“Financing Education2030: Revisiting The Role Of Civil Society”, A Conference To Share Good Practices For Education In The Arab World

Beirut – The Focus of the Arab World on the 1st of May 2018 is directed towards the Lebanese Capital of Beirut where the International Conference “Financing Education2030: Revisiting the Role of Civil Society” is held from 1-3 May 2018. This conference which is organized by the Arab Campaign for Education for all brings together national and regional education coalitions, official representatives from the ministries of education from the Arab world and East Europe. In addition to teacher unions, media persons, international and regional educational agencies and educational coalitions at international level to share good practices and experiences.

The Conference is conducted under the patronage of his Excellency Mr. Marwan Hamadeh the Lebanese Minister of Education and higher education, in cooperation with UNESCO, Open Society Foundation, DVV International, the Arab Network for Popular Education and the Global Campaign for Education for all.

Despite the efforts of the Arab and East Europe Countries to develop the educational process in order to reach educational outputs that meet the needs of those countries, those needs collides with the allocated budgets to education which don’t meet the required purpose to develop the learning process.

The General Secretary of ACEA Mr. Refat Sabbah expresses his hope that the conference will achieve its objectives in mobilizing the needed support for education over the next 10 years by influencing decision makers to raise local education budgets in their countries. Mr. Al Sabbah assured that the good budgets for education will leads for good quality in the learning process and its outputs, regarding his expectations of the conference; he said that the expectations and hopes are great for this conference and if the outcomes of the conference are achieved this will reflect on all aspects of educational life in the Arab world. He hopes that the conference will identify a common vision and strategy for the work of civil society towards funding education and develop action plans for effective intervention by civil society in the protection and financing of education, especially during emergencies.

Mr. Mubarak Abbas ACEA president stated that SDG4 and especially “to ensure equitable and inclusive education for all, and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” is within the core of the advocacy work of ACEA. Moreover, Increasing funding for achieving SDG4 has become an urgent necessity and the lack of adequate investment in education not only jeopardizes the entire Education 2030 agenda, but also the goals of sustainable development as a whole. In addition, the Middle East is undergoing a devastating humanitarian crisis, which is significantly hampering the region’s achievements in education and making the education agenda 2030 more and more elusive.

Mr. Sabbah said the conference will set up a social partnership to ensure sufficient local funding for education, and also to commit donor countries to their commitments to finance education for developing countries and to combine all civil and governmental efforts to secure all funding requirements for education, Tax reform as well as good governance.

The conference will revolve around three main themes: Domestic financing for education, emergency education and social accountability. The role of civil society will be discussed mainly especially the role of national coalitions to improve advocacy work and policy change with a view to increasing local financing and donor financing for education

The Arab Campaign for Education for All (ACEA) is an independent, non-profit coalition, consisting of networks, national educational coalitions, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, teachers’ unions, associations and other sectors active in the field of education in 14 countries in the Middle East & East Europe.

ACEA is formed of 11 national coalitions in the Arab Region, and is partnering with three coalitions in East Europe. National coalitions comprise active and representative civil organizations in their membership, including those that work to promote achievement of the Education 2030 Agenda, national education goals and other critical education issues through public awareness, mobilization, policy participation, advocacy, research and monitoring activities.