titative perspective, paying tribute to their diversity;

2. examine selected NGO priority themes in basic education and shed light on their comparative advantages;

3. recognize the various challenges and formulate recommen-dations for activities to promote lifelong learning in order to improve the global context in which NGOs operate.

Assessment framework and methodological approach

During the Annual Meeting of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All in October 1998, the participants agreed on an assessment framework (see diagram) determin-ing the organizational guidelines and modalities for data-collection and analysis. Members of the CCNGO/EFA have been systematically collecting data on the diversity, scope, volume and nature of their programmes and activities since Jomtien. For this exercise, they were invited to submit a summary of their activities, providing sufficient information on the content of programmes and activities, target groups, results achieved, types of innovations undertaken, the difficulties encountered and their prospects for the future. This information, collected by the CCNGO/EFA co-ordination unit, is the basis for the first part of this assessment. In addition to the basic data outlined above, six thematic areas were identified and retained as prior-ity fields of NGO activity, forming a second major source of input to the assessment. The NGOs consider that these themes, whether objectives, strategies or challenges, deserve particular attention from all the actors in the education system in order to ensure quality education for all. These six thematic summaries are completed by a seventh report presenting the results of the national and regional NGO consultations that took place in twenty-five countries.

Six NGOs volunteered to co-ordinate the collection of case studies for each of these themes and to prepare thematic summary reports.

  • Community Participation: Experiences of NGOs and Civil Society, co-ordinated by Aide et Action;

  • Linking Non-formal Education to Development: Experiences of NGOs in the EFA Decade, co-ordinated by World Education;

  • Gender Dimensions in Education for All: Experiences of NGOs and Civil Society, co-ordinated by the African Community Education Network (ACEN);

  • Education for All: Teachers’ Perspective, co-ordinated by Edu-cation International;

  • Emerging Trends in Adult Literacy Policies and Practices in Africa and Asia, NGO Perspective, co-ordinated by the Asia and South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education (ASPBAE);

  • Partnerships in Education for All: Experiences of NGOs and Civil Society, co-ordinated by the Summer Institute of Lin-guistics (SIL) International.

The seventh report, presenting the results of the national and regional NGO consultations, was co-ordinated by ActionAid:

  • Broken Promises, New Hopes: Perspectives of Civil Society on Education for All.

Themes for assessment chosen by the Collective

  • Consultation of NGOs

  • Community participation

  • Non-formal education and development

  • Gender dimensions

  • Teachers' perspective

  • Adult literacy

  • Partnerships

Scope of the study

The term NGO can be applied to a broad range of organiz-ations and associations, but this assessment does not attempt to define the concept. Instead, any organization, association or civil society movement which defines itself as such and replied to the assessment questionnaire has been considered as ‘NGO’ in the context of this study.

The assessment is based on information supplied by the NGOs and it is thus subject to the quality and limitations of the information provided. The synthesis aims to bring out some general trends emerging in NGO activities or influenc-ing their initiatives. In an attempt to achieve a balance among the themes, certain issues running through some or all of the individual thematic studies are not repeated in all sections. Moreover, if certain NGOs are often cited as examples in var-ious fields, this is merely illustrative and is not intended to be exclusive.

While NGOs themselves opted to take responsibility for the assessment of their specific contribution to the objectives of EFA, the framework is related to the overall schema adopted by the International Consultative Forum on Education for All. With this in mind, the relevance of their objectives and activi-ties and the results achieved have been assessed in relation to the major directives outlined in UNESCO’s Technical Guide-lines 1 for assessing the contribution of all partners involved in the realization of the Jomtien Declaration.

It should be mentioned that the quality of information varies and that the data were not collected or interpreted in the same way by all organizations. Many did not complete all sections of the questionnaire. In particular, several NGOs did not mention the difficulties encountered, nor did they clearly articulate their future perspectives. As a result, the data do not allow a full analysis of the overall achievement of their activities.

None the less, the data do give an idea of the contribution and the efforts made by NGOs alongside other partners engaged in the realization of the Jomtien goals. The six thematic summary reports, on the other hand, are analytical and illustrate the comparative advantages of NGOs and their specific contribu-tions. These are complemented by the regional declarations and reports which pertinently express the vision of the future for the NGO community.