August 2017 RESULTS Grassroots National Webinar for Global Campaigns

August 2017 RESULTS Grassroots National Webinar for Global Campaigns

Global Partnership for Education

Dr. Joanne Carter: Welcome to the August 2017 Global Partnership for Education webinar. It was so wonderful to get to be with some of you in Washington last month. For the first time ever we had folks from all 50 states at the [International c]onference. We are at a place where we are reaching every senate office. That is so important at this time. There were also partners and allies from 20 other countries.

I wanted to take a few moments to share some exciting things that are happening because of your advocacy. There was such a big advocacy that happened leading up to the conference. Since the conference, in this incredible fraught time in Congress, we first saw the passage of our Global Education Bill in our READ Act. The READ Act was previously the Education for All Act. It makes sure to advance education in vulnerable places where kids are impacted by violence and vulnerabilities. Education will be a key focus for this call. This passing was a result from your tir[eless] advocacy. We are in a good position and we are confident it will move forward.

We saw real progress on the other key legislation, the Reach Every Mother and Child Act. It will ensure that we will keep reforms and implement the bold strategy to accelerate the end of child and maternal death. That was reintroduced in the senate after our congress.

I was struck by two things. One was that the day that Senate was discussing health care and Senator Collins as a spokesperson, she took the time to meet with us. She set a good 5-7 minutes speaking passionately about the Reach Act. I like to think that we gave her some good energy on that day. She actually challenged us to get 60 senators on that bill for a veto-proof majority for it. On the introduction of that bill, you guys got a really good start on that. It was reintroduced to the senate with 10 original cosponsors. There were 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans. We got great bipartisan support. You did so well in getting support from republicans in that bill that we had to scramble to get Democratic support.

I was also struck at the reception that ended our lobby day. We had senators join us. Every single one of those members talked about the incredible importance of your advocacy.

We have had some powerful blogs recently as well regarding the work of advocacy and results. Later today we will hear from some of you regarding the conference. Let your people know the impact of their efforts. Show them how they played a part. I guarantee that we could have a dozen folks in every community ready to take action and ready as feeders to our groups. That is the kind of muscle we need to overcome the challenges we are facing. Continue that outreach and share the impact and experiences you have had. It will build our network.

Now I am thrilled to turn it over to John Fawcett and Selamawit Adugna Bekele. She is a powerful and deeply committed advocate for global education. We are honored to have her join us today to provide insights into the impact for the global partnership for education and why access to education is so critical. Thank you so much for being on the call this lovely August.

John Fawcett: It was so great to see so many of you at the International Conference. That was where we launched our effort to build support for the Global Partnership for Education early next year. It is back to school time now. You see it everywhere. It is the time where kids in the United States are headed back into the classroom. But for so many children around the world, they don't have that opportunity. There are even kids that are in school but they are not getting a quality education. Alongside you at the International conference, one of your fellow advocates was Selamawit Adugna Bekele. She is a passionate education and gender activist from Ethiopia. She started her work as a teacher. She is an advocate for education in her country. She has a special focus on women and girls, a key part of ending global poverty. She aims at making sure all children are receiving a quality education free from discrimination. We look forward to hearing her remarks regarding her work. We will have the opportunity for questions, as well.

Selamawit Adugna Bekele: Thank you for the kind introduction. Hello, everyone! I have been a teacher for my country. My country is one of the poorest in the world. Only 60% of the children there are enrolled in full time education. Even those who have education, the challenges are still many. We joined in 2004 and we have seen several grants to date to support building schools, distributing text books, and training teachers. Since 2004, we have made a tangible focus in the education sector. There are million boys and girls who are denied education.

I want to share a story with you. I have a student name Violet. She was known by her teachers and classmates for making the most of her education. She had been told that she could not go to school without wearing certain things. She could not afford the outfit. Her hands say a lot about her life. It had been two weeks since she went to school. Her biology was the first one. Our gender based school was near the poverty line. In order to respond to their challenges, we found a student teacher that could help. They were able to play a big role. Her father died of HIV/AIDS when she was twelve. Her mother became very ill and she had to make money. She decided to drop out of school. She started working in a factory. When you ask her about her actions, we were told about her in the factory. Her teacher told her that she had to come back to school at least for a few days. He insisted. She worked the night shift so she could attend school during the day. Unfortunately, she would get into trouble with her other teachers. She would often sleep during class and not do homework. It was at this point that we decided to support her. In a few months, she was attending school that took care of her until she received her . . . [audio in and out.] She is no longer risk of early marriage or violence.

There were complications. It was more likely to be.... to have a direct impact. She will be a great mom. We hope to continue like that. This is why I support GPE. It is important making education a priority. It is a key to provide education to every child. I want to thank you for making it a concern to provide education to these children. Thank you for making a long investment for children under GPE.

John Fawcett: Thank you. GPE is all about getting to scale and taking that example and replicating it again and again for children everywhere. We have the opportunity for some questions for Selamawit Adugna Bekele. You can unmute yourself and press the microphone on Fuze or press *1. You can also put it in the chat box and I can read it out if that is easier for you.

Question: How is Global Partnership for Education money distributed to Ethiopia? Who does the money go to and where does it go from there?

Question: What does Ethiopia do with those dollars? What are Ethiopia's priorities for education?

Selamawit Adugna Bekele: We work with government. We work with government in unionship. What are their priorities and what are they focusing on? They are focusing on building schools. They are focusing on making sure that the education they are providing is a quality education. We have ten million learners before 2004. Since 2004, we reached the minimum numbers of people who are educated into 100 million.

John Fawcett: We see this question a lot. People are concerned with corruption. Is there the possibility that money could be misused? What is GPE doing to minimize that risk?

Selamawit Adugna Bekele: They are . . . working with the government and agencies that are engaged to make sure there is a transparency in their work. I can't get in detail with what they do exactly. I really support them. I am sure RESULTS could answer that more than I could. I will pass that to you.

John Fawcett: I think we can follow up with information and share about some of the efforts for that.

We have another question about the issue of global partnership schools. They work with the government and UNICEF. That is what we like about GPE - their work with UNICEF and government.

Selamawit Adugna Bekele: I have been involved in the issues for the for-profit schools in Uganda. It has not come up often. There is not any evidence that donors money is being diverted to for profit schools. The one thing I really like about my country is that education is free for primary and secondary. The money is not going into government. It is going into our education.

John Fawcett: What was your favorite part about the International Conference?

Selamawit Adugna Bekele: I have been involved since 2014. It is nice to see sharing stories and facts and numbers with them in RESULTS. We go through this often. We take our conference very seriously.

John Fawcett: Great. I know we will continue to work with you. It is always a pleasure to be with you. I will continue with a quick follow up on some of the things that Joanne raised. I would like to talk about progress since the conference for Reach Act.

As Joanne mentioned, we got the legislation reintroduced the Reach Act into Congress. It had a very strong showing of bipartisan support. We had republican members of the senate who had been supporters of that legislation in the past. We also had some new republicans coming on that bill as the first time as an original cosponsor. We are excited to see the progress of that. We look forward to meeting Senator Collins' challenge to reach 60 senators on the bill. We continue to work closely with senators. We are working on reintroduction. You should anticipate that in September when congress returns.

In Global Partnership work, we have some developments that are encouraging. The passage of the READ Act in the Senate. There were some slight changes to the senate version. It has to go back to the House of Representatives to pass again. Once that happens, it is on the president's desk to sign. It comes at an important time since it funds global education. It was also passed in the senate as the same week that the [head of USAID] was confirmed. It is exciting. It makes a strong statement.

The other thing that has happened is that the House has marked up its version of the bill. They are increasing assistance to the GPE. That is a very positive sign in congressional support for this issue. Finally, in the resolution of their support for the GPE is led by representatives. We had a lot of cosponsors in a short amount of time due to your great advocacy. We have Senator Booker has agreed to lead that vote.

As you follow up from your meetings, we have the Reach Act introduced in the senate and in the house. The GPE introduced in the House and ready to go for the senate. I will turn it over to Mark for the Grassroots Cafe. We look forward to the work ahead with GPE.

Mark Campbell: It was so incredible to be with everyone during International conference. It is the most inspiring time of year. We would like to give the opportunity to share any of our memorable moments from the International conference. We would like to hear how the International conference landed with everyone. I will go ahead and unmute everyone's lines. You can push the microphone button on Fuze. Tell us about any victories you may have had. Please keep your comments short so we can hear from as many people as possible.

Is there anyone would like to share an experience? Again, that is *1.

Beth: I just want to share how exciting it is to see the growth in diversity and youth. Our International Conference is joining younger and more diverse. It’s so exciting. There is so much power in youth.

Mark Campbell: Thank you, Beth. Anyone else?

Lindsay: The thing that still thrills me is that we took seven new folks from North Carolina. It was so exciting to see. None of them had been to the Hill. By the end of the day, those new folks were leading meetings. It was so incredible to see them blossoming throughout the day. Some of those folks who attended their first meeting are now setting up their first meetings. It is incredible to see the growth in people's progress in just a short few days.

Mark Campbell: Yes. Is there anyone else who would like to share?

Christine: I am from Atlanta. I have been involved from quite a while. I have the pleasure of working with new folks from new states that had not been represented before like Arkansas and new chapters in Alabama. It is really wonderful to be a part of that. We can contact so many people that way. We work on these issues from all over the country. That was really inspiring. It is cool to see our relationships growing. They get warmer and warmer with us. It is so great to see the power of this organization and all the newness levels. It was really inspiring.

Mark Campbell: Thank you for sharing.

Lori: We have a group from northern California. It was so great to see the wheelchair rally in support of healthcare. We watched the rally and it was very inspiring. I was very pleased to see that the schedule to the IC was switched up so Saturday we could reach with our own regions and get to know each other before lobby night on Monday. That was a real bonus for me.

Mark Campbell: Is there anyone else out there who would like to share an experience?

Gentleman: I have been incredibly impressed with having people from all 50 states. We have been dreaming of that for so long. The discussion that had the head of BRAC say that they had a new graduation program building with the ultra-poor who don't get connected with microcredit. I had this vision that there may be an end of poverty and its worst consequences could really take place by our 2030 deadline. It blew me away.