Degree Name

MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management

First Advisor

Jeff Unsicker

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the United States (US) Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education’s (GCE) advocacy initiatives to influence the amount and quality of international aid from the U.S. government to keep the pledge it took along with other world governments to contribute its fair share of funding towards providing Education for All (EFA) around the world by 2015. The pledge was signed and reaffirmed several times over the years, the last taking place in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal. The research is conducted mainly through primary document analysis from GCE, secondary literature, and two interviews with professional staff with experience in the advocacy campaign. I also used other observations and my personal experience volunteering with the GCE U.S. Chapter to analyze the organization’s advocacy programs, context, policy issues, political actors, and advocacy strategies in order to learn the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of outcomes and lessons that can be drawn from the campaign experience. Analysis of data was conducted after the documentation review and the completion of interviews. The GCE U.S. Chapter conducts campaign activities targeting the US law makers throughout the year but the main event takes place every year during the month of April and lasts a week. The GCE U.S. Chapter holds many activities around the country throughout the year and during the Week of Action in collaboration with numerous other non-governmental and religious organizations, teachers unions, foundations, and child rights activists mainly targeting members of Congress, senators and other law makers to keep this cause on the front page among the numerous policies on the policy makers’ agenda. Findings from this research show that the GCE U.S. Chapter’s initiatives to influence the amount and quality of international aid from the US government to keep its pledge to contribute its fair share towards providing Education for All (EFA) around the world by 2015 produced modest progress. The U.S. has gradually increased its commitment to education in recent years, spending approximately $520 million on basic education in 2006. However, Gene Sperling, the Chair of the U.S. Chapter GCE and Director of Center for Universal Education, Council on Foreign Relations, stated in a press release in April 2007 that “Despite the modest progress, the U.S. is still about $2.5 billion short of fulfilling its fair share of the promise of Education for All.” As of August 2009, 2015 is just five years away and the U.S. is still far from meeting its obligated amount for Education for All.

Disciplines

Education

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