Education for All

On Monday, 22 July 2002, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, opened the third meeting of the Education for All working group.

This working group is composed of some 40 persons representing the main stakeholders associated with the Dakar process: developing countries and countries in transition; bilateral, multilateral and regional agencies; civil society networks, NGOs and private foundations as well as the OECD and the G8. Chaired by the Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO, John Daniel, its mandate is to provide guidance to the EFA movement, create new partnerships, and ensure proper linkages among flagship programmes.

This third meeting, which lasts two days, will examine the “International Strategy to Operationalize the Dakar Framework for Action” and prepare the next high-level meeting which is scheduled for 19 and 20 November 2002 in Abuja, Nigeria.

In his opening remarks, Mr Matsuura recalled the recent progress of the Dakar process in terms of coordination and resource allocations. Concerning the financing of EFA, he highlighted the positive characteristics of the pledges taken in Monterey and at the recent G8 Summit in Canada. He also expressed satisfaction with the encouraging decision by the World Bank to fast-track 23 countries in order to help them attain the Dakar Forum objectives.

The Director-General also announced that the high-level meeting of Abuja which should, through use of the data contained in the “EFA Monitoring Report”, enable the Dakar process to be speeded up and boosted, will be immediately followed by a Donors’ Conference organized by the European Commission, in Brussels, on 27 November 2002.

In concluding, the Director-General reminded participants that in order to progress towards “the vision of education for all” it is essential “to unite our efforts at the international level to guarantee that no group, no people, no country, including those in conflict and in post-conflict situations, will lack an appropriate education”.