The GCE movement was founded in 1999, in the build-up to the World Education Forum in Dakar, to provide a platform to unify and coordinate civil society voices in relation to the global education agenda. Since then, the movement GCE has grown significantly, in particular through the expansion and consolidation of national civil society coalitions. Some important progress has been made, including 40 million more children in school. However, far more still needs to be done to realise the right to quality education for all. Today, the GCE represent over 100 national and regional education coalitions and international organisations. Our membership is comprised of a huge variety of national, regional and international civil society organisations, teachers’ organisations, parents’ associations, women’s group, disabled people’s organisation, youth and student groups, academic or research institutions and child rights campaigners. Our national coalitions encompass many thousands of civil society organisations and represent millions of individual across the world.
Each is independent, and all are united by the commitment to the right to education, and to achieving change through the mobilisation of citizens and civil society. The diversity of our membership is the movement’s key strength, allowing us to run impactful cross-national and global campaigns, like the Global Action Week for Education, an annual global campaign organised by the GCE since 2001. We are committed to listen to the variety of voices within the movement, and our membership has regularly chosen the themes of the Global action weeks. Our reach allows us to link the grassroots campaigning to high-level meetings and seminars, bringing the voice of civil society to the UN General Assembly and the ECOSOC committees. We are a unique platform, merging and echoing education concerns from the countries facing the most development challenges to the more developed countries.
