FAWE has entered into a three year partnership with Echidna Giving with an aim to enhance and strengthen its capacity to deliver on her mission and vision. For the past 27 years, FAWE has worked to promote  girls’ access to education in 33 sub-Saharan countries, It is therefore necessary that its capacity is strengthened to enhance its ability to function and continue to stay relevant within the rapidly changing education sector.

As the organization enters into a new strategic plan period (2019-2023), the partnership will support it to evaluate the previous strategic plan; its challenges, achievements, weaknesses and lessons. This will inform the development and implementation of the new strategic plan that will guide the organization. Through this process, Echidna will support FAWE to strengthen some of its organization components including advocacy & communication, Information communication Technology (ICT), Monitoring & Evaluation and organizational capacity & partnerships.

The partnership will help improve FAWE’s advocacy efforts on girl’s education through documentation of past and present evidence on what has worked for effective policy influencing at the national and regional level. In addition to that it  will support  the implementation of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 (CESA) in two FAWE National chapters; Kenya and Malawi. The two chapters will work with national governments to utilize the developed Gender Equality Strategy to guide the implementation of the CESA 16-25 and ensure gender is integrated in the aforementioned country’s education sector plans and policies.

Owing to its coordinating function, the FAWE Regional Secretariat (FAWE-RS) is keen on improving its ICT in line with technology advancement and expand its outreach across the 33 national chapters, funders, partners, members and other stakeholders. The partnership will therefore support the enhancement of the organization internal and external communication channels and web presence.

Lastly, FAWE will strengthen its Monitoring and Evaluation by establishing an integrated online system that will utilize modern technology to ensure data is well extracted, disseminated, received and stored. This will  be accompanied by capacity building on the use of the system for the FAWE network staff which will contribute to accurate and timely reporting.

FAWE is excited about this new partnership and looks forward to having a vibrant organization dedicated to advancing the agenda of girl’s education in Sub-Saharan Africa.