Despite that a high percentage of the national budget of Senegal is allocated to the education sector, the Senegalese education system still faces persistent challenges in regards to limited capacity intake of the system, poor performance and quality, gender disparities, and social stereotypes. Many learners are excluded from education, including those not attending school and those who have dropped out, and children from vulnerable groups, particularly girls and disabled children.

Through this project Coalition des Organisations en Synergie pour la Défense de l’Education Publique (COSYDEP) seek to address these challenges. COSYDEP will strengthen its commitment to support public education policies by creating more inclusive environments that are sensitive to vulnerability and gender equality. COSYDEP will ensure that the opening up of frameworks for inclusive dialogue is combined with capacity building for stakeholders to give them the means to play their full role.

The current phase of the ‘Spotlight on Vulnerable Voices’ project is building on the efforts made during the previous phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. During this phase, COSYDEP intends to step up social mobilisation to combat discrimination and amplify the voice of the most marginalised groups to demand their rights more effectively. Ultimately, COSYDEP will provide and disseminate evidence-based data and innovative tools, while strengthening interactions to promote inclusion and gender equality, through strategic participation in dialogue forums.

By the end of the project implementation, COSYDEP will have achieved the following:

• Equipped CSOs with evidence, relevant tools and transformational skills, enabling them to promote inclusion, gender equality and education in crisis situations, through their participation in forums for dialogue on education policy.
• CSOs have innovative pedagogical tools to promote inclusion, enabling them to participate optimally in the various dynamic spaces for learning, sharing experiences and good practice.
• Production, capitalisation and advocacy actions on gender and gender equality will strengthen interactions between CSOs on the one hand and between CSOs and decision-makers on the other, with a view to contributing to the promotion of inclusion, equal opportunities and accountability in education policies.

This shall all lead to the achievement of the overall project objective of strengthening the involvement of national civil society in the development, implementation, and monitoring of inclusive and gender sensitive education policies.

The project interventions will be based on participation in local structures to closely work with local authorities and decentralised departments. Further, the coalition will focus on enabling civil society to demand full respect for the right to education from duty bearers, particularly for vulnerable groups. Through its commitment, COSYDEP will ensure the sustainability of the project results and in the end contribute to the national programme for inclusion and the promotion of gender equality by equipping these actors with technical and managerial skills.

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.