Civil society organizations, supported by Education Out Loud, play a key role in ensuring countries maximize the limited resources available for education funding. With years of experience participating in technical education dialogue, working with key financial partners and implementing sustained accountability work with communities, civil society organizations have become instrumental in coordinating technical policy discussions and mobilizing funds for education at country level. 

Local leadership for global impact: A new era of civil society-led coordination in Lesotho 

The Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN) has long been a key voice in education advocacy. As a member of the local education group, LCN has worked to ensure that civil society not only contributes to shaping education policies but also demonstrates its capacity to lead decision-making processes. 

For years, international agencies led multistakeholder coordination in Lesotho. While these agencies brought funding and expertise, their leadership left local organizations with limited space for influencing decision making and made it difficult for grassroots voices to shape education reforms. There was a clear need for local organizations like LCN to play a bigger role in decision making and policy implementation. 

LCN presented its candidacy for the role of coordinating agency building on years of experience as part of a technical group, which worked on shaping the drafting of the GPE system capacity grant, the report of the Independent Technical Advisory Panel and the partnership compact development. 

Its nomination was unanimously supported by members of Lesotho’s local education group, making Lesotho one of the few countries where civil society leads this critical function. 

To ensure a smooth transition, LCN shadowed UNICEF, the incumbent coordinating agency, throughout 2024, gaining first-hand experience in facilitating local education group meetings, engaging stakeholders, and overseeing the application process for key grants selection. Since the beginning of 2025, LCN has fully assumed the role of coordinating agency. 

In its new role, it has organized two local education group meetings, led the application for a US$5 million system transformation grant and provided support to the World Food Programme in the development of a GPE technical assistance initiative focused on strengthening the government’s capacity to own and sustain school feeding efforts. 

The transition of the GPE coordinating agency role to LCN represents a significant step forward in localizing education governance. LCN’s leadership ensures that civil society is informed about GPE funding and processes and has a direct role in shaping how allocated resources are utilized. This shift enhances social accountability, as LCN is well-positioned to monitor fund utilization and ensure alignment with national education priorities.

 As LCN fully assumes its coordinating agency role in 2025, it demonstrates the increasing recognition of civil society’s role in education governance that can drive meaningful education reforms. With civil society at the helm, Lesotho’s education sector is poised for greater accountability, innovation and long-term sustainability. 

Local advocates turned technical advisors in Tanzania 

As active members of Tanzania’s local education group, the Tanzania Education Network/Mtandao wa Elimu Tanzania (TEN/MET) and HakiElimu are civil society organizations strengthening collaboration with the government and education stakeholders to advance education financing and policy reforms. 

Beyond advocacy, the National Education Coalition TEN/MET plays a crucial role in monitoring and evaluating GPE grants, ensuring effective use of funds to improve learning. As a member of the GPE systems capacity grant technical committee, TEN/MET offers technical insight and support to the grant agent while ensuring the grant is designed and implemented in accordance with GPE guidance. 

Additionally, the coalition mobilized 250 of its members to unify civil society voices in shaping the education priorities and to contribute evidence-based recommendations to strengthen the partnership compact’s focus on gender equality, inclusion, teaching and learning environments, and teacher workforce planning and management. 

TEN/MET also participated in the compact mid-term review, ensuring all triggers align with GPE criteria, and contributed to preparing financing application documents for the new multiplier grant and the system transformation grant top-up allocation. Through these efforts, TEN/MET champions equitable, inclusive, and sustainable education financing, reinforcing national efforts to strengthen Tanzania’s education system and mobilizing resources for transformative education programs. 

As the country advances through the GPE compact process, these organizations work to ensure civil society perspectives remain central in addressing systemic barriers to quality education, upholding equity and effectiveness in education sector reforms.

Leveraging funding: Unlocking Tanzania’s GPE Multiplier 

Recognizing the critical role of adequate funding in achieving quality and inclusive education, a collective effort of like-minded civil society organizations including HakiElimu, TEN/MET and CAMFED acted in strategic partnership to mobilize financial resources to unlock the GPE Multiplier. 

HakiElimu was instrumental in supporting this process by conducting budget analysis, engaging stakeholders and advocating for increased budget allocations to the education sector. HakiElimu provided evidence-based recommendations to the government, ensuring that education financing remained a priority in national planning and budgeting. 

The efforts made by the CSO and other stakeholders resulted in the mobilization of US$58 million, which unlocked $22 million from the GPE Multiplier – demonstrating civil society’s ability to drive impactful advocacy and leverage domestic funding for Tanzania’s education sector. By advocating for increased investment and accountability in education financing, civil society remains instrumental in shaping policies that drive sustainable and inclusive educational development.

This article was originally posted on GPE's website. Read the original article here.