If your job is convincing authorities to deliver quality education, yet your government is precarious, dealing with armed conflict or has clamped down on civil society advocacy, how do you do your job effectively?

This is the dilemma faced by scores of education advocates supported by Education Out Loud (EOL), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fund for advocacy and social accountability.

The majority of the 60+ countries where Education Out Loud works are fragile, conflict-affected or suffering from constrained civic space, according to relevant global indices.

As part of Education Out Loud's efforts to contribute to the education advocacy field, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), works to draw out the learning taking place through activities supported by Education Out Loud. This includes supporting partners to learn from their own experience and from each other.

There is little published research on the question posed above, so learning from practitioners’ own experience is key.

The action research process

Action research is a particular approach to learning that is very well suited to adult practitioners. Over 2022–23, IDS developed an action research process with staff of Education Out Loud partner organizations in 15 countries affected by violent conflict, political instability, fragile governance or narrowing civic space.

The process aimed to support education advocates to learn from their shared experience about how to navigate these contexts – in ways that keep them safe while also advancing their advocacy objectives strategically and effectively. It also aimed to draw out lessons and implications for others.

After individual interviews, we formed 5 small peer groups, each around similar context or challenges faced. The groups met virtually over several months, engaging in an evolving learning-focused, reflective conversation shaped by participants.

The whole group then convened for a 3-day in-person workshop, taking part in exercises and reflection based on what we had learned. At the workshop, the participants recorded a video to communicate their key messages.

What makes education advocacy difficult in these contexts?

Participants spelled out a wide range of challenging conditions that they confront. As one participant explains, the group included advocates from “countries that are war-torn, countries that have had conflicts, countries that are ruled by authoritarian regimes, and also the so-called democratic contexts where you have governments actually using the law to curtail civil society”.

An advocate from Somalia highlighted how clan violence and environmental impacts like drought and flood cause significant displacement. In these conditions he says you “need to start from zero in your advocacy, [so] that these children get education” at all.

Another participant explained how some governments see that “education advocates are interrupting their politics and administration… this makes it really difficult”.

5 ways advocacy CSOs can navigate these difficulties effectively and safely

Participants came up with five key messages for practitioners like themselves:

1. Understand power relations – by conducting power analysis and power mapping.
2. Build civil society alliances – to make the advocacy effort more strategic, thorough and effective.
3. Craft advocacy strategies carefully – involving a range of methods and actors, adapting and learning as you go.
4. Build trust with the government – over the long term, so as to gain influence.
5. Protect civic space – against repressive legislation and suppression tactics, to maintain the freedoms necessary for conducting advocacy.

These messages are deceptively simple. Putting them into practice requires complex political analysis, adaptive management, and working with funders and other potential allies to attune them to the challenges.

Without civic space that affords the freedoms of association, assembly and expression essential for public and policy advocacy, those pressing for quality education for all cannot do their job safely and effectively. As one participant put it, “It is one of the values of democracy.”

Participants hope their fifth message will impress on those who fund and advise their countries’ education sectors the crucial importance of also protecting civic space, and them as civil society organizations.

Meanwhile, though, workshop participants devised a set of ‘Survival Strategies’ for keeping them and their organizations safe while doing their work. Short and snappy, these nonetheless mask trade-offs that advocates need to manage through careful and continuous context analysis.

We also produced a short ‘Discussion Guide’, to support education advocates to use the video with their partners.

Participants’ feedback on the process highlighted the fresh insights, relationship-building with peers, newfound professional confidence, and replenished courage they got from it.

They also learned about strategic and adaptive planning skills and advocacy repertoires – learning that can strengthen their work with Education Out Loud, as well as helping keep advocates and their organizations safe.