Policy Advocacy

ASPBAE's advocacy work covers the areas of policy analysis and research, monitoring, lobbying, alliance and constituency-building, and promoting public education and awareness Policy advocacy is a priority for ASPBAE. It advocates for equitable access to quality lifelong learning opportunities and education for all.

ASPBAE's advocacy efforts particularly focus on -

• the neglected Education For All goals of adult literacy, life skills, and adult education for poverty eradication
• decentralization and good governance in education with a focus on Sector-Wide Approaches
• the protection of quality education in the light of the financial, food, energy, and climate change crises

Education financing for the full Education For All agenda is also a priority area for ASPBAE's advocacy focus, including education budget work and education ODA (Official Development Assistance).

Holding governments accountable for providing quality education for its citizens is an important part of what ASPBAE does. ASPBAE tracks the performances of countries in meeting their commitments to the Education For All goals and targets by 2015.

EDUCATION WATCH (EDWATCH)

Edwatch tracks governments' progress in achieving quality education for all with a focus on addressing the education deficit for poor and disadvantaged communitiesBuilt on the successful Education Watch model implemented by the Campaign for Popular Education in Bangladesh, APSBAE's EdWatch was designed as an independent, alternative, citizen-based assessment of the status of basic education at the regional, national, and local levels, with a focus on disadvantaged groups. It aims to uncover realities hidden in or glossed over by official government reports. It sets out to determine the magnitude of the Education For All gap, analyze the underlying causes of deprivation, monitor changes over time, and identify factors that account for such changes. EdWatch is designed to inform policy, formulate well-targeted programs, and identify and locate beneficiaries to close the gap in the Education For All shortfall.

Alternative research and policy analysis like EdWatch are increasingly finding spaces in government, inter-governmental and donor committees, and in policy bodies - for example, in the Education For all Mid Decade Assessment, the CONFINTEA 6 processes, and various technical committees in education policy in the Asia Pacific.

SCHOOL REPORT CARDS

ASPBAE develops and periodically releases report cards for countries to track education performance and as a call to action for governments and education stakeholders. The school report cards score and grade countries on the status of basic education, adult education, and lifelong learning opportunities

ASPBAE has released 3 Report Cards -

• "Must Do Better:" A 'School Report' of 14 Developing countries in Asia Pacific to investigate their commitment to Basic Education
• Failing the Midterms: Half Measures Won't Do! An Asia Pacific Citizens' Report Card Rating Governments' Efforts to Achieve Education for All
• Gender, Equality, and Education: A Report Card on South Asia

POLICY RESEARCH, TOOLKITS, AND POLICY BRIEFS

ASPBAE's advocacy work is pursued through its partnerships with national education campaign coalitions, adult education advocates, and other civil society movements for change in the Asia Pacific As part of its efforts to effectively influence the CONFINTEA 6 processes (a UNESCO-led, international, intergovernmental policy process on adult learning and education), ASPBAE ran a study analysing the financial requirements to meet the Education For All adult literacy targets by 2015. It also launched a Literacy Cost-Benefit Study and a literature review of cost-benefit analysis of adult education and learning, especially for developing countries.

To assist education advocates sustain evidence-based advocacy, building from the Education Watch outcomes and further tracking exercises, ASPBAE has been developing the ASPBAE Info and Disparity Indices for Asia and the Pacific. ASPBAE has also developed toolkits on budget tracking and the Education Watch research methodologies, drawn from its own experience as well as that of its education campaign coalition partners.

As part of its work on education financing, ASPBAE launched country studies on education Official Development Assistance (ODA), on Sector-Wide Approaches, and on education privatisation in select countries in the Asia Pacific.

The studies and researches have played an important role in influencing national and cross-country advocacy planning and capacity-building activities with national education campaign coalitions and other education campaigners in the Asia Pacific region.

CAMPAIGNS, LOBBYING, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

ASPBAE participates in various international policy arenas on education such as the Education For All High-Level Group and the Education For All Working Group. It is represented on the Advisory Board of the Education For All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) and is a member of the Global Advisory Committee of the UN Girls Education Initiative (UGEI). It is an important partner of CONFINTEA 6. ASPBAE also lobbies with sub-regional and regional bodies, such as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization), the Pacific Forum, and the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians Forum, to advance the right of citizens to quality education.

As an active member of the Global Campaign for Education, it promotes public awareness, and the right to education through participation in the Global Action Week, an annual worldwide campaign to mobilise political support for Education For All.

CONFINTEA 6

ASBPAE plays an important role in the global adult learning and education for all movement and is an active member of the CONFINTEA process. CONFINTEA is an international conference on adult learning and education that is held approximately every 12 years. It is a global policy platform for dialogue and advocacy on adult learning and education for all.

ASPBAE is committed to pursuing the unfinished agenda of CONFINTEA 6, drawing attention to critical issues that can provide a strong framework for achieving real progress on adult education such as:

• For governments to commit to a 6% target as an equitable share of the domestic education budget to be earmarked for the education of adults and young people.
• Northern governments to commit 6% of their education aid budgets for the education of adults and young people.
• Stronger recognition of the role of adult education in ensuring gender justice and a clear recognition of gender as an integral and cross-cutting issue.
• Action to address macro-economic policies which presently block countries from investing adequately in education, particularly in the context of the financial crisis, which has discredited past prescriptions from the International Monetary Fund.
• Recognise basic adult education as a human right, to a point where governments pass legislation to make all adult education legally enforceable.