The Power of Women’s and Girls’ Voices for Education Policy Change Part I: Lessons from Collective Global Advocacy WELCOME! WE WILL GET STARTED IN JUST A FEW MOMENTS

Today’s Event WE’LL COVER: WHO ARE WOMEN THRIVE WORLDWIDE AND FAWE THE GLOBAL EDUCATION CRISIS THE UNITED NATIONS & EDUCATION CHALLENGES IN COLLECTIVE ADVOCACY CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EDUCATION ADVOCACY SUCCESSFUL ADVOCACY STRATEGIES

About Women Thrive Worldwide More than 1 billion women and girls live in poverty worldwide. Women Thrive is a leading voice for global women’s rights. We work to empower grassroots women so their perspectives and solutions shape local, national, and global policies to help women break free from poverty, violence, and inequality.

About Women Thrive Worldwide Alliance for Women’s Solutions Women Thrive’s Alliance for Women’s Solutions is a network of local women’s groups and civil society organizations in developing countries committed to promoting women’s solutions in development policies and programs. Change Champions Women Thrive’s Change Champions program provides Alliance members across the world support from everyday activists in the United States and elsewhere to help move forward programs and policies that impact the lives of women and girls. Coalitions for Equitable Development Women Thrive’s Coalitions program leverages powerful coalitions to ensure women’s empowerment is central to international development policies and programs.

About FAWE The Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a pan-African Non-Governmental Organisation working in 33 African countries to empower girls and women through gender-responsive education. We believe that through education of women and girls, livelihoods are improved for entire communities and civic education and liberties are enhanced. Educated girls become educated women who have the knowledge, skills and opportunity to play a role in governance and democratic processes and to influence the direction of their societies.

About FAWE FAWE works hand-in-hand with communities, schools, civil society, Non- Governmental Organisations and ministries to achieve gender equity and equality in education through targeted programmes. We encourage our partners to enact policies and provide positive learning environments that treat girls and boys equally. Our work influences government policy, builds public awareness, demonstrates best educational practice through effective models, and encourages the adoption of these models by governments and institutions of education. This has led to increased rates of girls’ enrollment, retention and completion of school in countries in which our National Chapters operate. Through our work, girls and women across sub-Saharan Africa have the chance to attend school and overcome material deprivation and social and political exclusion.

The Global Education Crisis "In some parts of the world, students are going to school every day. It's their normal life. But in other parts of the world, we are starving for education... it's like a precious gift. It's like a diamond…" MALALA YOUSAFZAI

The Global Education Crisis THE PROBLEM: 175 million young people living in developing countries are unable to read part or all of a sentence—61 percent of them are young women. The number of young people out-of-school has actually gone up in recent years—124 million children and young adolescents have either never started school or have dropped out. Because of global efforts, more children have the chance to go to school than ever before, but they face real problems in getting a quality education and learning. These include too few school resources, overcrowded classrooms, little teacher training, and persistent social barriers.

The Global Education Crisis EDUCATED GIRLS & WOMEN CHANGE THE WORLD.  If all students in developing countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty  On average, every additional year of school increases a girl’s earnings by percent.  If all women completed primary school, there would be 66 percent fewer maternal deaths, saving 189,000 lives per year.  The number of girls married by age 15 would fall 14 percent if all girls completed primary school in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia. If they completed secondary education, 64 percent fewer girls would be child brides.

The United Nations and Education THE MILENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS  In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration.  They committed to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set a series of time-bound targets that became known as the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.  The deadline of these eight targets – which range from reducing extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education – is December  Much progress has been made around the world on achieving these goals, but there is still work to be done to alleviate poverty through a framework of sustainable development. A new global development framework will now replace the MDGs.

The United Nations and Education THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS  The United Nations members states adopted the sustainable development agenda, commonly called the Global Goals, and targets for The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) cover issues including peace, health, climate, and education.  Right now is an important opportunity for education advocates to make their voices heard and influence development policies and funding over the next 15 years. The Global Goals influence what issues governments, development organizations, and donors will focus on and where money will be spent. They also bring the world’s most pressing development concerns to the global public’s attention.  Getting involved in publicizing and implementing the goals can help focus attention, political will, and funding to your priorities around goal 4 on quality education.

The United Nations and Education THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: the world’s largest anti- poverty effort ever after the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations formally adopted the Goals in September.

The United Nations and Education SDG 4 QUALITY EDUCATION Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

The United Nations and Education HOW GOAL 4 WAS WON  Women Thrive and partners like FAWE advocated together for a strong goal on quality learning, by:  Meeting with key decision-makers from the United Nations, U.S. government, African governments, the African Union, and others;  Sharing policy papers with evidence-based advocacy messages;  Attending high-level local, national, regional, and global conferences and participating in consultations; and  Demonstrating widespread grassroots global support for an agenda that focused on both access and learning.  Together, we ensured that the goals were more relevant to the needs and priorities of women and girls living in poverty by making sure that the voices of Global South civil society were heard and heeded in the development of the global goals.

Challenges in Collective Advocacy  The Millennium Development Goals were primarily set by leaders from developed countries. It is often difficult for advocates from developing countries to get information on and participate in global decision-making.  Working collectively (or in coalition) across countries is challenging, as is sharing knowledge between developing countries.  The political environment (and the ability of civil society to operate and influence decision-making) varies from country to country.

Capacity Building for Education Advocacy  To address these challenges, Women Thrive and FAWE worked together to ensure that advocates from across Sub-Saharan Africa had access to information and opportunities to participation in setting the sustainable development goals and the skills necessary to successfully engage.  COACHING  Individualized phone and coaching to prepare advocates to engage at high-level meetings and consultations.  TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE  Resources and tools like fact sheets, strategic advice, guidelines, and tip sheets to improve organizations’ advocacy.  TRAINING  In-person workshops with activities to build advocacy capacity and develop strong collective advocacy campaigns.

Capacity Building for Education Advocacy TRAINING  Raise Your Voice is Women Thrive’s multi-phase advocacy capacity strengthening and engagement program. The program combines best practices in gender mainstreaming and inclusive and participatory advocacy campaign development. It equips women, men and young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to create effective advocacy messages and campaigns that raise their collective voices to decision-makers.

Capacity Building for Education Advocacy TRAINING  Women Thrive and FAWE collaborated on three advocacy capacity building workshops in 2014 and 2015 to develop the skills of FAWE staff and alumni to advocate collectively.  2014: 50 adults: Focus on ‘training of trainers’, networking, and development of regional advocacy plans  2015: 37 youth: Focus on exploring issues of gender inequality in education, mentorship, networking, and development of localized advocacy activities.  As a result of these trainings, participants have developed a greater understanding of advocacy for gender equality, education, and the sustainable development agenda. All participants reported improving their advocacy skills and committing to carrying out new advocacy activities.

Successful Advocacy Strategies  Targeted coaching, technical assistance, and training allowed FAWE to maximize its advocacy capacity.  By utilizing three advocacy strategies – collective voice and action, evidence-based policy briefs, and strategic engagement with decision-makers – FAWE and Women Thrive ensure that education was taken up as a priority in the sustainable development agenda, and ultimately a strong stand-alone goal on equitable, inclusive, quality education was adopted.

Successful Advocacy Strategies COLLECTIVE VOICE AND ACTION  Women Thrive helped FAWE’s national chapters better collaborate to share learning and advocate collectively, and aided FAWE in connecting with other civil society organizations in and outside of Sub-Saharan Africa.  This South-South networking lead to greater knowledge sharing and a stronger advocacy voice for equitable learning. It also raised the visibility and credibility of organizations in the eyes of the public and decision-makers.  A strong advocacy movement – aided by everyday activists around the world – ensured that education was taken up as a priority in the sustainable development agenda.

Successful Advocacy Strategies EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY BRIEFS  2013: Women Thrive collaborated with FAWE and other partners in developing countries and the United States on the Equitable Learning for All in the Post-2015 Development Agenda paper.  2014: Women Thrive collaborated with FAWE and other partners in developing countries and the United States on a brief to the UN’s Open Working Group (OWG).  2015: Women Thrive collaborated with FAWE and ANCEFA on Civil Society Recommendations for the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Ministerial Conference on Education Post-2015 and Education Priorities for the Post-2015 Summit

Successful Advocacy Strategies STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT WITH DECISION-MAKERS  Women Thrive and FAWE collaborated to engage with decision-makers at high-level meetings and events, including:  2013: UNESCO High-level consultation on education, Dakar, Senegal  2013: Meetings with USAID and the World Bank, Washington, DC, USA  2014: Day of the African Child meetings at the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  2014: UN General Assembly, New York City, USA  2015: Sub-Saharan Africa Ministerial Conference on Education Post-2015, Kigali, Rwanda  2015: World Education Forum, Incheon, Korea  2015: UN General Assembly, New York City, USA  At these events, advocates spoke directly with decision-makers to share their priorities and persuade decision-makers to adopt a strong sustainable development goal on equitable learning.

Get Connected Does your organization work to advance women’s rights in a developing country? Join Women Thrive’s Alliance for Women’s Solutions Are you an individual who wants to advance the worldwide women’s rights movement? Join Women Thrive’s Change Champions program Do you want to support girls’ education and opportunities across Sub- Saharan Africa? Visit to learn morewww.fawe.org

STAY CONNECTED NOEL SCHROEDER HENDRINA DOROBA