Campaign Activities & Initiatives

PAST ADVOCACY, ACTIVITIES & INITIATIVES

EYC has been undertaking campaigns around EFA goals in Kenya for the past ten years, since 1999 and seeks to use the experience it has accumulated to inform this strategy and renew its efforts towards 2015. Here we outline some selected examples of our past experience:
Increased Civil Society Participation; - through members, outposts and thematic networks EYC has succeeded in grass-rooting the EFA campaign in Kenya over the past 7 years. We have worked to increase civil society involvement in the EFA processes at national and regional levels. This was evidenced in our participation in the National Education Conference of 2003. We have also done a number capacity building around EFA for media and civil society.

The Planning Process for EFA in Kenya; - we have been part of the EFA planning process since the year 2000. As a result we have played lead roles in producing two Ministry of Education publications - the EFA hand book of 2000 and EFA plan 2003 to 2015.

Part of the MDGs Campaigns; - EYC has been part and parcel of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and local civil society efforts around MDGs.
Campaigns to Secure Basic Education as a Constitutional Right; EYC spearheaded the campigns leading to the declaration of FPE and subsequent abolition of user fees by the NARC administration in the year 2003. We also took effective part in the constitutional reform process including the Bomas Conference of 2002-2003.

Policy dialogue and Influencing; - we have worked very closely with Directorates of Policy and Planning at MoE, Basic Education, Quality Assurance and Adult Education as well as the EFA Unit. We have also worked with Parliamentary Committee on Education. We will exploit these relationships in this new project. We have been part of all the major policy, legislative and curriculum reforms in Kenya including the Eddah Gachukia taskforce on FSE, the Kamunge commission on Education Act among others.

Capacity for Tracking Education Budgets; - one of the EYC’s niche areas is in Budget Tracking where we have done research, tracked expenditure in several districts, build capacity of CSOs and develop publications – Budget tracking tools in English and Kiswahili.

Budget; Through member organizations, EYC undertakes annul review and analysis of the Education Sector Budget and disseminates the outcome in the form of budget review papers. Further, member organizations are encouraged to take part in the National budget process both at grass root levels and national level. Annually, the coalition also participates in the budget sectoral hearings. Plans are underway to begin developing annual citizens’ report card on budgetary allocations and expenditure in Kenya with focus on Education sector.
Working with Teachers; - We work very closely with the two main teacher unions KUPPET and KNUT as well as other associations like KSSHA. These networks will be brought to bear here as well.

The Report Card on EFA in Kenya; - Despite committing themselves to both the Dakar EFA goals and the MDGs, most countries in the region are seriously off-track to achieve them by 2015. For example according to the 2006 Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO, both Kenya and Tanzania are rated as standing a “low chance” of achieving the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Sudan are off track.

GWA on EFA: EYC participates in the Global Action Week on Education for all marked during the end of April every year. Through the regional outposts, the coalition mobilizes stakeholders in every province to take stock of achievements and challenges on EFA at various levels while at the same time present petitions to the government, political leaders and other policy makers in the country.
ILD Process; Every year, in collaboration with the department of adult Education, the coalition participates in the International Literacy Day Celebrations held on 8th September every year. This is usually preceded with various activities such as public lectures, public forums, media related activities such as press briefings and press conference.

Elections cycle; Since 2002, the collation plays a key role in voter mobilization and participation in the general elections in Kenya. The coalition played a key role during the 2007 general elections by providing useful information to the citizenry to make informed choices while electing new political leaders. EYC developed the Education Sector’s manifesto which appealed to the citizenry to elect leaders who could pledge and commit reforms in the education sector together with increased budgetary allocation. Currently the coalition is following up on commitments made by the leaders already in the grand coalition government.

Special Campaigns
Other efforts have revolved around increasing civil society participation in policy processes; involvement in the planning process for EFA in Kenya; campaigning to secure basic education as a constitutional right; policy dialogue and influencing work; tracking education sector budgets; and preparing annual report cards on EFA in Kenya. On these some specific examples include:

2000/2001- EYC was part of the civil society groups which successfully advocated for ratification of the Children’s Act 2001, which provides for the right to basic education for all Kenyan children and re affirms that guaranteeing this right is the primary responsibility of the Government.

2002/2003 – EYC was part of the advocacy groups which lobbied political parties before 2002 general elections to have free primary education in their manifestoes. As a result the then NARC government was convinced and declared FPE in January 2003.

2003 – EYC played a lead and key role in the National Conference on Education and Training. Our roles here ranged from being in the planning committee, mobilizing civil society participation, convening thematic workshops and presenting papers calling for specific reforms in education sector.

2003-2004 – EYC was a member of the Edah Gachukia Taskforce on FPE which produced guidelines to streamline the implementation of FPE.

2005 - As a result of 2003 Conference and follow up engagement with MoE and Parliamentary Committee on education by EYC and other players, the Sessional Paper no 1 of 2005 (now taken as the national education policy for Kenya) was passed by Parliament.

2005/06 – EYC working with others like GCN pushed for gender in education policy now in place.

2006/07 – EYC was a member of the Kamunge Task force reviewing the Education Act. The Draft produced by the Taskforce is yet to be presented to Parliament by MoE.

EYC has been making budget presentations each year to both MoF and MoE through budget committees and sector hearings. In some occasions, these engagements have influenced budget allocations for Education sector.

2008/09 –EYC had serious engagement with Parliamentary Committee on Education on the causes and possible solutions to the Secondary Schools unrest. This led a submission of a position paper to the Koech led House Committee on Education;

Each year, EYC has been leading the GWA activities in April; been part of annual literacy campaigns through ILD events and been spearheading DAC activities in June related to education and teachers day every October.

2008 –Successfully hosted CONFINTEA VI Africa Civil Society Preparatory Summit of November 3rd - 4th, in preparation for CONFITEA VI in Nairobi November 5th - 7th.

2008/09 – EYC has been a lead player in Education Cluster for Emergency response Committee led by UNICEF and MoE.
2010 –EYC participated the drafting of the new constitution that resulted in embedding the right to free basic and compulsory education in the new constitution. EYC also organised CSO conference that brought together all the major stakeholders in Education in the country.