This project, led by Forum for Education NGOs in Uganda (FENU) will target marginalised learners in Uganda, and work to enhance their access to education.  

Inclusive education has gained traction in most policy dialogues in Uganda, and this serves as an ideal opportunity to further the engagement in inclusive education systems. However, the policy pieces lack action, and there is still a need for community participation, demand, and adequate representation. This will be a central target area of the project, which will bring into play the participation of marginalised communities, amplify their voices, and emphasise their demands. 

The project builds on the logic that if parents and local communities are mobilised for the education sector, then girls and boys from the most marginalised families and communities can increase their chances of school enrolment and completion. By building local ownership of decision making and influence over resources, community members can challenge the structures that shape inequalities. 

Thus, the project will focus its interventions on building and equipping an active, conscious, and highly participative school community, as well as promote mutual accountability in the rights to education for marginalised and vulnerable children. 

The project will further target the school systems, by building the capacities of school leadership, governance, and management structures to be responsive of community issues in education and the rights of marginalised children. 

Finally, the project will also engage central government, district local governments and school foundation bodies to deepen the school-community relations, mutual accountability, and learning on equitable and inclusive education. 

This phase of the project is continuing the efforts made during the previous project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. During the current project period, key activities will include:

• Conducting a baseline study on the current enrolment and retention by gender, disability, and re-enrolled young mothers. 

• Developing and implementing systems to track school management’s responsiveness to school- community issues and the needs of vulnerable and marginalised children.  

• Conducting community accountability forums on education and mutual accountability for schools. 

• Conducting a workshop for Members of Parliament on the concept and practice of conscious school community participation in education. 

• Conducting education conferences for each target district once every year on inclusive, equitable and responsive education that will contribute to the annual district local government plans for education. 

All together the activities will add to creating empowered communities that are able to hold schools and governing bodies accountable, and to foster an equitable, inclusive, and responsive education system. 

FENU is made up of more than 100 CSOs and community-based organisations. They work in various ways to influence change and undertake joint advocacy to impact government policy and education matters. FENU is building their efforts on collective civil society action and engagement. To achieve their vision of a Uganda free of injustices in the education system, they work with a broad range of partners, including parliament members, the Ministry of Education and Sports, as well as education development partners.  

A previous 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.