The PRO-RePEM project tackles the specific issue of low citizen participation in strategic monitoring and dialogues in education policies at all levels in Benin. 
The aim of the previous phase of the project, implemented from March 2022 – August 2024 was to strengthen the role of Benin's CSOs in promoting accountability and transparency in education policy and finance, with a particular focus on the quality of education, gender disparities, and the system's vulnerability to emergency situations.

Thus, the Education Observatory was designed: a network of CSOs, previously only present at national level was revitalised and given branches at regional and local level. The aim was for CSOs to engage in the strategic monitoring of education policies and generate evidence while participating in policy dialogue at all levels of the sector.

The current phase of the project is focused on consolidating and enhancing the capacities of the Education Observatory. More specifically the goals of the project include:

• Strengthening the capacities of the Education Observatory and its regional and local branches so that members can monitor education policies and financing sustainably and autonomously.
• Supporting the Education Observatory in collecting and interpreting strategic data on the quality of education, gender, and education in emergencies to promote changes in relevant policies.
• Sustainably improve the participation and accountability of policy dialogue at local, regional, and national level in the education sector.

By the end of the implementation phase, the project will have strengthened the technical and organisational capacities of the CSOs involved in the Education Observatory. The Observatory and its members will also be encouraged to participate inclusively in the processes of planning and progress monitoring at local and regional level. Moreover, the Education Observatory will be supported in organising 154 policy dialogues at local level, 24 at regional level, and 2 at national level.

This phase of the project is to a large extent building on the lessons learned of the previous phase. This time around a focus will be put at better utilising the data generated by the CSO network and its branches. New strategies will be put in place to ensure the production of evidence and strategic data on the quality of education, gender, and the capacity of the education system to manage emergency situations. This will guarantee greater effectiveness for advocacy and dialogue, and in the end better the implementation of relevant policy reforms.

New online platforms such as UNICEFs U-Report mechanism which enables citizens to give their opinions and become involved in the public arena will be used, together with already promoted platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and other websites.

All in all, this project phase will further strengthen the capacities of the Education Observatory and enable it to work autonomously in the future and sustain its results.

A previous phase of the project was implemented between March 2022 – August 2024. T he current project is part of the EOL extension phase of 2024-2026. Read more about the first phase of the project here.