The education system of Indonesia faces issues of access, quality, inclusion, gender responsiveness and adequate financing. This leads to a lack of addressing the learning needs of all children, especially the most marginalised, such as children from poor families, victims of gender violence, and children with disabilities. Through this project, Network for Education Watch Indonesia (NEW Indonesia) aims to pursue policy advocacy to make concrete changes towards a more inclusive, gender-responsive, equitable education system for all. 

The project is a continuation of the previous project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. This phase will contribute to sustain NEW Indonesia’s project on strengthening civil society engagement in increasing access and education financing to ensure inclusive, gender-responsive, and equitable quality education for marginalised groups. The project shall aim to improve the government policies on the right to inclusive and gender-transformative quality education and strengthen the coalition to engage and ensure that education plans and policies are inclusive and gender-responsive. 

The main activities of the project will include: 

• Capacity building on budget tracking, gender responsive advocacy, gender-based violence (GBV), data collection and evidence analysis to strengthen advocacy and campaigning. 

• Policy reviews to reduce GBV and identify gaps in gender responsive and inclusive access for marginalised learners. 

• Budget tracking focused on access for marginalised groups. 

• Participation in relevant conferences and consultations at regional and global levels. 

• Women, the most marginalised and diverse actors are engaged and represented in the national education coalition (NEC) and in education processes. 

• Media outreach and creating advocacy content for social focusing on GBV and inclusion of the most marginalised. 

• Public campaigns to address advocacy issues on improving education access, reducing GBV, and rising education budgets. 

By the end of the phase, the project is expected to have contributed to: 

• Policies developed by the Indonesian government are inclusive and gender responsive. 

• Raised awareness and community participation in education policy advocacy. 

• Improved capacities of the NEC and its members to strengthen advocacy and engagement in gender responsive education. 

• The coalition’s input will be integrated into education policy development at national and local level.  

• Stronger links between national, regional, and global policy and implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 to strengthen transnational collaboration and support country advocacy. 

• Increased education budget allocation to support marginalised groups. 

Through the proposed activities and the coalitions diverse membership, NEW Indonesia will effectively play a critical role in influencing policy decisions and implementation, which can lead to long-term changes in educational practices and much-needed reforms. By engaging stakeholders such as government officials and activating a strong CSO movement engaged in education decision-making processes and continuing advocacy work the creation of an enabling environment will create sustainable results and long-lasting positive impacts in the education system of Indonesia. 

A previous phase of the project was implemented 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.