Fourth meeting of the Working Group on EFA takes off next week

All is set for the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Education for All to take place 22 and 23 July at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Bringing together 57 representatives of the main EFA constituencies and 19 observers, the meeting will primarily review the current status and future of EFA initiatives and flagship programmes.

Debate will be based on a background paper "EFA Flagships: Multi-partner Support Mechanisms to Implement the Dakar Framework for Action" and introduced by John Daniel, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education. Four panels will discuss specific initiatives: the UN Girls' Education Initiative, HIV/AIDS and education, the UN Literacy Decade and the Fast-Track funding initiative. "The aim is to agree on a common understanding of these initiatives how they interact, their value added, how they are making a difference at country level and what should be their future role," says Abhimanyu Singh, Lead Manager of UNESCO's Dakar Follow-up Unit.

The meeting will also discuss the four following issues:

1) Civil society initiatives including how to build on the successful experience of the World's Largest Lesson on EFA, which mobilized 1.8 million people during the Global EFA Week 2003 and what future directions and plans for the Collective Consultation of NGOs on EFA, an increasingly influential group of about 600 NGOs.

2) Communication and dissemination strategy for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003.

3) The third High-Level Group meeting to be held in India, 11-12 November 2003. The Sherpas Group of 10 members representing international agencies, NGOs and developed and developing countries will meet immediately after the Working Group meeting to discuss in more details the programme and expected outcomes of the High-Level Group meeting.

4) The Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP) which proposes a new approach to literacy assessment.

The Working Group on EFA meets once a year and the some 60 participants represent developing countries and countries in transition; bilateral, multilateral and regional agencies; civil society networks, non-governmental organizations and private foundations, as well as the OECD and the G-8. Permanent delegations to UNESCO are invited to attend the meeting as observers.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, will open the meeting and John Daniel, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education, will chair it.

All documents related to the meeting are or will soon be available on UNESCO's Education for All website http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/global_co/working_group

For more information on EFA flagship programmes: http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/know_sharing/flagship_initiatives/

A special issue of the Bulletin will be published after the meeting.

Contact: Mari Yasunaga, Dakar Follow-up Unit, UNESCO * E-mail: m.yasunaga@unesco.org
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Contact: Anne Muller (a.muller@unesco.org)