Student Toolkit for Advocacy

Global Campaign for Education US
Student Toolkit for Advocacy
171 million
people
could be lifted out of poverty if all
students in low-income countries left
school with basic reading skills. This is
equivalent to a 12 percent drop
in the number of people living on less
than $1.25 a day.
That is the combined populations of:

Australia

Cambodia

Canada

Columbia

Netherlands

Tunisia
and

Uganda
Design/Layout:
Manu Badlani, By-line
Why?
You
Why you? Because youth have been the voice of important change for decades across countries and
continents. Students, throughout the world, have consistently demonstrated the capacity to use their
voices to create change. Youth are uniquely positioned to advocate for greater access to education and
improvements in school quality because you recognize and understand the power of education to open
doors leading to greater economic, social, and psychological well-being.
This advocacy toolkit provides students with models of how they can act to promote access to quality
education for children around the world. The kit also identifies ways for students to join the Global
Campaign for Education-US and to call on the US government to make quality education for children around
the world a key international development priority.
This Issue
Why this issue? The impact of education reverberates
at the core of each international development barrier
that hinders our world’s growth and equality across
countries. Access to quality education for both girls
and boys has been shown to increase child and
maternal health, agricultural production and decrease
internal country conflict. Creating a path for success
through education is the best way to ensure that other
development solutions stick and provide long lasting
results.
Fast Facts
Child and Maternal Health
• 195 million children currently experience malnutrition. The largest contributing factor to reducing child
malnutrition has been the education of women.
• In Latin America, children whose mothers have some secondary education remain in school for two to
three more years than children of mothers with less schooling.
• A child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of five.
• In Indonesia, child vaccination rates are 19 percent when mothers have no education; that number
increases to 68 percent when mothers have at least secondary school education.
• 700,000 HIV cases worldwide could be prevented each year if all children received a primary education.
• Child survival rates jump 40 percent if girls are educated for five years.
Economics
• Each additional year of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product by .37 percent.
• In Kenya, if women farmers were given the same level of education as their male partners, their yields for
corn, beans and cowpeas would increase by up to 22 percent.
• One extra year of education increases a person’s wages approximately 10 percent. For girls, the rate of
return for one additional year of primary education is as high as 15 percent.
• Europeans and Americans spend $31 billion a year on ice cream alone. Just half of that ($16 billion) a year
would send all children to school in low income countries.
Conflict
• In conflict-affected low-income countries, 28 million children of primary children are out of school—42
percent of the world total.
• If the 21 developing countries that spend more money on military expenditures than primary education
cut their military expenditures by 10 percent, an additional 9.5 million children could have access to
education.
How?
Current trends will leave 56 million school-aged children still out of school by 2015. We need you to spread
the word and take action. How can you help?
Learn
Today, just over 60 million children around the world do
not have access to basic education and of that 61 million,
almost 50 percent of them are expected to never enroll.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 10 million children drop out
of primary school every year.
Investing in quality education is vital to ensuring success
across all development sectors. Education reduces
world hunger, helps eradicate global poverty, improves
healthcare outcomes, promotes global security, and
advances economic growth. Educated children grow up
to earn higher wages, contribute to stronger economies,
support healthier and more prosperous families, and
create more stable and secure societies.
Ways to learn about the issue:
Contact a professor or organization that focuses on
global education, to learn about their experiences
and projects.
You can also ask the professor or organization to give a
presentation on your campus to raise awareness about
global education. Looking for a list of organizations?
Check out our coalition partners http://www.
campaignforeducationusa.org/coalition-members.
Invite a Peace Corps volunteer to give a presentation.
Through Peace Corps you can participate in a Speaker
Match to bring a returned peace corps volunteer to
speak on their experiences with education in his/her
volunteer country. http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/
speakersmatch/.
Watch a movie about education in developing
nations and screen it on campus.
Several members of our coalition have produced movies
about education such as:
• 10x10
Our partner organization, 10x10, a global campaign to
educate girls, is producing a feature length film telling
the stories of 10 girls in 10 different countries as they
strive for an education. http://10x10act.org/
• The Girl Effect
This great short video uses words to demonstrate the
benefits of girls’ education. This would be great to use
at the beginning of an event. http://www.girleffect.
org/learn/the-big-picture
• To Educate a Girl
This documentary is about the struggle girls face
in accessing a quality education; it has a special
emphasis on the challenges in Nepal and Uganda. For
more information about the film go to http://www.
toeducateagirl.com/ and to watch the film go to www.
viewchange,org/videos/to-educate-a-girl
• A Powerful Noise
This powerful story is about three women — a girls’
education crusader from Mali, an HIV-positive widow
from Vietnam, and a peacemaking survivor of the
war in Bosnia — each of whom overcomes immense
challenges to bring change to their communities. Go
to www.apowerfulnoise.com to find a screening near
you. Also available is a film discussion guide-a great
took if you plan to watch the film as a group.
• Building Hope
Produced by Actor, Director, and Social Activist Turk
Pipkin, this inspiring film chronicles the construction
of Mahiga Hope Academy, a high school in a remote
African community. Proceeds from the film benefit the
Kenya Schools fund, which builds classrooms, libraries,
computer labs, and water systems at rural Kenyan
schools. Go to nobelity.org/building-hope-2011 to
find a film screening near you, or to contact Turk about
hosting a screening on your campus!
• PBS Wide Angle
Time for School Series will be a 12-year look at
education across the globe. Time for School 1 was
released in 2002. Producers returned to schools in 2006
and the latest update took place in 2009. Through
a series of videos, viewers can follow students in
schools across the world and observe how the foreign
student’s education is similar and different from their
own. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/
time-for-school-series/introduction/4340
More Resources:
Viewchange.org has more than 100 videos highlighting
the importance of providing access to quality education
for all.
Educate
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to increase awareness about the important role that the US can play
in promoting education in the poorest countries, because people are most likely to listen to their friends.
You can inspire others to engage in simple acts, both online and around your campus, that will promote US
investments in education at home and abroad.
Online Organizing:
You can also do this with your gchat status!
Online organizing is a great way to reach lots of people
rapidly. It’s also easy for others to send the information
onto more people and therefore reach a wider audience
quickly.
Use Twitter to:
Use Facebook to:
• Like GCE-US
www.facebook.com/campaignforeducationusa
• Make your Status about GCE-US
Here’s some suggestions for status updates:
• Education is a human right with immense power to
transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones
of freedom, democracy, and sustainable human
development – Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General
of the United Nations.
• Over 60 million children don’t have access to basic
education and more than half of them are girls. Check
out www.gce-us.org to find out what you can do to
change this!
• Imagine if you couldn’t go to school and you couldn’t
read my status update. We have the power to give the
gift of education to children. Find out more at www.
gce-us.org
Make sure to keep checking the GCE-US website for
more updates on policies and actions you can promote
through your status!
• Follow GCE-US – @GCE_US
You can tweet a fact about education however often
you’d like. Make sure that you hashtag with #ed4all
#educationforall #educationisahumanright and call
our attention to it with a @GCE_US
Here are some suggestions for tweets:
Did you know that the 50 percent of the 60 million
children not in school will never go? Find out what you
can do to help at http://www.campaignforeducationusa.
org/get-involved #ed4all
Did you know that almost 800 million people are
illiterate? Find out what you can do to help at http://
www.campaignforeducationusa.org/get-involved
#ed4all
Blog about education in developing countries:
Do you have your own blog? Do you want to write about
ways people can change the world? If you answered
yes to either one of these questions, you can use your
existing blog or create a new one to write about global
education.
GCE-US has four info sheets on our website about key
areas that intersect with education, such as food security,
global security, women and girls, and global health. You
can either write one blog post about why education
affects all of these issues or you can write four different
blog posts! Here’s the link to our factsheets: http://www.
campaignforeducationusa.org/news-and-resources/
resources/
E-mail Your Network:
E-mail is a powerful way to spread information (and
one of the fastest ways, too) because virtually everyone
has an e-mail address. In addition, e-mails are easy to
forward onto others, especially people who don’t use
social media but are interested in expanding education
for children in developing countries.
Tips:
1. Keep it short. People often do not read long e-mails
so make it short and powerful. Always close with a
statement that suggests that people contact you for
more information. Also make sure to include the GCEUS website address (www. gce-us.org) in the e-mail so
people can learn more about the campaign.
2. Make it Personal. People respond best to personal
e-mails and stories. Make sure to include why YOU
care about education and why OTHERS should also
care. You can also include a short personal story. Try
and make the issue relevant to people’s lives.
3. Always include an Action people can take. Once you
have people’s attention you have to give them a way
to do something about the issue you are telling them
about. Try to keep the first action people take simple.
Ask people to tell you if they took the action and if
they’d be interested in taking more actions in the
future (and keep this info handy).
Don’t have time to write an e-mail from scratch? Need
some inspiration to get you going? Check out our
dormstorming script for a template (see next section). If
you need a good hook to start your e-mail, check out our
facebook status updates and tweet suggestions.
Offline Organizing:
Face-to-face discussions and organizing are still the most
effective way to engage people and get them involved.
People are more likely to join an organization or a
movement if they have close ties with someone already
in the organization.
Dormstorm:
Dormstorming is a great way to have quick one-onone conversations while also getting a large number of
people to engage in an action such as signing a petition
or donating to the cause.
Here’s a sample script that you can use:
“Hi, can I talk to you for a minute? Did you know that over
60 million children a year don’t have a chance to go to
school? Part of the reason for this is that many countries
lack the infrastructure and funding needed to provide
enough schools, especially in rural areas. Now you might
ask yourself, why does this matter to the United States?
It has been proven that education is one of the best
mechanisms for economic development, and improving
US national security. So what can you do to help those 60
million children secure an education? You can join GCE-US
at www.gce-us.org.”
The same tips for writing an effective e-mail also apply to
crafting an effective dorm storming narrative. Don’t be
afraid to edit your script for the issue you are working
on.
Info Booths Around Campus
Another great way to raise awareness is through
info booths in popular areas around campus,
such as student centers or dining halls. In
this setting you can use the same script you
would for dormstorming. If you have a table,
make sure to use posters with pictures that
will catch people’s eyes.
Tip: Don’t be afraid to be loud to gain
attention for education!
Advocate
It is estimated that US $16 billion dollars annually is needed to fill the education gap and to reach the
Education for All goals. With the Global Partnership for Education facing depleted budgets from donor
countries, now more than ever is the time to take action and continue to make opportunities available to
children in developing countries.
Here’s several ways that you can take action on
education:
• Write letters to your representative and senators
and tell them education should be a priority
in this Congress! For a guide on how to write
effective letters, check out RESULTS’s guide http://
www.results.org/skills_center/advocacy_how_tos/
working_with_congress/milestone_8/
• Host a Call in Day
One of the most effective advocacy tools is calling
your members of Congress. The more they hear
that you care about an issue, the more important it
becomes to them. It’s really fun to get your friends
together and host a public event on campus and ask
others to call as well – see if the campus radio station
will help out. RESULTS has a great guide for how
to make these calls: http://www.results.org/skills_
center/advocacy_how_tos/working_with_congress/
milestone_7/
• Get signatures for a petition
This is one of the fastest ways that people can show
support for an issue. You can create your own
petition, but first check and see if any of our coalition
members have actions in progress because adding
your voices to that petition can make it resonate
more with the recipient. If you are going to start a
petition let GCE-US know by e-mailing us at info@
campaignforeducationusa.org
• Write a “letter to the editor” of you local
newspaper about education in the developing
world and why it’s important to you. For an
effective guide to writing letters, check out
RESULT’s website http://www.results.org/skills_
center/advocacy_how_tos/working_with_the_
media/milestone_18/ If you get a letter published
make sure to let GCE-US know by e-mailing info@
campaignforeducationusa.org so we can feature it on
the website and our social media sites!
Do you have ideas that you didn’t see here? Did you use
one of these ideas to host a successful event? Let us know
by e-mailing GCE-US at info@campaignforeducationusa.
org!
The staff at the GCE-US are excited to work with you to
harness the power of student voices for education! If
you’d like to get more involved with the GCE-US please
e-mail GCE-US at [email protected] to find
out how.
Join
Is there an organization on your campus that works on international education or poverty issues? If so,
join and bring your passion and excitement to the organization. Current organizations are a great place to
start and they offer ample opportunities to meet like-minded people to help you act on behalf of quality
education for all.
If there is not an organization that exactly fits, maybe you can bring it into a current organization (sorority,
fraternity, honor society, etc.) you are a part of as an additional focus or interest area. Your organization can
take it up as a social awareness project or community service project.
Additionally, you can join other organizations and like-minded individuals at national youth conferences
focused on global and social issues. Examples include the annual Millennium Campus Conference or the
RESULTS International Conference. Feel free to check the GCE-US website (www.gce-us.org) for updated
information.
Volunteer
A great way to get involved is to volunteer with
an organization. Our coalition members offer
many opportunities for those passionate about
what education can do for people, their countries
and the world. Explore our coalition member page
to find an opportunity just right for you! http://www.
campaignforeducationusa.org/coalition-members
Create
If nothing completely fits what you want to do, then start your own campus chapter of an international
organization! Our coalition members offer great information and resources to help you get a chapter
organization off the ground on your campus! Check out these websites for guidelines on how to create a
chapter and partner with them in pursuits of objectives in the education arena.
buildON:
An organization that builds schools in developing
countries and runs after-school programs in some of
America’s toughest inner cities.
http://www.buildon.org/get-involved/buildon-chapters/
NEA:
The largest public service union dedicated to public
education for all students.
http://www.nea.org/home/2580.htm
School Girls Unite:
A chapter organization in the United States and Mali that
works to show the power of educating girls.
http://www.schoolgirlsunite.org/UniteWithUs
BuildingTomorrow:
An organization that supports young people in using
their resources to in turn support youth in sub-Saharan
Africa in their pursuit of education.
http://www.buildingtomorrow.org/zeta/get-involved/
college/
New Global Citizens
An organization that desires to inspire youth to become
active members of the global citizenry.
http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/team-experience/
team-experience/start-your-team-1
UNICEF
An international organization helping children in the
areas of health care and immunizations, clean water and
sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief http://volunteers.unicefusa.org/
RESULTS
An organization dedicated to being a leading force in
ending poverty in the U.S. and the world.
http://www.results.org/take_action/become_a_results_
activist/
Note: Your student government will also have guidelines for
formally registering your organization as a student club.
Background
Global Campaign for Education, US: Overview
The Global Campaign for Education, US (GCE-US) is a broad-based coalition of US organizations including
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), teachers unions, foundations, faith-based groups and scholars
dedicated to ensuring greater access to quality basic education for children in developing countries.
GCE-US promotes access to quality education as a basic human right and aims to mobilize the public to
create political will in the US and internationally to improve educational opportunities for children regardless of where they are born. As a coalition, we also work to promote greater awareness of the importance of
pre-school education, eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, increase adult literacy
rates, and prevent abusive child labor.
Current Objectives of the US Chapter of
the Global Campaign for Education:
• Bolstering US Participation in the Global
Partnership for Education: Between 2002 and 2009,
19 million more children were enrolled in school
in Global Partnership countries worldwide. Despite
these encouraging results, the Global Partnership
faces persistent funding shortfalls. GCE-US urges the
US Government to stand with other donor countries
and support the Global Partnership for Education.
• Supporting the Education for All Act: The Education
for All Act is a mechanism to increase access to
schooling in poor countries and to improve the
quality of education offered. The bill calls on the U.S.
to support a multilateral education initiative that
adheres to strong principles of aid effectiveness. In
difficult economic times, coordinating aid with other
countries provides a cost-effective way to deliver aid
to education without having to expand bilateral aid.
It reduces overhead, relying on donor agencies with
the lowest unit cost and the greatest comparative
advantage to deliver its support in each country –
ensuring that donor aid has the most impact. GCE-US
is committed to supporting the Education for All Act.
• Making Education a Global Development Priority:
Children who attend first-class early education and
care programs are 40 percent less likely to repeat
a grade, 30 percent more likely to graduate from
high school, and more than twice as likely to go
to college. It is estimated that universal access to
voluntary, quality early education would add 3
million jobs and almost $1 trillion annually to U.S.
GDP over the long term. In short, investing in highquality early childhood education is an efficient way
to build human capital and strengthen the overall
economy. Despite research showing that achieving
universal basic education would promote economic
growth, build stable societies, and save lives, the
Administration’s Global Development Strategy does
not include education as a development priority. GCEUS is calling on the president to make education a
global development priority of his administration.
• Removing Barriers for Girls Secondary Education:
Today, more than 55 percent of out-of-school children
are girls, and two-thirds of adults without access to
literacy are women. Investing in a girl’s education is an
investment in a more prosperous future – not only for
girls, but for entire communities and countries. Study
after study shows that investing in the education of
women and girls can reduce poverty, stimulate the
economy, and lead to better health and nutrition
outcomes for women and their families. GCE-US
advances policy that removes these barriers to
secondary education so girls are able to achieve their
full potential.
Securing Support for the Global Partnership for
Education
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a
multilateral (many countries) education initiative that
brings together donor governments, low-income
countries, civil society organizations, and the private
sector to achieve the Education for All goals. The
centerpiece of the Global Partnership for Education
is the establishment of a fund that is used to support
ambitious national education strategies in developing
countries. Over the past year, the Global Partnership
for Education has taken huge strides to ensure that it
supports country-ownership, mutual accountability,
transparency, and aid effectiveness. Future steps include
a goal of raising $2.5 billion by 2014 from traditional and
new donors in order to achieve quality education for all.
Currently, the US funds global basic education efforts
directly through the US Agency for International
Development (USAID). However, directing education
funding to developing countries through a multilateral
initiative like the Global Partnership for Education
leverages commitments from other donors and from
developing countries, ensuring our aid dollars go farther.
Thus, coordinating US aid to education through the
GPE is “smart aid” because each dollar of aid will result
in more support for children, schools, and teachers in
developing countries.
At the November 2011 Pledging Conference of the
GPE, the US government was one of 58 international
education donors who pledged a total of $1.5 billion
in donations. The pledges will help the GPE enroll 25
million children into classrooms for the first time, train
600,000 new teachers and reduce illiteracy for primary
school aged children. Despite this evidence (and despite
the fact that the US is a voting member of the Global
Partnership for Education’s Board of Directors), The US
pledged to less than two percent of the $1.5 billion in
donations, less than one percent of the targeted goal
of $ 2.5 billion by 2014.
The lack of a strong and sustained US contribution to the
GPE during the replenishment results in a lack of priority
towards education around the world and signals to other
donors that the US, as the world’s largest economy, still
chooses to not take initiative as a leader in the global
efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the universal
provision of basic education.
If not now, when will the US meet the challenge of
committing sufficient resources to the Global Partnership
for Education?
For more information on the GPE, please visit www.
globalpartnership.org
The US Education for All Act
The Education for All (EFA) Act seeks to ensure that US
policy contributes to a successful international effort to
provide all children with a quality basic education. To
achieve this goal, the EFA Act lays out a US education aid
policy for developing countries that envisions education
as the foundation for community development and
centers on working with other developed countries,
international organizations, and civil society to assist
recipient countries in strengthening their education
systems. Moreover, the EFA act also supports increased
access to schools, improved quality, building country
capacity and country ownership of their education
systems, and multilateral assistance (such as the Global
Partnership for Education).
For more information on the EFA Act check out our
partner Organization RESULTS’ Fact Sheet http://www.
results.org/uploads/files/EFA_Act_of_2011_Fact_Sheet.
pdf
Sources
Education Counts, EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO 2011, www.efareport.unesco.org
Reaching the marginalized, EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO 2010, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/reports/2010-marginalization/
The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO 2011, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/
reports/2011-conflict/
UIS Fact Sheet, Reaching Out-of-School Children is Crucial for Development, http://www.uis.unesco.org/FactSheets/Documents/fs-18-OOSC-2.pdf
“A New Compact for Global Education.” ONE Campaign. Web. 5 June. 2012. <http://www.one.org/c/us/issuebrief/1778/>.
“The Case for Further Investment.” The Education for All Fast Track Initiative. Web 5 June. 2012. <http://www.educationfasttrack.org/media/library/replenishment-fundrasing/business-casereplenishment.pdf>.
“The Lancet Series on Child Development in Developing Countries.” Global Child Development Group. Web. 5 June. 2012 <http://globalchilddevelopment.com/lancet_series>.
“Ten Things You Need to Know About Education For All.” United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Web. 5 June. 2012 <http://www.unesco.org/en/efa/the-efa-movement/10things-to-know-about-efa/>.
“Quality Early Education: Good for the Kids and the Economy.” Reuters. The Great Debate. Web. 5. June. 2012. <http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/11/02/quality-early-education-good-for-kidsand-the-economy/>.