By funding activities that strengthen transparency, accountability and civil society participation in decision making, Education Out Loud supports stronger civic engagement to transform education systems in GPE partner countries.
Type of activities supported
Education Out Loud funds activities in five key areas:
- Policy dialogue: Participation of civil society in education planning, policy dialogue and monitoring processes
- Public engagement: Social mobilization, communications and campaigns supporting education
- Data and transparency: Development of tools for accountability and tracking of public education budgets and program implementation
- Analysis: Research on education challenges and policy implementation
- Strengthening civic capacity: Capacity development and peer learning.
Components and grants
Implemented by Oxfam Denmark and financed by GPE, Education Out Loud is the biggest fund in the world for education advocacy with an allocation of US$133 million. Through three operational components and a learning agenda, Education Out Loud has provided more than 70 grants in 60 countries.
Component 1: Strengthen national education coalitions engagement in policy dialogue
Grant size: US$100,000 to US$300,000 over 2 years.
This component builds on the Civil Society Education Fund to support 52 national education coalitions. These grants aim to strengthen national civil society engagement in education planning, policy dialogue and monitoring.
Component 2: Increase national social accountability and transparency
Grant size: US$450,000 to US$1.2 million over 2 to 3 years.
This component supports national organizations to undertake social accountability and transparency initiatives. These grants aim to strengthen national civil society roles in promoting transparency and accountability of national education sector policy and implementation.
Component 3: Mobilize transnational advocacy alliances
Grant size: US$450,000 to US$1.2 million over 2 to 3 years.
This component supports global, regional or multi-country advocacy alliances, working with national civil society actors in GPE partner countries. The component seeks to create a stronger transnational enabling environment for national civil society advocacy and transparency efforts.
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Education Out Loud has concluded four calls for proposals launched in 2019 and 2020. By the end of this process, it had received a record number of high-quality proposals from civic organizations around the world, yet Education Out Loud will only be able to support 42% of the proposals received.
Education Out Loud is engaging with partners for strategic collaborations including co-financing education accountability efforts in GPE partner countries.
In September 2021, GPE approved an additional US$17.3 million to support national civil society coalitions’ education advocacy and social accountability work for two additional years.
Learning agenda
Education Out Loud emphasizes learning and capacity development of its grantees by dedicating 15% of its total allocation in helping them to enhance their institutional and advocacy effectiveness through collaborative learning in financing sustainability, adaptative management and monitoring and evaluation.
Year Zero: A 3-6 month preparation process, during which shortlisted applicants analyze their context, build skills, and develop strategies for monitoring, evaluation and learning before starting implementation. During this time, civil society organizations develop a full implementation proposal with support from Education Out Loud regional teams. 67 applicants have participated or are participating in year zero.
Ongoing learning support: Education Out Loud grantees selected for implementation benefit from continuous learning opportunities through webinars and community of practice. Each grantee has a learning plan to guide the capacity support and learning opportunities over the lifetime of the grant. The learning goals are established by grantees themselves at the start of the grant and are supported by global and regional learning partners – organizations with expertise, training approaches and mentoring skills.
For more information on Education Out Loud, contact: @email; Visit educationoutloud.org and subscribe to the Education Out Loud newsletter
The Civil Society Education Fund
From 2009 to 2019, GPE supported the advocacy activities of national and regional civil society education coalitions in lower-income countries through the CSEF, managed by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), UNESCO and the World Bank.
Over these years, the CSEF gave grants to coalitions in 62 countries, representing a total investment of US$75.4 million. The grants supported coalitions’ strengthened capacities, cross-country learning and networking, alongside advocacy activities.
The experience of the CSEF and feedback from partners were instrumental in the design and creation of Education Out Loud.
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