Though progress has been made in reducing the number of out of school children and youth (OOSCY) in Southeast Asia, millions of primary and secondary school-aged children remain out of school across the region. To address the different barriers facing out of school children (OOSC) therein, Educate A Child (EAC) and UNESCO Bangkok partnered to support enrolling and retaining OOSC in ten Southeast Asian countries through research, policy advocacy, capacity development and the scaling up of flexible-learning strategies.
With the aim of contributing to the body of global knowledge on OOSC, EAC worked with Results for Development (R4D) to conduct an in-depth case study to document and analyse ASEAN’s regional approach to addressing OOSC.
The key findings of the case study pointed to the importance of both catalytic action and partnerships. Catalytic support from EAC and UNESCO Bangkok as well as follow-on engagement from UNICEF greatly contributed to the development and impact of the Declaration, including results seen at the country level. This consolidated several key strengths that had been built over time:
- An existing culture of collaboration and mutual respect within the region helped encourage ASEAN member states to develop and adopt the Declaration;
- The influence and organisational structure of ASEAN was a key enabler to achieving government buy-in to the Declaration and subsequent regional activities; and
- The ASEAN states were already aware of the OOSC problem in their region and this set of activities in the project provided a useful point from which to propel action.
The findings also pointed to the political sensitivity surrounding migrant children, noting that that could serve as an exclusionary factor and a barrier to enabling all OOSC to fulfil their right to a quality education.
Partners
