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What is the Canadian Global Campaign for Education Alliance?

The CGCE was created on December 1, 2004 as a broad-based coalition of non-governmental organisations, teachers unions, religious based development groups, Canadian educational organisations and Canadian research organisations with an interest in promoting the universal right to education through the internationally recognized Education for All goals.

Canadians believe that good quality basic education is a universal right. The Canadian government has re-asserted its commitment to the achievement of Education for All. The reality, however, is that the world is still very far from achieving this goal. Civil society, in Canada and internationally, has an important role to play in the achievement of the right to education, through policy dialogue, monitoring, research and the support of citizens and their organisations.

The Canadian GCE is a member of the Global Campaign for Education, an international coalition that brings together national and regional coalitions of NGOs and citizen organisations to promote education for all.

What are the Goals of the Canadian GCE Alliance?

The Canadian GCE has four primary goals:

• To enhance Canadian commitment to the achievement of the universal right to education by raising public awareness, stimulating evidence-based dialogue, engaging the broader education community, and promoting better funding and more effective approaches to this issue within our foreign policy agenda
  
• To support forms of research and policy dialogue that can encourage a sustained role for democratic engagement in the governance of education in developing countries
  
• To provide a forum for debate, information sharing and discussion among those Canadian civil society organisations which are active in efforts to achieve universal publicly-funded basic education in developing countries
• To develop innovative partnerships with Southern civil society organizations and coalitions committed to policy dialogue, research and innovation for the acheivement of free, good quality public education for all.
  
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The CGCE is currently made up of 21 organizations with diverse expertise, interests and constituents. Member organizations are designated as part of the Executive, Steering Committee, or general membership. The CGCE is open to new membership. Please contact info@cgce.ca for more information.

CGCE Executive, Steering Committee and Members

Organization	Designation
Aga Khan Foundation Canada	Member
Canadian Council for International Cooperation	Steering Committee
Canadian Federation of University Women	Member
Canadian Teachers' Federation	Co-Chair, Steering Committee
Care Canada	Member
CODE	Co-Chair, Steering Committee
Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development	Steering Committee
Fondation Paul Gerin-Lajoie	Member
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education / University of Toronto	Steering Committee
Oxfam Canada	Member
Plan Canada	Steering Committee
RESULTS Canada	Steering Committee
Rights and Democracy	Member
Save the Children Canada	Treasurer, Steering Committee
Unicef Canada	Steering Committee
University of Alberta, Faculty of Educational Policy Studies	Vice-Chair, Steering Committee
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Education	Steering Committee
VSO Canada	Member
World Vision Canada	Member
World University Service of Canada	Steering Committee
York University, Faculty of Education	Member

The CGCE also regularly works in collaboration with a number of partners, including:
Brock University, Faculty of Education
Halifax Initiative
Laurentian University, Faculty of Education
McGill University, Faculty of Education

What is the Global Campaign for Education (GCE)?

As a global alliance working in over 150 countries, Global Campaign for Education  represents a dynamic coalition of NGOs, teachers’ unions, trade unions, activists and other civil society organisations promoting the Education for All (EFA) goals.

What does GCE do?

The Global Campaign for Education promotes education as a basic human right, and mobilizes public pressure on governments, donors and the international community to fulfill their promises to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people; in particular for children, women and all disadvantaged, deprived sections of society.

With so much to gain, there can be no excuse for delay. The GCE therefore demands that the international community and governments of the South take immediate action to implement the Education for All goals and strategies agreed by 185 world governments at Dakar in April 2000. In particular, the GCE calls:

• On governments, to involve citizens' groups, teachers and communities in developing concrete plans of action for delivering and sustaining free, good quality public education for all;
  
  
• On governments, to abolish fees and charges for public primary education, and to increase their own spending on adult, early childhood, primary and basic education, with priority investments in schools and teachers serving the most disadvantaged groups;
  
  
• On the World Bank and rich Northern countries, to increase aid and debt relief for basic education, and fund a Global Initiative to back national plans with speedy, coordinated and predictable delivery of the additional resources needed;
  
  
• On civil society organizations, to hold their own governments and international institutions accountable for upholding the right to education, and delivering on the Education for All goals.

What is the Global Action Week?

Each year the Global Campaign for Education holds a Global Action Week to mobilize the public in support of internatinoal promises to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people. It commemorates the anniversary of the Dakar conference, where 164 countries committed themselves to these promises, known as the Education for All (EFA) goals.

During Global Action Week Canadian children are linked to a world-wide movement through learning and activities which allow them to share and exchange information and experiences. Global Action Week grows every year, with millions of participants in 120 countries participating during 2006. The 2008 Global Action Week campaign is Quality Education to End Exclusion! Activities will culminate during Global Action Week April 21-27th. Click here to find out more about the 2007 campaign, and previous campaigns.

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