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| Dakar Follow-up Bulletin No 25 | |
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Contents (11 June 2001)
Spotlight on the involvement of civil society in EFA process
UNESCO is intensifying its focus over the next couple of months on the
involvement of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
in the follow-up process to the Dakar Forum.
"Our message is clear: we cannot achieve the EFA goals without the
active participation of civil society and NGOs," says Lene Buchert,
acting lead manager of UNESCO's Dakar Follow-up Unit, highlighting the
personal involvement of UNESCO's Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura.
The issue will be discussed at the 46th session of the International
Conference on Education (5-8 September in Geneva), in particular during
a special EFA consultation, where Ministers of Education and
non-governmental organizations will discuss how to improve the
involvement of civil society in the EFA process at national and regional
levels. Mr Matsuura will chair the consultation.
The 2001 annual meeting of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on
Education for All (12-14 July, Bangkok) will discuss NGO perspectives on
EFA and develop a framework for joint activities to be carried out in
the context of the Dakar follow-up.
Finally, some ten civil society groups and non-governmental
organizations will be invited to attend the second meeting of the
Working Group on Education for All (10-12 September) and six
non-governmental organizations will shortly receive an invitation from
UNESCO's Director-General to attend the high-level meeting to take place
29-30 October at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
EFA Observatory holds Expert Group Meeting on Education Indicators
The EFA Observatory, based in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, is
holding an Expert Group Meeting on Education Indicators at UNESCO
headquarters in Paris, 25-26 June.
The meeting will bring together a core group of experts to review the
existing EFA indicators in order to make recommendations on:
(i) those
to be retained unchanged for the time being,
(ii) those that need to be
altered in significant ways, and
(iii) those that should be dropped.
The Expert Group will identify gaps or deficiencies in the existing data
collection and will, in particular, examine the need to develop new
indicators in order to cover the new Dakar targets such as non-formal
education and the elimination of gender disparities in primary and
secondary education.
The group will also share experiences and lessons learnt during the EFA
2000 Assessment carried out in preparation for the Dakar Forum and make
concrete suggestions for the future monitoring process.
The EFA Observatory was established in October 2000 in order to monitor
and report on progress achieved in education on national, regional and
global levels.
Contact: Nicole Bella of UIS
E-mail: n.bella@unesco.org
International Workshop on Education and Poverty Eradication
An International Workshop on Education and Poverty Eradication will take
place in Kampala, Uganda, 30 July to 3 August. The UNESCO-organized
workshop will bring together educators working in poverty education
policy, plans and programmes, and representatives of other sectors,
including health and social welfare, to exchange ideas and explore
options for reaching the poorest children with good quality education.
Participants are expected to identify a common core of strategies to be
shared among countries and to which they can refer when preparing or
implementing their poverty eradication programmes. These strategies will
help countries to define more clearly and explicitly the role of
education and the needs of children in their national efforts to
eradicate poverty.
The terms of reference for the workshop are attached to this Bulletin
(in English only)
Contact: Winsome Gordon, UNESCO
E-mail: w.gordon@unesco.org
Sub-regional meeting on EFA in the Baltic region
Two EFA meetings for countries in the Baltic region are coming up later
this year.
Experts from the Baltic States will be invited to a meeting on
curriculum development, which will take place from 9-13 October in
Vilnius, Lithuania. It is co-organized by the Ministry of Education and
Science of Lithuania and the UNESCO International Bureau of Education
(IBE).
The Latvian National Commission for UNESCO, in co-operation with the
Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia and UNESCO, is organizing
an EFA subregional meeting for countries in the Baltic region in Riga,
12-14 December 2001.
More information will be available in a forthcoming issue of the
Bulletin.
Recommendations on inclusive education in the Arab States region
The recommendations of the recent Arab regional conference on inclusive
education for children with special needs are now available and attached
to this Bulletin. The recommendations were adopted by 120 participants
from 17 Arab countries who attended the conference in Brummana, Liban,
7-10 May.
The objective of the conference was to further the EFA goals as
expressed in the Dakar Framework for Action and the Salamanca Framework
for Action on Special Needs Education, through advocacy, information
sharing and support for the orientation of educational policies in the
Arab States in favour of inclusive education for children with special
needs.
New United Nations Girls' Education Initiative workplan
The Task Force that guides the United Nations Initiative on Girls'
Education has finalized its workplan for 2001, which will, when carried
out, contribute to the overall implementation of the Millennium
Declaration.
The programme for 2001 covers two main areas: First, direct support to
countries to assist them meet global education and gender equality
targets; and second, actions that individual UNGEI entities are
undertaking to promote girls' education at all levels.
The workplan can be consulted on the DevLink website, under the section
on Girls' Education/Key Documents (http://www.undg.org/).
Contact: Mary Joy Pigozzi, UNICEF Education Section
E-mail: mjpigozzi@unicef.org
Meeting of inter-agency network on education in emergencies
The third meeting of the Steering Group of the Inter-agency Network on
Education in Emergencies will meet at UNESCO, Paris, 28-29 June. The
100 participants including the Steering Group and representatives of
countries, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies
will discuss new approaches and suitable means to help guarantee
education for the millions of refugees and displaced people living in
the more than 70 countries in crisis and reconstruction.
The inter-agency network is one of the six flagship programmes that have
been launched or consolidated following the Dakar Forum last year.
Contact: Kacem Bensalah of UNESCO
E-mail: k.bensalah@unesco.org
Countries in action (Indonesia and Lithuania)
Indonesia
The Government of Indonesia is moving forward in the development of a
national EFA plan of action. An EFA co-ordinator was appointed in April,
when a two-day workshop, gathering a large group of stakeholders,
discussed the major principles of the national plan. Their input is now
being compiled, and the terms of reference and a draft work plan for the
EFA planning bodies (amongst others a Secretariat and a Technical Group)
are expected to be completed shortly.
UNESCO and other EFA partners, in particular UNICEF, are supporting the
process.
Lithuania
The Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania is organizing a
meeting on the EFA Follow-up process in Vilnius, 26-27 June.
Co-organized by UNESCO and UNDP-Lithuania, the meeting will gather a
large number of EFA partners ranging from ministries, muncipalities,
international organizations, education institutions, the media, the
private sector to representatives of other Baltic countries and the
Nordic Council. It will be inaugurated by the president of the Republic
of Lithuania, V. Adamkus, and will discuss the possibilities of
ensuring quality basic education for all in the country and the role of
the Lithuanian National Forum partners as well as the help available
from the regional level.
Contact: A. Sannikov, Regional Education Adviser for Europe, UNESCO
E-mail: (a.sannikov@unesco.org)
Hot off the press
Distance Education in the E-9 Countries
A recently published report of UNESCO describes the intense development
of distance education programmes in the nine high-population countries
-- Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria
and Pakistan -- over the past ten years. It also provides concrete
elements to better understand the possible role and impact of distance
education and new technologies in basic education.
The 67-page document can be obtained in electronic form or hard copy
from UNESCO. It is currently available in English only.
Contact: k.brun@unesco.org
Contact: Anne Muller (a.muller@unesco.org)
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