Real World Strategies

The Real World Strategies programme is organized and coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) with its regional partners, the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (in Latin America), ASPBAE (in the Asia Pacific) and ANCEFA (in Africa) to provide structured facilitation and capacity-building support to Southern civil society groups wishing to improve the focus, coherence and creativity of their advocacy efforts to increase impact at the national level and get countries on track in achieving all the EFA goals and targets.

It is also envisaged to further strengthen the momentum of coordinated sub-regional/regional and global advocacy campaign action - so that these efforts mutually inform and reinforce each other for greater effectiveness and impact. The RWS programme deliberately adopts a context-based, demand-driven approach, where 'capacity-building' support was located squarely within the "real world" campaign and advocacy strategies of Southern civil society groups and coalitions in the different countries covered by the programme.

The RWS programme has initiated its second phase in 2006, now with the incorportation of the Latin American region, which did not participate in the first phase. Efforts in this second phase will carry on up to 2010. With the continuation and expansion of the RWS programme, more specialised, participatory and skills-oriented trainings can be sustained, sucha s on coalition-building, campaign organising, media relations, policy tracking, advocacy and deeper understanding of the range of EFA policy issues.

RWS Final Objective is to contribute to achieve policy change at the global, regional and national levels so as to foster progress towards achieveing Education for All over the next five years.

RWS specific objectives include:

• To strengthen and deepen the work of existing education civil society coalitions such that they are able to mobilise public demand and concern for free quality Education For All
  
  
• To build further education coalitions in countries and regions where none exist
  
  
• To align the work of education coalitions with other networks, coalitions and movements
  
  
• To deliver timebound, coherent national and regional advocacy strategies
  
  
• To contribute to the delivery of effective global advocacy work by GCE, ensuring consistency, coherence and cross-fertilisation between national advocacy plans and regional/global strategies
  
  
• To build broad-based movements with other interest groups, linking education interests with others working on public sector service delivery, aid, debt and children's issues
  
  
• To bring about specific policy changes at global, regional and national level
  
  

We hope to achieve these results carrying out actvivites based on the following approaches:

• Reaffirming the "real world" approach in national level capacity-building for scaled-up and expanded campaign action for policy change
  
  
• Regional / sub-regional coordinated campaigns
  
  
• Strengthening alliances and expanding constituencies
  
  
• Strengthening inter-regional and international collaboration for campaigns
  
  
• Building sustainable national coalitions
  
  
• Coordination structures and resource requirements
  
  

RWS hopes, in this way, to build a truly impactful global civil society activism on Education For All.