Civil society is a key stakeholder when it comes to education planning and implementation. However, the role of civil society and its engagement with the government for improved education remains weak across Pakistan. This is largely because the civil society actors lack knowledge as well as the capacity to engage with the government and exercise accountability.

We are thrilled to have designed an initiative, Reframing Education Accountability in Pakistan (REAP), to bridge this gap.

Through REAP, we will strengthen capacity of the civil society to effectively engage with the government and participate in promoting policy solutions compatible with local reality. At the same time, we will also work with the government to create space where government officials welcome and celebrate enhanced role of civil society in improving education. We will employ an innovative and comprehensive approach which, on one hand engages the civil society actors, and on the other involves public officials.

Our partnership to implement the programme comprises an organic collaboration between Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) and Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP). Both partners bring unique and complementary expertise to the initiative. I-SAPS has a demonstrated experience of working with the policy actors, and CRCP comes with proven record of mobilizing grassroot support for reforms. Both partners are well-placed to establish strong collaboration between demand and supply-sides stakeholders in the policy making, planning and delivery of quality education. Our approach involves:

• Producing data and evidence that the civil society can use for constructive dialogue with government officials for improving education;
• Training the civil society to analyze and use data for better accountability, transparency and policy influencing;
• Creating networks of civil society organizations to monitor, guide and inform education management;
• Organizing dialogues at the national and sub-national levels for facilitating interface between communities and government;
• Enabling government officials to effectively engage and respond to citizens’ demands for education improvements;

We are excited to be part of the Education Out Loud family, and would look forward to learn from the journeys of other grantees as well as share insights and experiences of our own!

Team REAP would love to connect and can be reached at aalam@i-saps.org.