The efforts of the civil society in Palestine started to participate in the Global Action Week for Education campaigns in 2008. The beginning was when 9 million individuals around the world, including in Somalia and Sudan, participated in the Big Lesson.
Mr. Refaat Sabbah, current president of ACEA, became in 2009 the chairperson of the Arab Network for Civic Education (ANHRE), encouraging the members of ANHRE in ten Arab countries to form independent educational coalitions and participate in the campaign in 2009. Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan participated vastly in the Global Action Week (GAW); in addition to communicating with the Palestinian and Sudanese coalitions and encouraging the teachers union and organizations in Yemen to establish the educational coalition; this took place in the Sanaa' conference, titled “Activating the Role of the Civil Society in Education in the Middle East”from 25-27/May/2009 with participants from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and Palestine.
The conference emanated in the Sanaa' Declaration that called for the need to establish a regional, independent non-for-profit Arab coalition, consisting of networks, coalitions, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and teachers' unions that are concerned with educational issues, directly and indirectly.
In order to establish the Arab coalition, that was called the Arab Campaign for Education ACEA , a preparatory committee was formed to prepare the necessary documents and draft a basic operating system, in addition to work on integrating other Arab countries and new coalitions to announce the establishment of the coalition officially.
The establishment of ACEA within the framework of the GCE should contribute to promote education as a basic right, mobilize efforts to lobby governments and the international community to fulfill their obligations towards free and quality primary education, particularly among the disadvantaged, children and women.
During the first meeting of the preparatory committee that included members from coalitions in 8 Arab countries (Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Morocco), held in Amman, Jordan on the 12th/January/2011, the establishment statement of ACEA was produced; additionally, a coordination council for the campaign, consisting of 8 Arab coalitions and 2 regional networks was established.