Meeting development goals: evidence from the Civil Society Education Fund

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the Civil Society Education Fund has supported national education civil society coalitions (NECs) in low-income countries so that they put pressure on governments and donors to implement the Education for All agenda and the Millennium Development Goal on education. This article draws on literature on global governance as well as on an extensive evaluation of the CSEF to explore the actual contribution of this initiative to the activity of NECs. The article highlights the achievements and shortcomings of the CSEF and includes a set of practical recommendations on the role of global civil society in international development processes.

Ces dernières années, le Fonds de la société civile pour l'éducation (FSCE) a soutenu les coalitions nationales de la société civile pour l'éducation (CNE) dans les pays à faibles revenus, afin qu'elles fassent pression sur les gouvernements et les donateurs pour qu'ils mettent en œuvre l'initiative Éducation pour tous et l'objectif du millénaire pour le développement concernant l'éducation. Cet article utilise la littérature sur la gouvernance globale, de même qu'une évaluation approfondie du FSCE pour examiner la contribution réelle de cette initiative à l'activité des CNE. Il met l'accent sur les réalisations et les défauts du FSCE et propose un ensemble de recommandations pratiques en rapport avec le rôle de la société civile mondiale sur les processus de développement international.

Durante los últimos años, el Fondo de la Sociedad Civil para la Educación (fsce) ha otorgado apoyos en varios países de bajos ingresos; los mismos son destinados a las coaliciones de la sociedad civil para la educación nacional (cen) y su propósito es que estas presionen a gobiernos y donantes para que implementen la agenda “Educación para todos” y el Objetivo de Desarrollo del Milenio concerniente a la educación. Partiendo de la literatura existente sobre gobernanza global y de una profunda evaluación del fsce, el presente artículo examina la contribución real que significa esta iniciativa en términos de la actividad emprendida por las cen. Asimismo, da cuenta de los logros y las fallas del fsce, formulando una serie de recomendaciones prácticas relativas al rol desempeñado por la sociedad civil mundial y a los procesos de desarrollo a nivel internacional.

KEYWORDS:

• Social sector – Education
• Governance and public policy
• Aid – Monitoring and Evaluation
• Civil society

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Xavier Rambla is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has led research projects on Education for All in Latin America (2009–11), and on education and anti-poverty policies in the Southern Cone (2006–08). He has also collaborated in projects on education and social cohesion in Europe (2003–05), and critical co-educational action research in several regions in Spain (1995–2000).

Antoni Verger is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research analyses the relationship between global governance institutions and education policy. He has specialised in public–private partnerships, quasi-market mechanisms, and accountability policies in education. Currently, Dr Verger coordinates the European research project “Reforming Schools Globally: A Multiscalar Analysis of Autonomy and Accountability Policies in the Education Sector” (ERC StG, 2016–21).

D. Brent Edwards Jr is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii. His work focuses on the global governance of education; on education policy, politics and political economy; and on critical engagement with and democratic alternatives to dominant education models.

Clara Fontdevila is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, with a thesis project on the settlement of the post-2015 global education agenda through network analysis. Her research interests include private-sector engagement in education policy, education and international development, and the global governance of education. She previously collaborated on the evaluation of the Civil Society Education Fund.

Xavier Bonal is Special Professor in Education and International Development at the University of Amsterdam and Associate Professor in Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He has developed competitive research in education policy, educational inequalities, education and development and the right to education, and was a member of the Network of Experts of Social Sciences and Education (NESSE) (2006–10) of the European Commission.

Notes

1 Similar funds in the 2000–15 period were the Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF), funded by the British government, or the Real World Strategies, funded by the Dutch government.

2 For full details, please contact the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Global Partnership for Education: [Grant Number TF094688].