The Coalition will further strengthen the national civil society engagement in inclusive and gender-responsive basic education policy development, implementation and monitoring at both the local and national levels. This will give us the opportunity through this project to be well coordinated, to be a strong education policy advocate and an organization for learning and sharing evidence-based information to the government and the citizenry.

The national education coalition will become the effective voice of the marginalized and vulnerable groups, visible with measurable inputs to important education policy-making, effectively managing the coalition with well-laid down organizational structures and systems, that will facilitate members monitoring of accountability mechanisms for public national education and evidence-based advocacy and systematic sharing among the Coalition members and with local and international partners.

The project will continue the efforts already made during the previous project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. During the current phase, the project seeks to obtain three specific objectives:

1. To strengthen the National Education Coalition to become a strong, vibrant, inclusive and accountable organization with systems in place to mobilize civil society efforts in education policy engagement. 
2. To promote inclusive and gender transformative education policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in The Gambia through stronger capacity, synergy and collaboration of CSOs. 

By strengthening national civil society at both national and local level, EFANet will be provided with the opportunity to enhance its coordination, be a strong education policy advocate and an organisation for learning and sharing evidence-based information to the government and citizenry. The coalition strives to become the effective voice of the marginalised and vulnerable groups, visible with measurable inputs to important education policymaking, effectively managing the coalition with good organisational structures and systems. This shall facilitate member monitoring of accountability mechanisms for public national education, evidence-based advocacy, and systematic sharing among the coalition members and with local and international partners. 

By the end of the project phase, EFAnet is expecting to have contributed to: 

• EFANet’s organizational and institutional capacity is strengthened, there is increased and effective inclusiveness in the Coalition, and coordination and management of programmes is improved for realization of the Project objectives.
• A strengthened Civil Society Organisations and citizen engagements with policy makers and duty bearers to better influence inclusive and gender responsive education policies, implementation and monitoring.
   

The OC1.3 project will also expand on the gains of the OC1.2 project intervention through the use of the NEC`s social media pages that have been revitalized in the OC1.2 project. These will be actively and frequently used to increase the visibility and credibility of the organization. In addition, the Resource Mobilization and Partnership Building Teams (RMPBT) constituted at the regional chapters as well as trained on resource mobilization and fundraising strategies will raise additional funds for the sustainability of the Coalition.

The 2024-2026 proposal objectives and expected outcomes are an extension of the OC1.2 objectives. This is so because the coalition is going to give the vulnerable and marginalized groups the opportunity to participate in the Coalition`s 2023 Chapter General Assemblies and the national General Assembly in order to be more diverse and inclusive in terms of the regional chapter executive and Board of Directors representation. Furthermore, to ensure longevity of the project impact, the coalition’s learning and sharing will be synergised and systematic, with knowledge disseminated to members, as well as national and international bodies. 

A preevious phase of the project was carried out between April 2022 – December 2023. The current project is part of the EOL extension phase of 2024-2026. Read more about the previous phase of the project here.