The Power of Women’s and Girls’
Voices for Education Policy Change
Part I: Lessons from Collective Global
Advocacy
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Today’s Event
WE’LL COVER:
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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, NonGovernmental 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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If all students in developing countries left school with basic reading skills, 171
million people could be lifted out of poverty
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On average, every additional year of school increases a girl’s earnings by 10-20
percent.
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If all women completed primary school, there would be 66 percent fewer
maternal deaths, saving 189,000 lives per year.
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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 2015.
 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 2015-2030. 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 antipoverty 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:
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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
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Individualized phone and email coaching to prepare advocates to engage at high-level
meetings and consultations.
 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
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Resources and tools like fact sheets, strategic advice, guidelines, and tip sheets to
improve organizations’ advocacy.
 TRAINING
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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:
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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 SubSaharan Africa?
Visit www.fawe.org to learn more
STAY CONNECTED
NOEL SCHROEDER
nschroeder@womenthrive.org
HENDRINA DOROBA
hdoroba@fawe.org