Advocacy Tools & Resources Sample letter to your government official on post-­2015 education Use the language in this sample letter as a starting point for your advocacy outreach to government officials. Adapt the content to share
your organization’s data and priorities. The first letter is from an individual. The second is written from a coalition, wherein many
organizations sign-on to one advocacy letter.
[Name, Address]
[Salutation: name, title]
[Address]
[Date in full]
Dear [Official name and correct salutation]
[Example: Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs Jane Smith]
On behalf of [your organization], I am writing to urge you to support a post-2015 global sustainable development
agenda that reflects the education priorities of people in our country. We are concerned about the need for a
transformative development agenda that prioritizes policies, programs, and funding for quality education.
As stated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his report, A Life of Dignity for All, “Much stronger
efforts are needed to improve the quality of education and provide lifelong learning opportunities, especially for girls
and women.” There is a global learning crisis, which is hitting the poorest, most marginalized children and youth
particularly hard. [Contextualized based on education situation in your country.]
Education and learning play a fundamental role in achieving broader development goals; equitable learning is
essential to poverty reduction. Lifelong learning enables children, youth and adults to continually build their
knowledge, skills and competencies to survive and thrive as productive members to society, leading to sustainable
economic growth. Equitable access to quality education in our country will improve our country in a multitude of
ways. In my organization I have seen firsthand how access to education has improved lives…[elaborate on your
education work.]
There is already widespread agreement from both the global north and south on the importance of three areas to the
post-2015 agenda: equity; a focus on learning relevant, transferable skills; and the need for a learning continuum
from early childhood through to adolescence. Ensuring that the education goal within the post-2015 development
agenda is focused on equitable learning outcomes will help improve not only our country, but all nations.
We urge you to reflect these priorities in our nation’s domestic and international policies to ensure that high-quality,
equitable education is central in the post-2015 development agenda.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss these messages with you in further detail.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your organization]
A coalition sign-on letter can be a powerful tool to show that there is widespread support on an issue. Work together with other
organizations that are interested in the same issue to draft an advocacy letter, and include the name, region/country, and logo (if
possible) of each organization in the signature.
[Name, Address]
[Salutation: name, title]
[Address]
[Date in full]
Dear [Official name and correct salutation]
[Example: Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs Jane Smith]
We represent a wide-reaching coalition of organizations who share the same goals related to the post-2015
development agenda.
We urge you to support a post-2015 global sustainable development agenda that reflects the education priorities of
people in our country. We are concerned about the need for a transformative development agenda that prioritizes
policies, programs, and funding for quality education.
As stated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his report, A Life of Dignity for All, “Much stronger
efforts are needed to improve the quality of education and provide lifelong learning opportunities, especially for
girls and women.” There is a global learning crisis, which is hitting the poorest, most marginalized children and
youth particularly hard. [Contextualized based on education situation in your country.]
Education and learning play a fundamental role in achieving broader development goals; equitable learning is
essential to poverty reduction. Lifelong learning enables children, youth and adults to continually build their
knowledge, skills and competencies to survive and thrive as productive members to society, leading to sustainable
economic growth. Equitable access to quality education in our country will improve our country in a multitude of
ways.
There is already widespread agreement from both the global north and south on the importance of three areas to
the post-2015 agenda: equity; a focus on learning relevant, transferable skills; and the need for a learning
continuum from early childhood through to adolescence. We agree with this argument, and hope that you to
concur.
Ensuring that the education goal within the post-2015 development agenda is focused on equitable learning
outcomes will help improve not only our country, but all nations.
We urge you to reflect these priorities in our nation’s domestic and international policies to ensure that highquality, equitable education is central in the post-2015 development agenda.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss these messages with you in further detail.
Sincerely,
[Logos/names of all organizations who have signed-on]