A global call to action for early childhood

Planning for Success: Advocacy as Process in Turkey’s Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV)
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to preschool education among children
aged 4 to 6. The campaign changed
perceptions on ECE, as reflected in
statements made by senior education
officials, including the Minister of
Education, on the importance of ECE.
The Minister even used the campaign
slogan in a number of speeches.
Parliamentarians are also discussing
the introduction of a compulsory
kindergarten year. An attitudinal
survey conducted by the advocacy
team demonstrated a marked change
in attitude and understanding of ECE
among people in positions of power in
society.
In the most recent phase, the
campaign capitalised on the upcoming
national elections and ran full-page
advertisements in newspapers calling
on all political parties and the public
to promote ECE and to make universal
preschool education an election issue.
This was followed up by television
and radio appearances by the political
candidates.
It was gratifying to note that many
of the political parties mentioned
ECE in their election manifestos and
put forward targets for increasing
provision. However these fell short
of the campaign’s target of universal
preschool education by 2010.
Lessons learned
Measured against its objectives,
the advocacy campaign has been a
success. However, the team learnt
a number of lessons related to the
planning and implementation of largescale
advocacy campaigns. AÇEV
learned that:
• A five-year plan and budget is
needed in order to realistically meet
objectives.
• The plan should be rolled out
consistently and systematically; any
break in activities risks a loss of
momentum.
COORDINATORS’ NOTEBOOK: ISSUE 29
• Advocacy is time-consuming in detail
and follow-up; therefore adequate
human resources are needed and an
effective team needs to be built.
• The advocacy team can’t do
everything; expertise needs to be
hired in, and it is important to trust
their expert advice, in particular for
the production of creative material to
ensure that campaign products have
a professional look and feel.
• Messages should target the people
who are skeptical rather than the
already-converted.
• Specific messages are needed to
mobilise the public; be clear about
what you want people to know and
to do.
• Media headlines do not mean
advocacy success. It is easy to get
carried away with communications and
neglect other activities that may need
different strategies.
• Be clear about who the decision
makers are (they are different from
decision approvers and decision
advisors).
• A mechanism needs to be
established to ensure that funds can
be collected by different organisations
for specific pre-agreed advocacy
activities. Failure to do this may lead to
disagreement on how donations and
funding are used.
• An organisation’s own networks
should be mobilised.
• The media lose attention quickly;
they need to be fed with new stories
and fresh events, not rehashed
information.
• Awareness is not an end in itself;
be clear about how you want people
to translate knowledge into action.
• International consensus and
pressure can greatly increase the
impact of any national advocacy
effort.
Next steps
The campaign has been successful in
raising awareness on early childhood
in Turkey. The challenge now remains
for policy changes to take place.
AÇEV has decided that it will focus
its efforts for the next two years
on lobbying for legislative change.
Under current legislation, compulsory
education begins at age 6. AÇEV is
now pushing for a change in legislation
to make compulsory education start
a year before formal schooling, in
kindergarten at age 5. AÇEV is also
working with the Ministry of Education
and the State Planning Organisation
for further analysis on the costs and
financing of preschool expansion.
Efforts on the international front to
promote early childhood education and
raise awareness among stakeholders
and decision makers have always been
very important for AÇEV’s work. Even
the campaign slogan “7 is Too Late!”
was borrowed from the Consultative
Group’s “8 is Too Late!” advocacy
initiative for the Jomtien Conference.
AÇEV urges international actors such
as the Consultative Group to increase
their efforts to place early childhood
on the global agenda, as this will aid
the work of national and local actors.
Update at time of printing:
The government is making preschool
education compulsory in 10 provinces
(out of 81) in the new academic year.
This piloting almost certainly means that
it will be rolled out in other provinces in
the next few years and the goal of the
campaign—to ensure that all children in
Turkey benefit from at least one year of
preschool by 2011 —will be a reality!
For more information, contact:
Ayla Goksel Gocer
Anne Çocuk Egitim Vakfı – Mother
Child Education Foundation (AÇEV)
Buyukdere Cad. No 85/2
Mecidiyeköy 34387
Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: aylag@acev.org
Website: http://www.acev.org