Transnational advocacy in education, changing roles for NGOs: Examining the construction of a global campaign and its effects on 'Education for All' in Uganda

This dissertation examines the spread of advocacy norms in the field of international educational development, the resulting construction of a transnational advocacy network in education, and the emergent effects of these networks on international and domestic education policy arenas. As a multi-level case study describing the construction of a global campaign in the Education for All (EFA) Movement, this study looks at the dynamic interaction of the international development regime---of which international nongovernmental organizations are a part---with the domestic political arena in Uganda. I draw from a multi-site, cross-national ethnographic study conducted from 1999--2004 to understand the emergent effects of transnational advocacy internationally and in the domestic arena of a country considered to be Africa's recent development and EFA success story.; The dissertation shows that transnational advocacy networks are increasingly important institutions in the international development education arena. International non-state actors, particularly nongovernmental organizations, involved in transnational education advocacy have become increasingly important actors in both international development and domestic state education policy arenas. Not only have international nongovernmental organizations penetrated the EFA architecture and gained a seat at the policy table, but such organizations engaged in transnational advocacy teach states and non state actors new norms about the appropriate advocacy roles for nongovernmental organizations in international development.; Just as Southern states link with international state and non-state actors to gain international legitimacy, Southern nongovernmental organizations in Uganda adopt advocacy norms attempting to link to international organizations and to gain access to the education policy arena. Nongovernmental organizations in Uganda gain a seat at the education policy table but remain peripheral due, at least in part, to asymmetrical (financial) linkages between the Ugandan government and the international development community and similar asymmetrical relations between international nongovernmental activists and Southern nongovernmental actors. That is norm adoption and diffusion in the realm of transnational advocacy in education is more top-down than might be predicted by the current international relations theories. Finally, this dissertation shows that transnational epistemic networks among development professionals are intimately related to the spread of advocacy norms and to the creation of advocacy networks in education.