Catalysing Collaboration among civil society organisations to leverage resources and influence to achieve quality learning for the furthest left behind.

• In Event: Building a social movement to enable local voice for education transformation in Africa. Lessons from a Regional Education Network.

Proposal

Education should be a levelling factor and every child should be offered quality education, without which it loses its level factor and can further divide and exacerbate the extremes of rich and poor. This is because the rich can afford better quality education than those who are poor. Therefore, there needs to be a social justice-driven focus on education. The rally call has always been to improve the quality of learning for children behind the thematic groups, equality and inclusion, learner-centred teaching and values. The rallying call of ensuring that all children have quality education is a social justice call.

With the widespread recognition of the necessity of collaboration in addressing complex issues, one can find a diverse array of civil society networks of varying shapes and sizes in the education ecosystem. Due to the uniqueness of each network and their evolution, attempting to replicate any one network fails to appreciate how each network emerges out of a specific moment in time, a unique convergence of factors. Each network’s formation tells a story about the why, the who, and the how—a testament to the trials and tribulations of collaboration and competition in education.

For many children who still do not have access to education, it is notably because of persisting inequality and marginalisation. The interventions carried out by RELI aim to ensure that all children, including girls, children in difficult circumstances, and those from marginalised/vulnerable groups, access equitable and quality education, and training. To contribute towards this, RELI continuously conducts research to generate evidence of what is working and what is not working and to monitor new developments in the field of education. The network has invested in a knowledge hub that synthesises information to inform its interventions.

Core to RELI Africa’s vision for change since its beginning has been a belief that its members are more effective and influential changemakers when empowered with clear, useful data from their programs and the capacity to apply it. This presentation will walk through the RELI Africa Theory of Change linking stronger Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning processes to organisational transformation and policy influence. Particularly, this presentation will discuss the orientation, components, and foci of the RELI Africa network, examining its differences from other networks in education and how these differences support RELI’s efficacy at contributing to educational change and influence in East Africa.

This year, the annual conference is themed on the power of protest. This theme provided RELI with an amazing opportunity to showcase the idea of RELI to the world and demonstrate the power of collaboration and its potential of realising access to learning for the children most left behind. This paper will discuss the idea of an East African Regional Network of education focused organisations, its goals, vision, and potential of realising access to learning for the children most left behind.

Authors

• Deborah Kimathi, DIGNITAS LIMITED

• Margaret Wawira, Regional Education Learning Initiative Africa (RELI)

• Nganga Kibandi, DIGNITAS LIMITED