Basic Education Association in Ethiopia (BEAE) is a coalition or an association of 45 indigenous non-governmental organizations and 14 partner international organizations working in education currently. It is also a network that creates a forum for its members to share experiences, collaborate and cooperate to promote Basic Education for all. Member organizations of BEAE have intervened in education and community development in almost all parts of the country. BEAE, therefore, is an umbrella organization that has taken the initiative of bringing together, supporting and linking the member organizations to maximize their efforts to make education accessible, particularly to those who don't have the opportunity.

Before the establishment of BEN, NGOs were operating in a very small number of ABE centers because of resource limitations. The government's focus was more on formal primary education. These two factors were the major drawbacks for the expansion of ABE; and it was with this background that the thirteen local NGOs involved in the provision of ABE established BEN in 1999.

Before BEA-E got its current name, it was established by the name Basic Education Network in Ethiopia (BEN-E). The evolution of BEN-E was initiated in the course of a series of Non-Formal Education meetings (NEM) in 1998. After a number of short training workshops organized by Save the Children USA for its partners, it was slowly realized that a collective organ was necessary to work and act in unison for the common goal of promoting Basic Education in Ethiopia. After a series of discussions on various issues and aspects of basic education it was agreed among participating organizations that a draft Memorandum of Association (MOA) be produced.

BEN-E was established with an overall objective of serving as a forum for NGOs working in basic education to exchange and share ideas/information, expertise and experiences, build their capacity through training and technical support, create dialogue with the government on policy issues and approach donors for financial and technical support, undertaking research and advocacy works, and act collectively for the realization of the goal of basic education in Ethiopia.

BEN had some challenges as well. To begin with, the Ministry of Justice refused to register it with a reason that there is no legal provision for the establishment of a network organization. Moreover, it was difficult for BEN to secure sufficient funds and recruit adequate number of staff to run its day-to-day activities; however, BEN continued to exist and succeeded in attaining some remarkable achievements.

By August 2002, BEN-E's membership reached 19 with Save the Children USA, Pact Ethiopia , Action Aid Ethiopia and CRDA as partner support organizations of the network. Membership is open to all NGOs, faith-based institutions, umbrella organizations and other collective groups that are registered with the government and are working on or providing support to basic education.