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Programmes |
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| National Civil Society Coalition for EFA in SENEGAL |
An experiment in building a Civil Society Coalition for EFA in SENEGAL
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Official opening ceremony at the meeting of NGO's and CSO's working in the field of education in Senegal (UNESCO/BREDA Dakar, 12-14 April, 2001)
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A regional seminar on input strategies for Non governmental organizations (NGO's) and Civil society organizations (CSO's) to the realization of EFA goals was organized by UNESCO and the World Bank in collaboration with the collective consultation of NGO's on literacy and Education For All (EFA) and the ADEA group working on non formal education. During this workshop, which was held in Bamako from November 29th to December 2nd 2000, firm commitments were made by NGO and CSO representatives for Sub-saharan Africa and by UNESCO. Indeed, NGO's and CSO's have committed to building strong national civil society coalitions, in the broad sense of the term, in their respective countries and they are to do so before the end of May 2001. In Senegal, the ANCEFA (African Network Campain on Education For All) and UNESCO have decided to launch a national civil society coalition active in the field of education by following a four-stage process:
1- The setting up by ANCEFA of an initiative committee gathering the 3 main gatherings of Senegalese NGO's, which are:
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The Council of Non-Governmental Organizations in Support of Development (CONGAD)
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The Concertation Table for Operators in the field of education
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The National Co-ordination of Operators in the field of Literacy in Senegal (CNOAS)
The role of this committee is to collect and validate the terms of reference of the meeting submitted by the ANCEFA in collaboration with UNESCO-BREDA.
2- The setting up of a committee for the preparation of the meeting, which would gather the civil society organizations that are active in the field of education, such as:
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The Parents Federations
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The Teachers Unions
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The religious organizations
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The women's organizations
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The National Youth Council
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The Retired Teachers' Association
This committee should carry out a second validation of the terms of reference and approve the national coalition project.
3- The setting up of a planning committee that would include members of the initiative committee and resource people chosen amongst the representatives of the organizations belonging to the preparatory committee.
The mandate of this committee is to prepare the meeting in terms of its implied objectives and its implementation strategies.
4- The holding of the meeting of NGO's and CSO's active in the field of education (UNESCO/BREDA Dakar, 12-14 April, 2001), during which member organizations are expected to determine the goal, missions, priority short-term actions (2001-2002) and guiding strategies of the coalition. An initiative committee of NGO and CSO representatives was made up and its mandate is as follows:
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To spread the declaration and the general report of the meeting amongst the State, the donors and the national and international EFA partners.
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To approach the ministries in order to obtain information on governmental options relative to the holding of forums for the validation of the EFA National Action Plan.
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To represent the civil society national coalition thus constituted at all meetings initiated by the government and donors regarding the follow-up to the Dakar Framework of Action
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To vehicle the speeches and the message contained in the declaration of the Coalition at all national decision-making instances on EFA.
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To provide mediation for the teachers unions, some of which are not yet quite ready to take part in the dynamics of creating a network between national civil society coalitions launched at sub-regional and continental level by the ANCEFA, in collaboration with other transversal platforms such as ELIMU (Anglophone Network of African National Coalitions) and EHUZU (Francophone Network of African National Coalitions).
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To prepare the General Assembly of the coalition, which will elect the members of the guiding structure and those of the thematic groups in charge of organizing the debates around the goals and strategies of the Dakar Framework of Action.
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