Annual Monitoring Report
on EFA
The outline of the Global
Monitoring Report 2002 was tabled on the second and final
day of the third meeting of the Working Group on EFA.
Christopher Colclough, its editor, reminded the meeting
of the aim of the report --- broadly to monitor national
educational policies and processes, and international
commitment. In particular, it will track progress, map
trends, identify reforms and political commitment, challenges
and constraints.
Presented in five chapters
-- progress, planning, financing, meeting international
commitments, and prospects and opportunities -- the report
will provide basic information on key legislation and
policies, planning and budget modalities. It will identify
at-risk countries (HIV/AIDS, conflicts) and analyse the
progress of some 35 to 40 nations making clear progress,
in order, said Colclough, "to get a good flavour
of what is going on in the planning at national level".
In the financing chapter,
the report will assess the funding needed to achieve EFA
and signal the need for further work on costing. "The
needed resources are within our grasp," said Colclough,
referring to the pledges made at Monterrey and the G8
earlier this year.
All the six Dakar goals
will be covered by this year's report and the data will
come from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) as
well as from other sources, explained Simon Ellis of the
UIS.
In the ensuing debate,
Louise Hilditch of the Global Campaign for Education found
no specific reference to donor coordination in the report
outline. She underlined that "it would be good to
hold the bilaterals to account on their progress,"
suggesting that non-coordination by donors at the country
level could also be quantified.
Reassuring participants
on the wide range of data that would be drawn upon for
the report, Mr Colclough agreed that some "tensions"
existed between the use of administrative data which have
a time-lag and more up-to-date survey data but, he said,
"they are not in competition, they are complementary."
He welcomed a suggestion from the floor that participants
might provide more detailed comments in writing.
Monitoring
Report draft outline
High-Level Group meeting
in Abuja, Nigeria (19-20 November)
The linkages between the
Working Group on EFA and the High-Level Group will be
strengthened this year, said Abhimanyu Singh, Lead Manager
of UNESCO's Dakar Follow-up Unit, when presenting the
nature and role of the second meeting of the High-Level
Group, to be held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 19 to 20 November.
First of all, he said,
there is a clear link between the agenda of the two meetings
focusing on the five priority areas outlined in the newly-published
International Strategy (see yesterday's bulletin): planning;
advocacy and communication; financing; monitoring and
evaluation; and international and regional coordination
mechanisms.
Second, a small group of
"sherpas" will function as a bridge between
the Working Group and the High-Level Group and will draft
the communiqué to be adapted at Abuja. The group
will comprise three multilateral agencies (UNESCO, UNICEF
and the World Bank) and three country representatives
from Nigeria (host country), Canada (G-8 host) and Norway
(donor agency).
Mr Singh stressed that
this gathering will be more outcome-oriented and more
focused than the previous one.
As an immediate follow-up,
a donors' group meeting will take place in Brussels on
27 November. Convened by UNESCO and the World Bank, it
will be chaired by Canada, co-chaired by the Netherlands
and hosted by the European Commission.
In the ensuing debate,
several participants highlighted the need for the High-Level
Group meeting to take a problem-solving approach rather
than function as an information-sharing mechanism. The
need for involving finance and development ministers was
also stressed as well as the importance of ensuring gender
balance in the Group.
Reports on the four break-away
groups
Sustaining political commitment
Planning and implementing EFA
Financing EFA
Bridging the data gap
Sustaining political commitment
This Group looked at the
obstacles at national level to increasing political commitment
and the role of advocacy and communication in enhancing
political will. They agreed that an important step was
to involve civil society at the highest level. Teachers
and parents must be involved in the EFA process to encourage
ministry officials to sustain the commitment over time
and for strategies to succeed. Participants reported on
difficulties of coordinating between the various ministries
involved in education.
Assessing the relevance
of existing and possible other advocacy tools, participants
reported on positive experiences where the media have
carried education stories. During EFA Week in Nigeria,
for example, the six EFA goals were published in newspapers
in local languages.
Participants stressed the
importance of tailoring the EFA messages to different
target audiences, the need for the right "packaging"
(different messages to different audiences) and the development
of advocacy tools to reach those unreached by current
instruments (e.g. people without access to the Internet,
the disabled, the still "unconverted" to EFA).
Other speakers stressed the need for tapping the knowledge
and experience of the disabled community. Awareness raising
in donor countries, where EFA knowledge is low among the
general public, was strongly recommended. One positive
experience is the recent mobilization of parliamentarians
in Africa.
Participants suggested
that inspiration be found in successful publicity campaigns
such as that of the Rights of the Child. Actions could
include posters for schools, bookmarks with the EFA logo,
etc.
Finally
the Group proposed that the current EFA website
should include sections targeting researchers, teachers,
students and the media.
Full
presentation
Planning and implementing EFA
"Accompanying"
countries was the term this Group chose to qualify the
international agencies' role in supporting national planning
and ensuring that countries have full ownership of the
process. Where planning is concerned, the international
agencies should, the Group agreed, support innovation,
decentralized planning, South-South experience-sharing,
and be more transparent as to their own roles.
When it came to implementation,
the Group proposed supporting a "quality process",
the principle of flexibility and acceptance of shared
responsibility for success or failure. Capacity-building
for leadership at community level and partnerships with
academia and the private sector were other areas cited.
Finally, the Group recommended that the Fast Track Initiative
for funding EFA should pay more attention to partnerships,
consultation, flexibility and be process driven.
Full
report
Financing EFA
This Group recognized that
funding for EFA is high on the donor agencies' agendas
and that multiple mechanisms and development approaches
already exist, such as SWAPS, PRSPs and others. Though
the share of external resources to education budgets is
relatively small, it is vital for catalyzing EFA action,
the Group said. For effective implementation of the Fast
Track Initiative, the Group recommended the establishment
of a specific financial framework under which countries
would have "real ownership" of the process,
and leadership in planning, monitoring and evaluation.
Civil society-donor partnerships were recommended and
donors were invited to harmonize their procedures and
adopt a code of conduct.
The Group suggested that
as far as possible external assistance be directed to
the school level. Further in-country funding could be
mobilized, they suggested, by improving efficiency in
the use of national resources and involving the private
sector.
The need to build and sustain
the national institutional framework to utilize funds
more efficiently was stressed. Capacity building efforts,
the Group agreed, should reach national, regional and
school levels, as well as civil society. Relevant data
should be available to inform policy, planning and implementation.
The group suggested, for immediate action, the improvement
of national accountability and more equitable distribution
of wealth.
Full
presentation
Bridging the data gap
According to this Group,
the main purposes of data collection in EFA is to assist
national policy making and assessment of progress towards
the Dakar goals. This often creates tension between building
sustainable data collection systems in countries and providing
timely data internationally.
Participants suggested
that a set of some 5-6 core indicators should be agreed
upon and used by all EFA partners, although the Group
noted that this may only provide a partial picture of
education systems.
The Group also noted that
data collection is expensive and felt that donors should
provide funding for this. One suggestion was that Fast
Track funds should be used for this purpose. Participants
also underlined the need for better use of existing data
by, for example, combining administrative data with survey
data.
The Group also encouraged
the establishment of independent verification mechanisms
at the national level, which could be done by education-specific
or general statistical bodies.
Finally, participants stressed
the need to get richer data to complete core indicators
in some countries and the use of more innovative approaches
to obtain information on such issues as gender and HIV/AIDS.
Full
presentation
Concluding remarks
John Daniel, UNESCO's Assistant
Director-General for Education, said in his concluding
remarks that he experienced "an enormous change"
in the style of the Working Group. "Compared to last
year's meeting, there is a higher degree of engagement
and a real wish to work in a collaborative spirit,"
he said.
He specifically highlighted
the encouraging progress in civil society involvement
and the Fast-Track initiative, which will be one of the
pillars of the EFA movement. "The big challenge in
the coming year will be to give shape to the Fast-Track
initiative," he said.
All
presentations at today's meeting are available on the
EFA website
