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FRESH Working Group on Whole of Government (WoG) Approaches and Inter-Ministry Coordination (IC)
This page describes the activities of an ad-hoc working group promoting Whole of Government (WoG) approaches and strengthening Inter-Ministry Coordination (IC). The group was started as a result of the 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report on Inclusion. A FRESH webinar on 29 September 2020 learned about that report as well as different intersectoral policy-program coordination frameworks (IPPCFs) such as Positive Behavioural Interventions & Supports (PBIS) and comprehensive approaches to promote integration of students with disabilities. The proponents of several other frameworks were approached to determine their interest in sharing their strategies and evidence of impact. Many of the proponents did agree to share their work in a series of webinars. The goal of the group activities is to support countries by curating resources as well as identifying and responding to research and knowledge development needs. As part of this process and in preparation for a submission to the UN Transforming Education Summit, FRESH identified a list of of over 40 Intersectoral Policy-Program Coordination Frameworks (IPPFCs) which promote the inclusion and equity goals of SDG 4 (education). These include broad Multi-Component Approaches (MCAs) partnering education with other sectors such as health (Health Promoting Schools), environment (Education for Sustainable Development) and early childhood education (Global Partnership on ECE). As well, within and sometimes independent of these sector-wide approaches, Multi-Intervention Programs (MIPs) are developed and implemented. Examples of these include topics such as bullying, substance abuse and many more, Strengthening Inter-Ministry Coordination Our work on intersectoral policy-program coordination frameworks (IPPCFs) delved deeper to examine the system/organizational capacities needed to sustain these approaches and programs in the long term. (Research has shown that very few, if any of these school-level strategies are sustained in their entirety after the external funding or crisis has passed.) These ministry and agency level capacities needed to sustain intersectoral coordination include:
The ISHN/FRESH summary identified and discussed several better practices of building, implementing aand sustaining IPPFCs which overlap with the list of organizational/systems capacities noted above. That discussion included national or international examples on these better practices promoting intersectoral coordination using the school as a hub:
We argue that school systems will not be able to address all of the many health, social, environmental and other issues unless other ministries contribute staffing and funding to school-based and school-linked programs. The other ministries must do this through their own structures which coordinate their interventions about their issues aimed at children and adolescents. (e.g. a healthy schools structure/team as part of their health promotion and child/adolescent divisions, a safe schools unit in law enforcement ministries as part of their youth development and community policing, caring schools in child protection strategies within social services ministries etc.) It will not be possible for other ministries to do this unless they are funded and mandated to do so by whole of government approaches derived from a whole child philosophy. The joint statement on rebuilding, renewing and transforming school and other systems developed by several global organizations representing teachers, principals, school district administrators, senior school leaders, counselors, psychologists, nurses, education deans and others recommends that instead of asking finance ministries to provide more funds to education ministries (thereby competing directly with other ministries for scarce resources) we should argue for more funds going to other ministries so that they can strengthen their school-based and school-linked programs. These educator organizations will be approaching UN agencies and funders with this argument in the fall or 2023. Whole of Government Approaches, Practices, Policies and Strategies This Working Group proposes steps that can build on the extensive evidence and experience that has created many different successful Intersectoral Policy Coordination Frameworks (IPPCFs) as part of a broader initiative to restructure or rewire school and other systems using “whole of government” (inter-ministry) approaches and strategies. The need for re-orienting our approaches to intersectoral coordination has been best articulated by the Education Commission (now based at the Education Development Center) and the Dubai Foundation in their report Rewiring Education. It states: Driving and sustaining collaborative action requires new incentive structures. To that end, we recommend that governments, in partnership with international and local actors: • Embed education in all relevant sections of national development plans and other sector strategies, complemented by integrated strategic planning and mutual accountability frameworks that can align incentives and actions of leaders at all levels. Similarly ensure that education is considered as a concrete solution in global action toward the SDGs. • Embrace multisectoral financing approaches and tailor financing strategies to differentiated needs and contexts…. and integrated national strategies[i] • Develop delivery-focused implementation approaches, underpinned by strong data systems, to help connect actions within and across line ministries for achieving the goals of development and sector Several other global and UN initiatives have recently called for action to build whole of government (WoG) approaches through schools.
A Whole of Government approach (across and within ministries) and several systems changes are required to align, coordinate and sustain several IPPCF frameworks. (Note that the WoG approaches are aimed at the education and development of the whole child and not at at any specific program or IPPCF framework.) These include an over-arching policy on child & adolescent development, laws and regulations on the mandates of several ministries on working with and within schools, the active support of first ministers, establishing inter-ministry coordination mechanisms, comprehensive agreements between ministries, jointly named inter-ministry coordinators, joint budgeting, joint sector reviews, shared accountability systems and other actions. Driving and sustaining collaborative action requires new incentive structures and government partnership with international and local actors to embed education in all relevant sections of national development plans and other sector strategies, integrated strategic planning and mutual accountability frameworks that can align incentives and actions of leaders at all level, embracing multi-sectoral financing approaches and tailor financing strategies to differentiated needs and contexts, and delivery-focused implementation approaches, underpinned by strong data systems, to help connect actions within and across line ministries for achieving the goals of education and child/youth development Come back to this web page for updates on the WG activities promoting Whole of Government apprpaches and Inter-Ministry Coordination. |
Reports and Updates on WG Activities
FRESH partners and others interested in Whole of Government (WoG) approaches and strengthening Inter-Ministryt Coordination (IC) were convened in a series of web meetings in the fall of 2024 and Spring of 2025. An initial progress report on those discussions is now available.
The consensus points included:
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