Development Strategy 2009 to 2015
Origins
Steve Sinnott was, until his tragic and premature death on 5th April 2008, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers of England and Wales. He was passionate and committed in his support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, in particular Goal 2, the achievement, by 2015 of universal primary education, the opportunity for all children throughout the world to attend school at primary age.
Steve had been particularly concerned to give assistance to the Ethiopian Teachers Association in their struggle to maintain their right to speak independently for teachers in Ethiopia in very difficult circumstances which had included the imprisonment of their President, Dr. Taye Woldesmayat. The presence of the ETA General Secretary, Gemoraw Kassa, at Steve’s private funeral was a stark reminder of what Steve’s death meant to the many teachers and educators whose causes he had supported throughout the world.
It was from that realisation that the Steve Sinnott Foundation was established in Steve’s name to maintain the momentum of his work in pursuit of Millennium Development Goal 2 (“MDG2”)
The founders of the Foundation are Steve’s wife, Mary Sinnott, his successor, the General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, and his close friends and colleagues, Jerry Glazier, senior member of the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Teachers and Graham Clayton, the NUT’s former Senior Solicitor.
Core Purpose
The United Nations itself of course actively pursues the Millennium Development Goals through its various agencies. It urges governments of richer nations to give their encouragement and material support and urges governments of developing countries actively to pursue the goal.
There are also several charities already in existence promoting MDG2. They are co-ordinated by the Global Campaign for Education which has affiliates in organisations throughout the world.
It is no part of the purpose of the Steve Sinnott Foundation to presume to substitute itself for these organisations in the pursuit of MDG2. Rather our aim is to motivate teachers and educators throughout the world to support MDG2, to encourage their active participation in its achievement and to provide a central resource of information, knowledge and experience to those many individuals and groups throughout the world who are involved in projects to bring the achievement of the goal closer.
This is possible for the Foundation because of Steve Sinnott’s reputation and the respect he earned. He was a very active participant in the work of Education International (“EI”), the world federation of teachers’ organisations with 401 member organisations operating in 172 countries and territories. In the course of his contribution to EI Steve was in regular contact with teachers’ leaders throughout the world and it was their liking and respect he won. The mention of Steve’s name to the senior figures in education in relation to any project secures immediate interest and support.
With this kind of support, we believe that it is possible for the Steve Sinnott Foundation to reach millions of teachers and educators worldwide, to bring MDG2 to their attention, to win their support and to encourage their active participation in its achievement. With that kind of support and participation, we believe that this very challenging goal becomes achievable. As founders of the Steve Sinnott Foundation with our own background in education, we wish to see MDG2 achieved. It is also a very fitting tribute to Steve Sinnott that his name should live on to provide a means for the promotion of a goal for which he was so passionate.
The Foundation will join the Global Campaign for Education coalition and by establishing its worldwide community it aims to contribute a new feature to the broad and long term campaign for the achievement of Millennium Goal 2. It will provide the focus for ideas from around the world as to how Millennium Goal 2 may best be achieved. It will collect and disseminate those ideas. It will lend support to relevant development projects in developing countries and encourage the participation of teachers and educationalists from the developed world in those projects. It will establish an international network of teachers, educationalists and political leaders. It will collect and disseminate those ideas through the establishment of an online international community of teachers, educationalists, political leaders and other interested parties.
Establishing the Foundation
The Foundation was established in September 2008 as a UK company limited by guarantee with charitable objects. The founding directors held their first meeting in November 2008.
The directors resolved at that meeting a central principle for the work of the Foundation. Whilst it should, for obvious reasons, work closely with the National Union of Teachers, it should not be of the National Union of Teachers. Working closely with the NUT would enable the Foundation to reach teachers and educators through EI. It would provide the Foundation with strong support from NUT members who knew and respected Steve as their General Secretary. It would provide the Foundation with a resource base and a strong basis on which to build its identity. It should however, as a charity, have the right to make decisions independently. Whilst valuing and respecting its close association with the NUT, indeed as Steve himself was committed to the NUT’s values, it should have the freedom to seek relationships and partnerships with organisations also committed to MDG2 but beyond the scope of the NUT’s own associations and partnerships.
Following the first meeting of the directors, application was made to the UK Charity Commission for charity registration and the directors set about initial fund raising amongst the Associations and Divisions of the National Union of Teachers of which Steve had been General Secretary.
The directors also began to “take soundings” for support from teachers organisations in other countries with whose leaders Steve had close contact. As early as June 2008 at a memorial event held for Steve in London, the subject had been broached with teacher union leaders attending the event from abroad The results were very positive. Firm commitments of support were quickly secured, for example, from the United States, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and Australia. These commitments gave clear reassurance that the Foundation is considered a viable project with enormous potential.
The opportunity was then taken at the National Union of Teachers Annual Conference in March 2009 to promote support for the Foundation amongst NUT Associations and Divisions. Again the results were very positive. A number of those associations and divisions volunteered donations and directors were invited to attend meetings to speak about the Foundation, again all with very positive results. Indeed the volume of support with very little campaigning effort was extremely encouraging.
We were also very fortunate in that one of our founding directors is also a director of an NUT “family” commercial company from which in 2008 was established the Teachers Group Educational Trust (“TGET”). On hearing of the establishment of the Foundation TGET generously agreed that once the Foundation had secured Charity Commission registration it would donate £40,000 to assist the Foundation in meeting “start-up” costs, with a further £100,000 donation to an identified project and the prospect of further support on a year to year basis.
The Foundation was launched publicly on 12th May 2009 at an event attended by leading figures in education, in globally active charities, and in Commonwealth institutions. The foundation directors were joined as speakers at the event by:
· James Simmonds and Bethany Law, the Steve Sinnott Award Global Campaigners of the Year,
· David Archer, head of international education at Action and a board member of the Global Campaign for Education,
· John Dixon. Assistant General Secretary, New South Wales Teachers Federation,
· Baroness Farrington,
· International Development Minister Ivan Lewis MP.
Warm and encouraging messages of support for the launch were received from the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and several other leading politicians and well known figures. A further event marking the launch of the Foundation will take place in Parliament in the autumn of 2009 promoted by the Secretary of State for Children schools and Families and hosted by Jon Trickett M.P. The Foundation has clearly been recognised as a new charity with the potential to have a major impact.
In July 2009, the Charity Commission registered the Foundation, so providing it with the opportunity to consolidate and begin active work on its objectives.
Structural Developments
The Directors have adopted a “membership” structure for the Foundation. Individual and “not for profit organisation” membership is available without charge upon registration. Other organisational members registering will be expected to donate.
The Foundation established a website, developed by Lewes Website Design at low cost and registered with “Twitter” to deliver newsfeeds. A video was made of the launch by Turtle Canyon Media Limited without profit to them. This has been widely used to promote the Foundation.
The directors have also committed the Foundation to a set of principles set out in a paper “Educating for Education: an approach to working with communities to achieve Millennium Goal 2” by Mary Sinnott, Penny Clayton and Nicky Anastasiou. A copy of that paper, which sets out the core philosophy of the Foundation’s approach and provides the guide to the operation of the Foundation’s worldwide community, is attached.
Project Preparation
The “Educating for Education” paper commits the Foundation to the aim of putting in place the following facilities and personnel -
· Website with access to wide number of links.
· Researchers to consider appropriateness of ready-made resources and add to the database /website.
· Someone skilled in project development to receive requests for support and make decisions on the elements of the process.
· Fieldworkers to gather information.
· Layers of support for fieldworkers consisting of training in process and information gathering; knowledge of the community; back-up support and bank of practical ideas from which to draw.
· Small teams in place to consider ‘best fit’ for communities seeking support.
· Internet access.
· Training and induction for those working directly with communities.
· A list of people / agencies who are on call and who share the Foundation’s values.
Partners
Essential to the success of the community is the establishment of partnerships with other organisations around the world encouraging teachers and educators into the community. As indicated above this is uniquely possible because of the reputation of Steve Sinnott amongst teachers’ organisations worldwide and in their international body, Education International
The “soundings” taken prior to the public launch of the Foundation in May 2009 suggest that partnerships should be relatively easy to secure in the major English speaking countries in the developed world. With the US, Canada and Australia this appears to be no more than the formalisation of structures in support of commitments already made. The same is true in relation to the GEW in Germany and is likely to be true in relation to South Africa and India.
Work is however needed on precisely what partnership structures the Foundation will seek. It is unlikely to be appropriate for the Foundation, itself independent of the NUT in the UK, to link directly to organisations which parallel the NUT in other countries. It is known that some of those organisations already have linked but independent charities e.g. the Albert Shanker Institute linked to the American Federation of Teachers and a charity linked to the Australian Teachers Union, with objects that are wide enough to match those of the Foundation but there are none known to have objects so precisely defined as those of the Foundation and many teachers’ associations with which the Foundation would want to be in contact have no linked charities. The Foundation will need to have available to a model structure for these relationships.
Online community
This is the core project for the Foundation, a project central to its activity for the foreseeable future.
The Foundation has been extremely fortunate in being able to develop the community to the point which it has reached in July 2009 at low cost. Experts within a company, Blue Box Learning, enthusiastically assisted the Foundation in taking this project forward without charge. The community is based the Confluence software developed by Atlassian Pty. Limited which is available to charities also without charge. Confluence has been expertly developed for the Foundation by the UK Confluence specialist company, Adaptavist.
The online community is a facility by which members will be able to take advantage of a resource and library base centrally supplied and contributed to by other members, to share development ideas, to coordinate projects and otherwise generally exchange with each individually and in groups to advance the achievement of MDG2 with developments “on the ground”.
TASKS
The Directors believe that the work of the Foundation towards the 2015 goal should be developed in three phases:
Phase 1 – September 2009 to March 2010
Phase 2 – April 2010 to March 2011
Phase 3 – April 2011 to 2015
Phase 1
Office and Staff
Though the contributions of volunteers are essential to deliver many of the features of the plan set out in “Educating for Education”, the Foundation is not administratively an organisation of volunteer workers. The building of partners and the development of the online community require the commitment of full time staff and the Foundation has therefore moved to establish an office base. This is initially a one or two roomed office of some 100 square feet of space close to a railway link into central London, a 25 minute journey.
The Foundation has appointed a full-time Project Leader on a fixed term basis for the Phases 1 and 2 period.
The Foundation should now have at least a two year reserve ability to meet its ongoing expenses before appointing further staff and extending its offices..
Fund raising
In the period from 1 December 2008 to 30th June 2009, the Foundation received over £30000 in donations from NUT Associations and Divisions and individuals associated with the NUT, with very little fundraising effort. Together with the promised funding from TGET, the Foundation has access to around £190,000 but of this, £100,000 from TGET is to be committed to specific project developments. Whilst a proportion of this may be attributed to the establishment and development of the online community. It is recommended that £80,000 be regarded as on call from TGET for identified projects and not considered to be available for general expenditure.
The Foundation therefore considered itself to have funding as at 1 August 2009 amounting to £90,000.
Through the generosity of the NUT, Blue Box Learning, the Thank Goodness It’s Monday Consultancy, The Innovations Unit, Lewes Web Design and Turtle Canyon Media, the initial cost of establishing and raising the profile of the Foundation and the Online Community has been very low, but it is not the intention of the Foundation in the longer term that companies and individuals who provide valuable service to the Foundation should do so without charge.
The Foundation has a short term target for funds at the end of Phase 1 of at least £250,000 The Foundation needs therefore to conduct raise an additional £160,000 in funds by 31 March 2010.
The NUT will be sending a Foundation mailing to its Associations and Divisions in September 2009 inviting registration with the online community and seeking donations. The success of this mailing must be evaluated and appropriate additional follow-up work will be necessary.
Appeals for donations are being made to companies involved in education and information technology, particularly from those for whom the promotion of education in developing countries should be regarded as a sound investment in the future.
To assist fundraising, further work will be undertaken on securing well known name endorsements to add to those already encouragingly given.
Partners
The Online Community was launched amongst NUT members in October 2009 by the circulation of a letter to NUT Associations and Divisions together with a copy of the video of the launch. The community itself opened in November. 2009. It is hoped therefore that by the end of 2009, the community will have a clearly established identity in England and Wales.
Efforts must also be made before the end of 2009 to promote the Foundation to the EIS in Scotland and to the Northern Ireland unions, in particular the UTU.
There was an event to mark the establishment of the Foundation in Washington at the end of October 2009. This will co-incide with a joint NUT/NEA (National Education Association) projects celebrating civil rights in the US as a follow up to the 2008 Magna Carta event in London.
Enthusiasm, for the Foundation has already been shown by John Dixon of the New South Wales Teachers Federation who attended and spoke at the London launch on 12th May. He has in turn promoted the Foundation to the Australian Teachers Union to which the NSWTF is affiliated. By building on this relationship the Foundation hopes to secure a significant identity in Australia by the end of 2009.
As of July 2009 no contact had been made with South Africa, in particular the South Africa Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU). This will be done at an early date. following the launch of the online community. Apart from the obvious significance of SADTU as a main contact for the Foundation, there is the advantage that its General Secretary Thulas Nxesi is also President of Education International. Contacts should at least be set on a firm footing before the end of 2009.
A good relationship has also been forged with the GEW (the German Education Union) and that relationship must be developed during the autumn of 2009. However, the establishment of an identity for the Foundation in Germany depends very much on the GEW’s readiness to parallel the Foundation in Germany in the German language. The enthusiasm to do so clearly exists but work is needed to develop this relationship so as to pursue the aims of the Foundation other than in English.
Roli Degazon-Johnson, Education Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat and a strong supporter of the Foundation, has forged a valuable contact between Mary and Madam Yim Pheng Lok Secretary General of the National Union of the Teaching Profession in Malaysia and an Executive Board Member of Education International.
The partnerships anticipated for the autumn of 2009 are mainly developed world partnerships. This is strategic. The spreading of a developed world identity for the Foundation is self evidently easier, but it also has the advantage of gathering information about the very large number of developed world sponsored projects going on in developing countries and providing the Foundation with well referenced access to those projects.
The Foundation has already established firm contacts with representatives of Commonwealth agencies in the UK and these must be followed up. The Foundation must also of course establish itself at an early date with the appropriate United Nations agencies responsible for the Millennium Development Goals.
It is therefore recommended that the partnership targets for the Foundation in the autumn of 2009 and the early part of 2010 should be the UK beyond England and Wales, North America and Australia and the possible addition of South Africa and that relationships be established and firmed up with Malaysia and with Commonwealth and United Nations bodies.
Press and Media
The Foundation must work to establish a media profile during the autumn of 2009.
The Foundation is registered with Twitter, and Twitter will provide a newsfeed to the website at the front end of the Community software.
The same front end website will provide a constantly updating facility identifying the most popular subjects under discussion in the community and appeals for help from community members, which can form the basis of press releases on original stories.
It is proposed that the Foundation should publish, on line and in hard copy, its own quarterly magazine starting in spring 2010. Preparatory work for this must be undertaken in the autumn of 2010. This should carry news items and articles from, for example –
· project workers
· academics
· politicians and community leaders
· spokespersons for world development organisations
· well known figures with charity connections
· school and higher and further education students
· business leaders and economists
Opportunities should be given for a wide spectrum of opinion to be expressed as to ways in which education might best be developed to enable and encourage participation in learning environments. Discrete sponsors must be sought for the magazine which may also be financed by ethical advertising.
Phase 2
By the end of August 2010, the Foundation must have an established identity in most of the developed countries of the world and a programme for securing its identity in the developing world.
To achieve this the Foundation should set targets to be achieved by the end of May 2010 as follows –
· to have secured partnerships in the Nordic countries and to have explored partnerships elsewhere in Europe where sufficient interest can be stimulated to parallel the Foundation in other European languages.
· to have published the first edition of its magazine in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia with forewords in each of those countries from the most senior domestic political figure possible.
· to be promoting within the community at least 50 projects in developing countries.
· to have increased staffing to accommodate full time public relations and fund raising directors.
By the end of August 2010, the Foundation should -
· be financially underwritten by a sum of at least £1,000,000.
· be maintaining the online community as a fully operational facility.
· have developed a capacity, either directly or through parallel charity partners to make on site visits to project organisers.
· have established identifiable contacts with government offices in selected territories.
· be preparing a sponsored conference of education and overseas aid ministers from the developed and developing countries.
By the end of 2010, the Foundation should be fully equipped to deliver on the principles set out in the “Educating for Education” paper. It should employ an appropriate number of staff and should have developed an international network of volunteer co-ordinators. It should have published three editions of its magazine and held its first international conference. In short it should be in a position to present a three year plan towards the 2015 goal.
Phase 3
In the remaining three years up to the start of 2015 the Foundation should be following and developing its plan to contribute to the achievement of MDG2 in 2015. During 2014 the Foundation should then be assessing progress towards the MDG2 goal and its own role beyond 2015.