ABOUT US

Introduction

The Africa Network Campaign on Education for All (ANCEFA) emerged in 2000 following the World Education Summit in Dakar in April 2000. African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) intent on providing a coherent and proactiveAfrican voice on EFA issues, felt the need to organise in a representative manner. After four meetings at the sub-regional level (West Africa - September 2000, Central Africa - January 2001, East Africa - February 2001 and Southern Africa - July 2000) the network was founded.

Preamble

Mindful of the impact which poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the crisis of education have on the dignity of Sub-Saharan Africans; building on common shared concerns and experiences, and recognizing the ability of Africans to address their own development needs, civil society coalitions and networks addressing EFA issues in 23 countries across Africa, have come together to form the Africa Network Campaign in Education For All (ANCEFA) in order to pursue actions that will enable ordinary Africans achieve their personal and collective development aspirations through quality, free education for all.

Vision

ANCEFA exists to promote, enable and build capacity of African civil society to advocate and campaign for access to free quality education for all. This will be achieved by building networks and coalitions of civil society in order to share information and learning, address pertinent issues of concern, especially HIV/AIDS, influence policy, and build sustainable partnerships in Africa and beyond.

Priorities

ANCEFA prioritizes the engagement of the civil society in national and international dialogue on the issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, gender equity, resource mobilization both within and outside the African continent, mitigating the impact of the conflicts on educational achievement and the needs of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable groups in pursuit of universal access to free, quality, education for all

Objectives

The objectives of the network shall be to:

a) promote the engagement of civil society in national and international dialogue on cross-cutting issues in education such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, gender equity, resource mobilisation both within and outside the African continent
b) mitigate the impact of conflicts on learning achievement and the needs of the poor, vulnerable and marginalised groups
c) ensure universal access to free quality education for all

Strategies

ANCEFA hopes to achieve its mission by:

a) Encouraging and facilitating the emergence of strong national networks and coalitions to address issues of EFA at national level, and to foster horizontal engagement at sub-regional and regional levels
b) Supporting the development of CSO capacity to engage in dialogue and debate for policy formulation, advocacy, campaigning and lobbying at the national and regional levels, including the sharing of information and best practices.
c) Developing a strong and independent networking capacity within civil society to engage with other international campaigns and other critical stakeholders (UNESCO, WB etc) on EFA

Activities

ANCEFA achieves its objectives through a range of activities including the development of consensus African civil society positions on issues, advocacy and lobbying activities, networking and partnership-building, information sharing, capacity-building support, research and documentation, and through monitoring and evaluation of the achievements of EFA targets.

ANCEFA also promotes resource flows to both government and civil society organisations in Sub-saharan Africa towards the achievement of EFA targets.

ANCEFA is not a programme implementation organisation, but a coordination, facilitation and advocacy network.

Organisational structure

ANCEFA is a regional network of national coalitions and networks linking on EFA. Individual CSOs are not permitted to be members except in countries where there is no network. Where such arises, the individual organisations must be committed, with support from ANCEFA, to facilitate the emergence of a representative national network or coalition on EFA issues. ANCEFA continues to support the expansion of member networks beyond the current 23 countries.

ANCEFA has four sub-regional groupings in sub-Saharan Africa, East, Southern, West and Central Africa. Each sub-region has a Moderator (elected by the member networks from among the members) who facilitates activities at both regional and sub-regional levels. All countries have one equal vote.
The four moderators constitute the Steering Committee of ANCEFA and have the authority of sign-off as well as responsibility for managing the coordinator. ANCEFA raises funds from membership dues and various fundraising activities.