The project aims at strengthening the engagement of educational CSOs in the West Bank and Gaza in monitoring and planning public education policies. The weak engagement of CSOs in planning and monitoring has contributed to the weakness of the public education policies, regarding the social outcomes of quality education including gender and inclusion.

Through this project, the Palestinian Education Coalition (PEC) will: i) Empower its member organisations, through capacity development courses that shall contribute to fill identified gaps in areas such as SDG4, social outcomes of quality education, gender and inclusion in education policies, advocacy, and social accountability, ii) Promoting more enabling social and policy-related environment and structures and, iii) Mobilize and diversify its financial and non-financial resources for an enhanced planning and monitoring of public education policies including policies related to Gender and Inclusion.     

The project aims to achieve three specific objectives, namely:

• Strengthen the engagement of Palestinian educational CSOs -as a voice of citizens- in Planning & Monitoring public education policies,
• To promote an enabling social and policy-related environment and structures for enhanced engagement of the Palestinian education coalition in planning and monitoring public education policies,
• To mobilize and diversify financial and non-financial resources to enhance the Palestinian education coalition engagement in planning and monitoring public education policies.

The project will address three identified main challenges to the effective engagement of CSOs in education policy dialogue: weak capacities, unsupportive socio-legal environment, and the limited financial resources for this sector to get actively engaged in policy dialogue.

To achieve the overall goal, the PEC will conduct the following activities:

• A needs assessment study of the coalition, to identify gaps related to governance and internal democratic processes, as well as capacities related to equal quality education.
• Updating the coalition’s governance structure, internal procedures, and decision-making mechanisms to be more representative and more participatory based on the results of the assessment.
• Developing a training package for member organisations in the fields of SDG4, social outcomes of quality education, gender and inclusion in education policies, advocacy, and social accountability.
• Distributing a toolkit on how to respond to gender related challenges in certain situations.
• Research studies on areas such as SDG4, the gaps of public education, gender, and inclusion in education policies. The research will be conducted in collaboration with universities, research centres and individuals, and informative seminars for decision makers and other relevant stakeholders on the results will be hosted.
• Community awareness and mobilisation campaigns.

The activities will target a broad range of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education, CSOs and community actors, international organisations, private sector actors, educationalists, and donors. By increasing support for educational CSOs in the West Bank and Gaza the continuity of its advocacy and social accountability efforts will reinforce the probabilities of education reform and lasting policy changes.

The Palestinian Education Coalition consist of 73 Palestinian civil society organisations, concerned with various developmental areas including gender and women's rights, inclusion, rural development, youth empowerment, peace, and conflict resolution, together with education. They are the ones, who through this intervention, will be empowered to take on advocacy for a better education system.