Building Momentum for Improving Learning Outcomes in East Africa: The RELI Africa Journey and Approach

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

Proposal

The Regional Education Learning Initiative Africa (RELI Africa) has embraced the success and positive outcomes that come with the strategic collaboration that is at the heart of the network and overseeing accountability, inclusiveness, and effectiveness of joint interventions for the benefit of each child that has been left behind by our education systems in the east African region. Since inception, RELI Africa has cast itself as a member-led, informal and bottom-up space that is made up of a range of organisations with diversity of skills and expertise but committed for the betterment of access to education for the children furthest left behind. The uniqueness of RELI is therefore a lean secretariat that is purely facilitative while members drive over 90% of the work of the network.

As a large network of 70+ organisations, RELI Africa has strategically poised itself to utilise evidence to influence policy across a range of issues informed by collectively generated evidence. Collaborative initiatives provide a space for advocacy work at a local, national, regional, and global level. Collaborative evidence generation and knowledge management has been a key collaborative strength and we cannot understate that a network is better placed to influence policy than an individual organisation. RELI Africa has learnt five key lessons on the power of catalysing Collaboration among civil society organisations:

i. There is Value in collaboration: RELI Africa as a network has helped organisations to achieve collective impact that they could not have achieved alone. We have Learnt that system-wide change requires multi-level and multi-sector engagements, and collaboration is at the heart of sustainable impact.
ii. Documentation and Showing Impact: Working to strengthen the ability to collectively document and report on the impacts of our work, not only for donor accountability, but also to influence learning as well as position RELI Africa as a thought leader in Education in Kenya and the East African region. This has been key in ensuring we continuously learn from our experiences.
iii. Evidence Generation and Utilisation: As a network, documenting impact and achievements but also learning is very important for our growth and development but also for showcasing impact of our collaborative efforts. Furthermore, to influence policy effectively evidence-based advocacy is critical yet lacking. Generation of evidence of what is working and what is not and monitoring new developments in the field of education to bridge a persistent lack of reliable evidence.
iv. Advocacy: Change in Government and ongoing reforms in the education Sector presents more space for RELI to engage with the Ministry of Education and to showcase how and what it will be focusing on to ensure inclusive learning for all children.
v. Inter-organizational collaboration has grown credibility as a primary global strategy for addressing social, economic, political, and other forms of developmental concerns. As the complexity of education reforms increases, that even a large actor cannot solve alone, the need for collaboration becomes more urgent and building partnership models which are long lasting, scalable, and transformative, and which create shared value is therefore key.

Author

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