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Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.

GI-ESCR participation at CIES conference

GI-ESCR participation at CIES conference

GI-ESCR participation at CIES conference

 

The Comparative and International Education Society | 66th Annual Conference will run between April 18-22, 2022. The CIES 2022 theme Illuminating the Power of Idea/lism arises from the intersection of two immutable realities of our time and the impact both are having on the field of comparative and international education. The first is the global experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. The second is the rise of nativism and fundamentalism representing both ideological rigidity and political divisiveness. The CIES 2022 theme seeks to find ways to address these challenges by bringing forward new ideas with a sense of idealism in the work on Education.

GI-ESCR will be organising and taking part in the following activities:

  • How are Commercial Private Schools Doing in Practice?

    The rapid growth of commercial actors in low-fee private schooling have been at the center of debates on education and inequalities for the last two decades. Those in favour of this phenomenon argue that commercial models present a potential “solution” to the problems confronting so-called developing countries. On the other hand, this large-scale expansion of commercial actors has been criticized by many for being incompatible with human rights and has paved the way to the adoption of the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education in 2019, synthesizing the existing international human rights norms in the context of commercialisation in education.

    Bridge International Academies (BIA) is probably the most well-known and controversial chain among commercial low-fee private schools. It stands out by its scale – over 500 schools and the ambition to reach 10 million children by 2025 – and its use of technology. BIA uses what it calls a ‘school in a box’ model, employing a highly-standardised approach to education. Every school looks the same, the material used is the same in each classroom, and most importantly, the lessons are the same across all the academies of the same country. It uses a system of scripted lessons, and its teachers receive lesson plans on an e-tablet, which they have to follow word by word.

    Controversies about its involvement in East- and West Africa have been widely echoed in the last few years mainly concerning issues such as compliance with international and national laws, the school environment, questions related to access and parental inclusion, as well as concerns raised relating to the poor labour and working conditions of teachers employed by Bridge, and the lack of transparency and accountability regarding its operations. Some of these concerns have been voiced in a complaint submitted to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank which has invested in Bridge, in 2018. This case has been followed by subsequent complaints to the CAO in 2020, alleging the sexual abuse and electrocution of children attending Bridge International Academies in Kenya. Moreover, the fact that many Bridge schools have permanently closed shop due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many teachers unemployed and many children without schools, deepening structural inequalities in access to education with specific implications for girls and young women.

    This panel aims to build on the developments that have taken place since the 2017 CIES panel addressing Bridge International Academies as the evolving model for commercial low-fee private schools. In doing so, it will offer important reflections on what has changed on the ground since 2017 and will present the latest research and empirical data available in the East- and West- African regions concerning the operations of Bridge schools. It will provide an analysis of the current situation in Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and Nigeria from an equality and right to education lens and will investigate through the case study of Kenya, whether the Bridge model upholds the requirements of transparency and accountability towards the communities it serves. Reflecting on the individual presentations, the panel will ultimately explore whether the model of the Bridge International Academies is fit for the very purposes it was founded for.

  • Strengthening Public Education: Tools and Experiences for aligning Education Policies with the Right to Education

    In education, the last two decades have seen a significant increase in the scale and scope of non-state actors at the primary and secondary levels, and in particular commercial actors bringing a market-logic in education. These changes have been transforming education systems rapidly. The human rights concerns regarding this commercialisation and commodification of education include economic discrimination and segregation; lower quality and unequal access to for marginalised groups; frequent disregard for labour laws and standards; the reinforcement of unbalanced power relations; and unequal participation in the governance of education institutions. These concerns have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which revealed that market-based education systems are, especially in times of crises, unsustainable and have recentered the focus on the importance of implementing the right to education through well-founded, stable, inclusive and free public education systems.

    How the right to public education is being implemented varies across the globe according to local realities. However, a fix point in any State’s approach to implementation, especially in the context of the rapid expansion of commercialisation in education and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, must be that its education policies are in line with international obligations and commitments synthesized in the Abidjan Principles.

    The present panel, through the inter-linkage of four presentations, seeks to demonstrate how States and education stakeholders can be supported in better implementing the right to education using human rights tools and by learning from successful examples of public education systems. The first presentation will lay out how the normative content of the Abidjan Principles can guide States in their efforts to put in place more coherent education policies for strengthening their public education systems. Building on this paper, the subsequent presentation will outline how researchers can use the Abidjan Principles to measure if and how States are implementing and individuals are enjoying the right to education. The third paper will introduce a new tool developed by the International Institute for Educational Planning of UNESCO to support education stakeholders in bringing the right to education to the core of their education planning documents, such as their education sector plans. The final presentation on this panel will showcase how some countries have managed to implement the right to education successfully and will go on to conclude that free, quality public education systems can be achieved anywhere around the world, with the necessary political will and adherence to human rights commitments.

  • Pre-conference workshop: Strengthening Education in Practice: Using the New Tool of UNESCO-IIEP for aligning Education Planning Documents with Human Rights Law

    The respect, protection, and fulfilment of the right to education is the obligation of every State. To guarantee such a fundamental right, States must strive to align their national laws and policies with international right to education standard-setting instruments. Specifically, States must ensure that these instruments are correctly integrated into their educational planning documents, such as Education Sector Plans (ESP), Transitional Education Plans (TEP), or programming documents. This important task requires a specific and systematic approach, which the Methodological Guidelines and accompanying tools aim to facilitate.
    The purpose of the Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit is to help relevant stakeholders systematically collect and analyse the efforts to ensure the right to education; these efforts should constitute the essence of the respective educational planning and/or programming documents. The resulting analysis should also bring to light different and challenging policy gaps in education. The final goal is to mobilise all information and analyses gathered towards a constructive dialogue with key national stakeholders, and to strengthen the right to education at national and local levels.
    The Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit were originally conceived to support States in the planning process, thus they are mostly directed at educational planners, managers, and decision-makers at the national level. However, the tools are flexible enough to be utilised by other relevant entities or partners at the national (independent human rights institutions, ombudspersons, NGOs, etc.) or international levels (UN agencies, development banks, INGOs, etc.).
    These Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit can and should be used to complement the UNESCO Guidelines to strengthen the right to education in national frameworks (2021). The latter cover the right to education comprehensively and provide tools to examine and analyse the compatibility of national education legal and policy frameworks with international right to education standard-setting instruments. Moreover, these Methodological Guidelines and their tools focus on a new, different approach: addressing the right to education within a State’s planning and programming documents, while supporting educational stakeholders in understanding and analysing the compatibility of their own planning (ESPs and TEPs, and/or programming) documents with the international obligations and commitments synthesised by the Abidjan Principles. These complementary documents can be used as a package to ensure that the right to education is effectively integrated and enforced in all national frameworks.

    Learning objectives:
    • Understand the rationale and purpose behind the development of the Methodological Guidelines and corresponding tools and the importance of aligning education planning documents with human rights law
    • Understand the methodology of the different tools included in the toolkit and the way they can facilitate education planning processes
    • Explore and clarify the “Key Issues” and “Guiding Questions” incorporated in the tools for the analysis of the education planning documents and their compatibility with the international obligations on the right to education
    • Reflect on how the different tools apply to different educational planning scenarios across different contexts

    Methodology:
    Two facilitators, in addition to the organizers, with experience using the Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit will be present to support the workshop. It will be done according to the following steps:
    1. Introduction and workshop objectives
    2. Short presentation and discussion about the development process of the Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit
    3. Introduction to the Methodological Guidelines and Toolkit and general discussion
    4. Break up in groups of about 15 and discussion of how the Methodological Guidelines and corresponding tools can facilitate education planning in practice
    5. Plenary to reflect on its use in different contexts and scenarios
    6. Conclusion and next steps

 

FULL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Learn more about our work on Education

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.