5. Co-operation with civil society organizations

The Dakar Framework made it clear that Education for All can be achieved only if it is supported by a broad-based movement involving not only governments but 'civil society organizations' (CSOs). Such organizations include NGOs and campaign networks, teachers' unions and religious organizations, community associations and research networks, parents' associations and professional bodies, student organizations and women's groups. These grass-roots organizations have developed methods and approaches more attuned to the needs and life conditions of the poor, especially in the area of non-formal education. Thus they are particularly well suited - more so than other EFA partners - to reach the marginalized and excluded persons who must be provided with educational opportunities if EFA goals are to be fully achieved.

CSOs have the advantages of being more flexible than the state, closer to the grass roots and local cultures, and more innovative. Thus they are in a good position to provide alternative services where state provision is absent or insufficient, such as organizing literacy programmes or skills training. In many developing countries they have taken on major responsibilities for running non-formal education programmes.

The innovatory approaches taken by many CSOs make them sources of the new thinking and practices that are so important if the EFA concept is to evolve and respond to change. CSOs can help fill the 'ideas gap' in collaboration with other EFA partners in areas such as the impact of globalization on education.

Many CSOs are informed critics of and advocates for a whole range of development issues. Collective NGO campaigns in recent years have lobbied in favour of free and compulsory quality education for children and for education programmes for out-of-school young people and adults. They have also raised important issues and helped shape the present EFA agenda. During the EFA Assessment, for example, a collective evaluation by NGOs of their own EFA programmes and roles showed the organizations' effectiveness in areas such as community participation, empowerment, literacy, community schools, reproductive health and early childhood education.

NGOs also made valuable contributions to the Dakar Framework for Action, and representatives at the Forum committed themselves to 'ensure the engagement and participation of civil society in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of strategies for educational development'.

Examples of civil society action in different countries

Examples abound of ways in which civil society organizations have made the type of contributions to EFA described above. In Zambia, for example the People's Action Forum (PAF), a rural-based NGO, worked with other organizations to disseminate information about Dakar outcomes to other partners and the public. It also played a leading role in creating the CSO Zambia National Education Coalition. In the Philippines, Education Network (E-Net) has been set up to solve the glaring lack of participation in EFA of parents, communities and civil society organizations. It has formed a 'grand alliance' with partner organizations seeking to contribute to government plans.

Now that civil society has been recognized as a key asset for achievement of EFA, and its participation in policy forming is written into the Dakar Framework for Action, there is a need to ensure that such alliances can become reality at country level. In some countries, the scope for CSOs to engage fully in EFA may be very limited, and authorities need encouragement to develop more democratic and open political processes. Systems are needed to establish principles about who is qualified to represent whom in dialogue between civil society and government, and how the role of civil society fits in with existing electoral and democratic structures.

Civil society networks
Civil society networks at regional and national levels have been strengthened and new ones created. In July 2001, the annual meeting of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on EFA met in Bangkok, where about 100 representatives from all over the world agreed to set up a new partnership mechanism for EFA to improve dialogue, joint reflection, research, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation. The meeting debated ways of involving and widening consultation with civil society.

Regional and national civil society networks have been created or strengthened, with international NGOs such as Action Aid supporting their development. The African Network Campaign and the Asia South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education are examples of organizations expanding NGO/CSO capacity.

The Global Campaign for Education
In October 1999, a broad coalition of development NGOs and teachers' unions joined forces to launch the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). The coalition represents organizations active in over one hundred countries, including Oxfam International, Education International and the Global March Against Child Labour, Action Aid and dozens of national NGO coalitions in developing countries.

The Global Campaign for Education promotes education as a basic human right, mobilizes public pressure on governments and the international community to fulfil their promises to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people, especially for children, women and 'all disadvantaged, deprived sections of society'.

Since Dakar, this grouping has led the call of civil society for greater resources for EFA by continuing to lobby UNESCO and other agencies in behalf of this goal. A meeting in Delhi in February 2000 brought together about 150 participants who voiced strong concern over the slowness of international action to release new resources and to take new initiatives to move the implementation of the Dakar Framework forward. It also called for UNESCO to move faster on ensuring the development of EFA national plans.

Networks at the regional level
International NGOs such as Action Aid have made it a priority to support the development of civil society networks. Regional networks such as the African Network Campaign on EFA have been established with the aim of building civil society and NGO capacity as well as monitoring EFA implementation. In Asia, the long-established Asia South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education has extended its network since Dakar. Latin American networks have also developed further. In all regions, thematically specific networking among CSOs and NGOs has increased.

Networks at the national level
CSO and NGO networks on behalf of EFA have sprung up in twenty-four countries in Africa. Existing national networks in Asia and the Pacific have developed a higher profile - with Bangladesh, the Philippines and Fiji as prominent examples.
These developments at the national and regional levels are significant for two reasons. First, co-ordination and co-operation between NGOs have not been at the top of the civil society agenda in the past. Second, particularly in Africa, the NGO sector has in many countries been significantly strengthened, both in scope and confidence, through this post-Dakar networking. These new and stronger networks will give civil society a clearer and more recognizable profile and will enable the expression of joint civil society positions.