Global Campaign for Education UK: a working partnership
Our mission
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement working towards the common goal of achieving education for all.
Our mission is to promote and defend education as a basic human right and mobilize public pressure on governments and the international community to fulfil their commitments to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people, in particular for children, women andthose from excluded communities.
Why it matters
Education is a priority for people around the world and a major driving force for human development. However, despite the urgent need for investment in education, global progress has stalled in recent years, leaving millions excluded from the chance of a better future.
We believe that:
- Everyone has the right to a free, quality, public education
- Education is the key to poverty alleviation and sustainable human development
- Education is a core responsibility of the state
- Education is achievable if governments mobilise the political will and available resources
Who we are
GCE UK is a ‘coalition of the willing’ with a wide membership drawn from NGOs and teacher unions, supported by several thousand schools each year and working closely with theAll-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Education for All. GCE UK is a member of the GCE International alliance and aligns its work closely with this organisation’s mission and aims.
GCE International has its own international board and a secretariat. GCE UK is represented on the Board by the Northern INGO representative.
What we do
- Contribute to an international movement with a long term commitment to promote and monitor the fulfilment of basic education rights.
- Mobilise public understanding and support, particularly within the UK formal education sector,for the achievement of universal primary education
- Support school children and teachers to learn about the right to education and how to achieve this through democratic processes
- Undertake policy and parliamentary work to secure UK government support for Education for All
- Provide a common platform and meeting point for civil society organisations to coordinate their campaigning activities on education for all and education rights.
- Cooperate with other likeminded campaigns and initiatives, both in the education sector and in other sectors, where these can help to advance the struggle for education rights.
Coalition structure
GCE UK coalition members: roles and responsibilities
Overview
Member organisations give staff time, expertise and financial support to enable the coalition to have a greater impact in education campaigning and advocacy than we could achieve individually. Commitments vary depending on the size, staffing and budget or each organisation.
Member organisations support the coalition in the following ways:
- Giving financial support to the coalition on an annual basis
- Contributing staff time and expertise during meetings and via email discussions
- Active engagement with ongoing coalition projects,taking a lead or a supporting role, and thereby ensuring their successful delivery
Working groups membership
GCE UK has four core working groups which members are invited to join:
- Policy – establishingpolicy positions for GCE UK, producing research reports and briefings and liaising with DFID. Provides a platform for sharing expertise and learning between development sector professionals working in education policy, advocacy and research.
- Parliamentary–leading on parliamentary activities, including engaging and informing MPs and Peers about education for all issues including working with the APPG on Global Education for All to plan Parliamentary events
- Schools campaigns – helping to devise, promote and deliver the annual Send My Friend to School campaign which supports young people to understand the right to education and ways to achieve this through democratic processes
- Media–promoting our work to the media and working with celebrity supporters
Annual programme
Each autumn coalition memberscommit to a financial contribution for the year ahead which enables GCE UK to run the following initiatives:
- Developing annual policy and campaigning theme areas: this is usually strongly linked with the annual focus of the Global Campaign for Education international (decided at World Assembly events, which take place every 3-4 years), plus key issues that the relevant GCE UK working groups decide are important in a UK aid context.
- Devising, producing and disseminating an annual Send My Friend to School campaign involving thousands of UK schools and their MPs.This work also involves supporting young people and teachers to hold special events, carry outmedia work and hold world leaders to account via their constituency MPs and other political representatives.
- Each year the GCE UK parliamentary group works on a wide range of themes to raise awareness and support for education for all amongst Members of Parliament and Peers, undertaking advocacy activities in Parliament, supporting Parliamentarians to raise questions and hold debates,and meeting with key influencers. Where this works aligns with the interests of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Education for All joint work takes place, such as Parliamentary eventsorganised with GCE UK or its members. See the section on the APPG for more details.
- The GCE UK policy group collaborates and consults around policy opportunities (such as feeding into parliamentary enquiries and government consultations), produces research, policy reports, briefings and letters seeking to influence the policy agenda of the UK government and organise regular meetings with the DFID Education PolicyTeam and other relevant teams (eg Global Funds Team responsible for GPE).
The active engagement and effort of our member organisations is fundamental to the coalition’s success in delivering the activities outlined above.
Identity and branding
We ask coalition members to support GCE UK by promoting campaign messages in their supporter communications. GCE UK supplies relevant assets including logos, messaging and images.
When organising coalition communications or events we maximise the effectiveness and impact of our campaign by ensuring that individual member organisations subsume their individual brand identities under the coalition brands of GCE UK and Send My Friend to School.
Co-branding of coalition events and communications is only possible during exceptional circumstances.For instance, the agency which hosts the Steve Sinnott Award will be able to secure media mentions for their organisation, as well as GCE UK, since the programmes visited in the field will be their projects and partners.
GCE UK features the logos of all member organisations on the Send My Friend website. Only members who have contributed financially will have their name included on coalition printed materials (policy documents and schools materials) and on media releases.
The role of the Steering Group
A Steering Group of key campaign partners has been established to provide substantive and strategic guidance to the campaign. It meets every 6-8 weeks. It is made up ofthe Chairsof the working groups, as well as organisations which are major financial contributors to the coalition.
The Steering Group’s responsibilities include:
•Monitoring the progress of the campaign against its goals
•Reviewing financial expenditure and income
•Approving yearly plans and budgets
•Consideringproposed requests for expenditure which involve modification to the agreed budget or activities
•Strategic planning
•Representing the views of each coalition working group
•Agreeing key campaign messages for the year ahead
Procedures for agreeing expenditure
At the start of each year, the Steering Group agrees a proposed budget and activities for the year based on recommendations made by the chairs of the four working groups. This remains open to change throughout the year as circumstances require.
All expenditure that requires a contract (for instance, with a consultant) or is over £1,000 should be agreed in advance by the Steering Group(either when the budget is drawn up or at a later meeting).
If, during the year, existing budget is to be diverted towards a new project that costs over £1,000 (for instance in 2013 we decided in the summer to divert underspends in the GCE budget to enable the Send My Friend to School Young Ambassadors to attend the UN Youth Takeover) – this project should be referred to the Steering Group (either at a meeting or over email) with a brief budget proposal for members to review and approve or not.
Process for paying suppliers
ActionAid currently acts as banker to the GCE UK coalition.
- The Campaign Coordinator manages supplier payments and can set up Purchase Orders. Purchase Orders should be set up once the amount to be spent has been agreed.
- The GCE UK Assistant can put together ActionAid contracts with suppliers and consultants where needed.
- All invoices that come to ActionAid must quote a Purchase Order number or they will not be paid.
All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Education for all
GCE UK maintains a strong link with the APPG on Global Education for All, which is a group of parliamentarians from both Houses and all parties, who have come together to support strong UK action on achieving the Education for All goals. The APPG currently has around 70 members. Further information can be found at
APPGs are informal cross-party groups that have no official status within Parliamentand are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords. In the case of the APPG on Global Education for All, the group is currently led by two co-chairs and nine vice-chairs. Further details, including the rules and regulations which govern APPGs, can be found on Parliament’s website here
The workplan and objectives of the APPG are set by the Officers of the Group, depending on their interests and what they believe to be the most effective use of their limited parliamentary time.
It is important to note that while the Officers of the APPG listen to many stakeholders about what are the current issues in education for all, the decision on what the APPG will work on resides solely with them. While GCE UK has a close and mutually beneficial relationship with the APPG, the APPG is separate and independent of GCE UK and GCE UK cannot and does not control the APPG’s activities. Also importantly, the APPG cannot be and is not a member organisation of GCE UK.
The secretariat of the APPG is provided by RESULTS UK. In this capacity RESULTS UK supportsmembers of the APPG with briefings at their request, assists them in raising issues in Parliament and hold the Government to account, and provides logistical support in organising a variety of private and public meetings and events.
Where there is close alignment between the interests of the APPG and GCE UK, collaboration is beneficial and welcomed. In these cases, GCE UK will seek to support the APPG’s parliamentary activities to further these mutual objectives. This support could take the form of: financial support, help with speakers, sharing of policy briefings or additional logistical or administrative support. Subject to the approval of the APPG officers, these events will carry GCE UK branding on the invitation and at the event. Coalition member organisations are also invited and encouraged to provide support in the form of speakers, administrative support, sharing their expertise etc.
Appendix 1
Current GCE UK coalition contacts and communications, January 2016
Steering Group emails
Teresa-Rae Morton, GCE UKAssistant
Nicola Cadbury, Campaign
Chris Weavers, GCE UK
Samidha Garg,
Taahra Ghazi, Campaigns
Karen Garvin, Media
Lucy Drescher, Manager of the APPG
Heather Saunders, Policy
Aletheia Bligh Flower, Policy
Coalition members can ask the GCE UK Assistantto circulate information to the GCE UK lists or to collate responses etc.
GCE UK Email lists
GCEUK+
this is the whole coalition (97 emails)
GCEUK+
Campaigns Group (33 emails)
GCEUK+
Inclusive education group (26 emails)
GCEUK+
Parliamentary group (24 emails)
GCEUK+
Policy Group (68 emails)
Coalition communications
The GCE UK Assistant will do the bulk of the emails to the main Members lists and Group Chairs will initiate many of the emails to their groups.
The GCE UK Assistant is our main link person with GCE internationally and so he/she will be circulating information that comes through from the GCE Secretariat and Board. Where appropriate they will seek input, feedback or decisions from the Steering Group or members of the coalition.
This role also entails circulating meeting minutes, organising meeting dates and venues, sending out invitations to meetings and reminders and collating agendas where these require input from more than one source.
The GCE UK Assistant manages the membership of the GCE UK listserve - all list additions or changes should come through to the GCE UK Assistant.
Criteria for joining the Steering Group:
Members of the coalition are invited to join the steering group either if they hold the position of Chair or co-Chair of one of the working groups, or if they represent an organisation which is a major financial contributor (ie giving more than £10,000 each year)
Appendix 2
Supporter data:storage anduse
Comic Relief and ActionAid are responsible for the personal information about supporters that they provide to us on the website. Comic Relief and ActionAid will ensure that all such information is only used to supply supporters with communications associated with the Global Campaign for Education.
Supporters’ information will be held by Comic Relief and ActionAid for as long as they use any service that has been requested, and will be removed in the event that the purpose has been met (or until they notify us that they wish us to remove their information). Comic Relief and ActionAid will ensure that their information is held securely and is accessible to supporters, in accordance with the requirements of the UK’s Data Protection Act 1998.
By providing this information, supporters are not joining any member organisation’s mailing lists and Comic Relief or ActionAid will not pass your information to anyone else without supporters’ permission.
We will only use supporters’ personal information to the extent it is necessary to do so, such as to provide services they have requested, or for other purposes they have consented to. We will not supply their personal data to any third party without this consent, unless we are obliged by law to do so. In some cases we may need to pass this information to companies who provide mailing, processing, data analysis and other services for us – however they may only use their information to deliver those services to us.
We also use this information to identify supporters and provide a personalised service to them. We sometimes aggregate statistics about supporters to enable us to operate more effectively, but these statistics do not include information from which individuals can be identified.
Appendix 3
Consensus approach to decision making
GCE UK will seek to reach consensus among member organisations, wherever possible. These guidelines have been drawn up to aid discussions and debate within the Policy group, particularly if a disagreement should emerge. However, the same principles could be used by any group or indeed the whole coalition.
Discussion and debate
Achieving consensus requires serious treatment of every Group member's considered opinion. Once a decision is made it is important to trust in members' discretion in follow-up action. In the ideal case, those who wish to take up some action want to hear those who oppose it, because they count on the fact that the ensuing debate will improve the consensus.
Where consensus decision-making fails because there simply is no agreement possible, and views are irreconcilable, issues will be resolved by voting
Voting
In all votes each GCE UK member organisation shall be entitled to cast one vote. All decisions shall be made on the basis of a simple majority. In the event of an equal number of votes being cast in favour and against a proposition, the Chair of the relevant group (Campaigns, Policy, Parliamentary, Media, GCE UK Chair etc) shall exercise a casting vote.
If consensus cannot be reached, a vote shall first be taken to determine whether or not GCE UK should adopt a position on the issue under discussion. In the event of the Group deciding that a position is needed a vote/s will be taken on the issue itself. Any such vote shall only take place at a coalition meeting. In such an event, all GCE UK members will be informed in advance and shall be entitled to exercise proxy votes.
External Resolution
In the unlikely event that an issue was so serious that the above procedure was thought to be unsuitable, or a position arose that might cause the coalition to split, the GCE International Secretariat will be invited to provide advice and/or mediation.