If some Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have made progress towards education for all (EFA), many others, particularly in Africa, have had greater difficulty in promoting EFA. Some have registered stagnation and even regression in terms of enrolment in, and the quality of, education and training programmes, especially in basic education. This situation is due to causes both internal and external including, for example:

• the absence of clearly defined, effective and well-supported educational policies;
• the failure to introduce necessary reforms;
• ineffective strategies for the implementation of programmes;
• inadequate long-term planning and constantly changing priorities;
• the lack or inadequacy of the ways and means of mobilizing the required national and external resources;
• poor evaluation of progress;
• sustained poverty, conditions of crisis and conflict, and the impact of an expanding HIV/AIDS pandemic;

In such a context and in order to achieve EFA, the LDCs need to strengthen or even rebuild their basic education services and design and implement more comprehensive educational policies and more innovative educational programmes.

Dakar Follow up

The World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April 2001), the outcome of a comprehensive process of consultation among all relevant EFA partners and the EFA 2000 Assessment, gave a clear picture of priorities and recommendations for national action towards EFA.

’Governments have an obligation to ensure that EFA goals and targets are reached and sustained’ is stated in the Dakar Framework for Action adopted by all countries represented in Dakar. It also emphasises partnership, the growing role of civil society in achieving EFA and the importance of national political will and action in the follow up.

The six Dakar goals are:

(i) expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children ;

(ii) ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality ;

(iii) ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes ;

(iv) achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults ;

(v) eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality ;

(vi) improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

Source: Dakar Framework for Action, para. 7

The Dakar Framework for Action, reaffirming the principle of the fundamental human right to education, requests countries, particularly LDCs, to ensure that they have prepared or reinforced existing national EFA plans by 2002 at the latest.

These action plans need to be situated within a well-integrated sector framework and closely linked to poverty eradication and sustainable development strategies (CCA/UNDAF, CDF/PRSP, SIPs and SWAps, etc.) and other existing frameworks at national level in LDCs.

As stressed in the Framework, ‘the heart of EFA activity lies at the country level’: countries are the prime movers in developing holistic and systemic policies within which education – both formal and non-formal – is seen as a lifelong process.

LDC policy-makers more than ever need to adopt approaches that ensure intersectoral coherence and direct relevance to overall national development strategies. They must reconcile national priorities and local cultural identities, making the best use of regional structures and co-operation mechanisms.

Education policy formulation must become more transparent, democratic and participatory and therefore requires more effective collaboration between all stakeholders concerned, including civil society as well as external partners and institutions.

Furthermore the achievement of EFA goals will require efficient delivery mechanisms in order to address critical issues such as decentralization, governance and the provision of education services in societies undergoing transition and reconstruction.

Donors have a great responsibility in ensuring that harmonised initiatives fall within LDCs’ own priorities. At the request of governments, agencies which are members of the EFA partnership will collaborate at the national level in providing concrete support to countries in the preparation and implementation of their national plans of action.

(i) be developed by government leadership in direct and systematic consultation

with national civil society;

(ii) attract co-ordinated support of all development partners;

(iii) specify reforms addressing the six EFA goals;

(iv) establish a sustainable financial framework;

(v) be time-bound and action-oriented;

(vi) include mid-term performance indicators; and

(vii) achieve a synergy of all human development efforts, through its inclusion

within the national development planning framework and process.

Source: Dakar Framework for Action, para. 16

Costing the elaboration or improvement of National EFA Plans and their later implementation is a case per case exercise that has to be done in close co-operation with governments and partners in place. A variety of situations, backgrounds and conditions, different in each country, need to be taken into account. Ultimately, however, the Dakar Framework gave the assurance that "no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resources".

Actions must be taken to clearly identify the policy and programme priorities of the region concerned, to mobilize resources within the region and, finally, to set up collaborative mechanisms that will assist countries in preparing and implementing their national plans of action.

Several activities could be envisaged within this context, including:

• holding regional or sub-regional ministerial and technical meetings enabling all the bilateral and multilateral partners in the region, the regional development banks, representatives of ministries of education and finance, teachers' unions, the private sector, civil society, foundations, etc. to be brought together to discuss the region's needs in terms of basic education policies and programmes, and the modalities of co-operation and financing to be envisaged within this framework;
• identifying existing networks in all the domains linked to the development of basic education;
• reinforcing the institutional capacities of LDCs. Meetings, training courses, etc will be organized within a context of policy dialogue at the regional and/or sub-regional level.

• assisting in the organization of a national EFA forum with a broad-based national partnership (government, civil society and other partners, national and international).

The recently published "Country guidelines for the preparation of national action plans" constitutes a consultation tool for developing or reviewing and up-dating national action plans in order to incorporate the six Dakar goals. It provides an orientation about how the process of follow-up to the World Education Forum may be organized at the country level.

Technical co-operation in the support of this planning process, co-ordinated through existing and new regional support mechanisms for EFA, would focus on the following activities:

• formulating national education sector policies and strategies (with special emphasis on the six Dakar goals);
• where needed, supporting the development of sub-national action plans
• promoting the involvement of NGOs and civil society organizations in the development of these plans
• developing global, regional, and country-specific indicators and monitoring systems to measure progress towards these goals
• facilitating dialogue among donor agencies and between the agencies and governments
• mobilizing external financial resources;
• supporting innovative activities.

In order to ensure effective administration, where all partners are involved (civil society, private enterprise, local/regional participation, capacity building at central, regional and local levels is needed prior to and during implementation of LDC National Action Plans, especially in the following areas:

• policy design and planning, budgeting;
• costing of education development programmes;
• the monitoring and assessment of progress and the development of regional and national education management information systems
• the planning and managing of decentralized and community-based education systems

The promotion of a programme of education, information and co-operation in the development of scientific and technological knowledge for poverty eradication to address basic-needs and promote sustainable-livelihood development requires several interconnecting project activities. These include project initiatives in developing and promoting education and technology for human and institutional capacity building, and associated policy formulation, advocacy and implementation. Project areas under such a programme initiative include the following:

1. Development of education, information and sharing of experience, e.g. ICTs and media.
2. Development of a culture of maintenance for equipment and facilities.
3. Data base established on best practices including lists of Science and Technology Education personnel and specialized institutions.
4. Development of innovative and relevant curriculum, learning, teaching and training methods and materials for science and technology (and optimal use of ICTs in this context) to provide scientific knowledge and skills for teachers as well as other basic education trainers (literacy and non formal education) and learners.
5. Technology needs assessment and transfer of technologies (South/South and North /South) in the public and private sectors.
6. Capacity-building through training of curriculum developers and planners and officers in charge of science and technology education.
7. Institutional strengthening in education, science, technology and innovation (including the establishment of an African Institute for Technology).
8. Promotion of gender issues in science and technology (including promotion of equity and participation for economic development).
9. Use of debt relief for the development of science and technology.
10. Pilot project activities on Science and Technology Education in selected countries, including support for the International Fund for the Technological Development of Africa (IFTDA).

5. PROMOTING INTER AGENCY PROGRAMMES IN LDCs (FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES)

In the acceleration of progress towards EFA goals, a number of inter-agency "flagship" programmes have been identified and consolidated. LDCs should be encouraged and enabled to take advantage of these programmes in their attempts to achieve education for All.

1. Girls’ Education
2. Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH)
3. Emergencies
4. Aids and Education

The World Education Forum in Dakar went significantly beyond the attention paid to girls’ education in the Jomtien Conference 11 years earlier by declaring goals specific to the issue:

Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

Accelerated progress towards these goals in the Least Developed Countries can be made. Knowledge about what works to get girls into school and help them stay there -- and mechanisms to transform this knowledge into action -- now exist. And financial resources can be found to make it happen.

Rationale and strategic impact: Approximately 120 million school-age children are not enrolled in primary education. One in every three children in developing countries does not complete 5 years of primary education. These children will join the ranks of the almost 1 billion adults who cannot read or write. The majority of these is girls. Gender disparities to the disadvantage of girls is significant in LDCs. As a group, girls’ net enrolment in primary school is 53% compared to 63% for boys, leading to a gap of 10 percentage points; the gap in all developing countries is only 6 percentage points. Some 33% of all girls of primary school age not in school live in the least developed countries – a total of almost 25 million girls.

Yet achieving basic education of good quality – for both girls and boys – is a fundamental human right. And, additionally, girls' education is an essential contributor to social development and poverty reduction. The social benefits of girls’ education include increased family incomes; later age of marriage; reduced fertility; lower infant and maternal mortality rates; better nourished and healthier children; greater opportunities and life choices for women (including empowerment to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS); and greater participation of women in political, social and economic decision-making. Because of these multiple benefits it is widely recognised that devoting resources to quality education for girls is among the best investments that any society can make.

Without addressing the education of girls as a priority and a matter of urgency, Education for All will never be achieved. And rather than thinking that a focus on girls’ education will hinder the education of boys, there is ample evidence from the last decade that educational efforts targeted toward girls benefit boys at least as much.

Methodology: In achieving the Dakar goals, it is necessary to focus on increasing overall enrolment while at the same time pursuing gender equality. This can be done by operating under a set of agreed principles:

• Education systems should be developed or expanded in which girls are full and equal participants and beneficiaries
• Gender discrimination (qualitative as well as quantitative) should be removed from all aspects of education
• A gender-sensitive, child-friendly learning environment should be promoted that respects the human rights of all children
• The involvement of the family, community and civil society should be broadened and deepened
• Special attention should be paid to the most vulnerable children, including those who work, those who are affected by conflict or by HIV/AIDS, and children with disabilities
• A unified education system should be promoted that includes formal and non-formal options, and where equivalency and bridges among different pathways are ensured.

Activities: In individual countries and cultures, girls are denied access to school and to learning for many different reasons. There are barriers:

• at the household level (costs and lack of parental awareness)
• in education policies (expulsion of pregnant girls, school fees which lead to favouring boys over girls)
• in the educational infrastructure (schools far from households, a lack of sanitation facilities)
• in community beliefs and practices (early marriage and gender stereotypes)
• in educational practice (gender-insensitive curricula, timetables inappropriate to girls’ domestic work, threatening school environments).

Experience in many contexts has shown that a range of specific approaches and activities can be brought to bear to eliminate these barriers.

• Re-allocation of household work, parent education, child-care programmes for younger siblings, and economic incentive programmes can encourage families to send their daughters to school.
• Resource reallocation in national budgets to education, the elimination of school fees, and regulations which explicitly encourage girls’ enrolment and attendance (e.g., which permit pregnant girls and young mothers to stay in school) can promote a policy environment conducive to girls’ education.
• Smaller schools closer to households and sanitation facilities for girls and boys can lead to an infrastructure sensitive to the needs of girls.
• Social mobilisation with parents and community leaders, culturally appropriate schools, and conditions that ensure girls’ safety can help overcome discriminatory community beliefs and practices.
• Gender-sensitive curricula and teaching-learning processes, flexible school calendars and schedules, and girl/child-friendly learning environments can overcome barriers within the education system.

Whatever the approach taken, it is important to note that enrolling girls in school is necessary but not sufficient. They also need to stay in school and reach specified levels of learning. It is impossible to separate access to and quality of basic education. Parents and children "vote with their feet", especially when it comes to girls’ education. In general, girls are more likely to stay in schools that provide good quality education and that are child-centred.

Mechanisms: Institutions and mechanisms currently exist which can be strengthened in order to help achieve the Dakar goals for girls’ education in the Least Developed Countries.

At the country level, all partners concerned with the EFA agenda and the Dakar Framework for Action must come together and, through existing mechanisms, analyse the gender dimension of basic education and develop policies and programmes within EFA National Action Plans and broader sectoral reform efforts which will accelerate action towards the Dakar goals. These mechanisms include sector-wide approaches (SWAps), Common Country Assessments and UNDAF, and the poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs).

At the global level, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, a 10-year campaign launched by the Secretary General at Dakar, is attempting to promote greater collaboration among all the partners (UN, bilateral, and non-governmental) concerned with girls’ education. Such collaboration should be linked directly to existing sector development programmes, promote strategic actions, and strengthen political and resource commitments to ending the gender gap and ensuring gender equality in all aspects of education. Countries can choose to join the initiative in order to gain support in girls’ education from this wider partnership.

Financial implications: Recent analyses have shown that the estimated cost of reaching universal primary education by 2015 is not unaffordable – increased domestic funding (including proceeds from debt relief) and international support can cover the gap. Getting all girls into school, however, is not only a question of financial investment. High-level political commitment and policies and programmes attuned to the unique context of each country and culture must also be put in place. EFA Fora and National Action Plans – and the policy dialogue, programme development, and capacity building activities that support them -- must therefore ensure full attention to planning for, and financing, education of good quality for all girls.

Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH)

Rationale and strategic impact: "Education for All" means ensuring that all children have access to basic education of good quality. This implies creating an environment in schools and in basic education programmes in which children are both able and enabled to learn. Such an environment must be inclusive of children, healthy and protective of children and gender sensitive. The development of such child-friendly learning environments is an essential part of the overall efforts by countries around the world to increase access to, and improve the quality of, their schools.

Poor health and malnutrition are important underlying factors for low school enrollment, absenteeism, poor classroom performance, and early school dropout, as reflected in the World Declaration on Education for All. Programmes to achieve good health, hygiene and nutrition at school age are therefore essential to the promotion of basic education for all children.

Good health and nutrition are not only essential inputs but also important outcomes of basic education of good quality. First, children must be healthy and well-nourished in order to fully participate in education and gain its maximum benefits. Early childhood care programmes and primary schools which improve children’s health and nutrition can enhance the learning and educational outcomes of school children. Second, education of good quality can lead to better health and nutrition outcomes for children, especially girls, and thus for the next generation of children as well. In addition, a healthy, safe and secure school environment can help protect children from health hazards, abuse and exclusion.

An effective school health, hygiene and nutrition programme offers many benefits:

• Increases the efficacy of other investments in child development
• Ensures better educational outcomes
• Achieves greater social equity
• Is a highly cost effective strategy

Focusing Resources on Effective School Health – FRESH – identifies four key elements that should be made available together, in all schools:

Health policies in schools, including skills-based health education and the provision of some health services, can help promote the overall health, hygiene and nutrition of children. But good health policies should go beyond this to ensure a safe and secure physical environment and a positive psycho-social environment, and should address issues such as abuse of students, sexual harassment, school violence, and bullying. By guaranteeing the further education of pregnant schoolgirls and young mothers, school health policies will help promote inclusion and equity in the school environment. Policies regarding the health-related practices of teachers and students can reinforce health education. Policies are best developed by involving many levels, including the national level, and teachers, children, and parents at the school level.

The school environment may damage the health and nutritional status of school children, particularly if it increases their exposure to hazards such as infectious disease carried by the water supply. Hygiene education is meaningless without clean water and adequate sanitation facilities. It is a realistic goal in most countries to ensure that all schools have access to clean water and sanitation. By providing these facilities, schools can reinforce health and hygiene messages, and act as an example to both students and the wider community. This in turn can lead to a demand for similar facilities from the community. Separate facilities for girls, particularly adolescent girls, are an important contributing factor to reducing dropout rates.

This approach to health, hygiene and nutrition education focuses upon the development of knowledge, attitudes, values, and life skills needed to make and act on the most appropriate and positive health-related decisions. Health in this context extends beyond physical health to include psycho-social and environmental health issues. Changes in social and behavioural factors have given greater prominence to such health- related issues as HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy, injuries, violence and tobacco and substance use. The development of attitudes related to gender equity and respect between girls and boys, and the development of specific skills, such as dealing with peer pressure, are central to effective skills-based health education and positive psycho-social environments.

Schools can effectively deliver some health and nutritional services provided that the services are simple, safe and familiar and address problems that are prevalent and recognized as important within the community. If these criteria are met, then the community sees the teacher and school more positively, and teachers perceive themselves as playing important roles. For example, micronutrient deficiencies and worm infections may be effectively dealt with by infrequent (six-monthly or annual) oral treatment; changing the timing of meals, or providing a snack to address short term hunger during school – an important constraint on learning - can contribute to school performance; and providing spectacles will allow some children to fully participate in class for the first time.

The success of school health programmes demands an effective partnership between Ministries of Education and Health, and between teachers and health workers. The health sector retains the responsibility for the health of children, but the education sector is responsible for implementing, and often funding, school based programmes. These sectors need to identify respective responsibilities and present coordinated action to improve health and learning outcomes for children.

Promoting a positive interaction between the school and the community is fundamental to the success and sustainability of any school improvement process. Within the school health component of such improvement processes, parental support and cooperation allow education about health to be shared and reinforced at home. The involvement of the broader community (e.g. the private sector, community organizations and women’s groups) can enhance and reinforce school health promotion and resources. These partnerships, which should work together to make schools more child-friendly, can jointly identify health issues that need to be addressed through the school and then help design and manage activities to address such issues.

Children must be important participants in all aspects of school health programmes, and not simply the beneficiaries. Children who participate in health policy development and implementation; in efforts to create a safer and more sanitary environment; in health promotion aimed at their parents, other children, and community members; and in school health services, learn about health by doing. This is an effective way to help young people acquire the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles and to support health and Education for All.

FRESH represents a call to action around the key elements of effective school health programmes, outlined above. FRESH emphasises the need to go beyond single strategies or elements, such as skills-based health education alone, and to co-ordinate the key elements as they are implemented together, to maximize health and learning outcomes for children.

The FRESH flagship programme is an inter-agency initiative, and is based on effective co-ordination among all partners. The central actor remains, as always, national governments, and LDCs should draw upon the FRESH approach in the development of healthier schools and education of better quality. But without the necessary political commitment at country level, the impact of FRESH will be minimal. In order to organize better and more relevant support to the different LDCs implementing activities under FRESH, it is of vital importance that relevant regional and sub-regional bodies are involved in areas such as training/capacity building, exchange of information and monitoring.

Education in emergency situations

It is clear that the Dakar Framework of Action which aims to reach EFA objectives in 2015 will not make sense if millions of children have been excluded because of violence, armed conflicts, natural disasters or extreme poverty and therefore cannot exercise their rights to go to school. Crisis situations today constitute a structural reality worldwide; all of which have a particularly devastating effect on sustainable development in LDCs. The EFA 2000 Assessment showed that this structural reality is a major barrier to education. EFA partners must improve their capacity and ability to react quickly to communities in distress, particularly where children are concerned. In particular, it is necessary to give prompt assistance with education and training programmes tailored to specific and exceptional circumstances, as requested by the Dakar Forum.

To re-introduce education as soon as possible in any emergency situation as a fundamental right is a high priority for millions of children. Such interventions should be designed on the principle that education in emergencies is at the same time education for sustainable development, a crucial factor in building peace and stability and in bringing hope for the future. Inter-agency co-operation and co-ordination must be strengthened at all levels. This co-operation process must not only assist in a context of urgent educational needs but also, whenever possible, help to ease the transition phase following the crisis that has destabilized, disorganized or even destroyed the education system.

In order to assist in this process, a Network on Education and Emergencies was established at a meeting of UN agencies, NGOs and donors in Geneva last November. The objectives of this Network are to:

1. Further develop strategies and mechanisms for collaboration among different actors at the global, regional and national levels.

2. Establish Working Task Teams, or link with other flagship programmes, to address the following technical questions:

• Resources and supplies for learning and teaching in emergency situations
• Post-primary education in emergency situations.
• Information sharing and networking
• Monitoring and evaluation for emergency situations
• Responding to the impact of emergencies on girls and women

3. Assist member states in adapting national action plans to emergency situations

4. Collect and evaluate best practices with the aim of further distribution

The inter-agency consultation held in Geneva in late 2000 followed ministerial recommendations made in the Strategy Session on Education in Emergencies held as part of the Dakar Forum of April 2000. This consultation was convened jointly by UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF. The purpose was to ‘to agree on practical strategies and mechanisms to achieve more effective inter-agency collaboration at global, regional and country level’.

In addition to the delegations from the three convening agencies, the meeting brought together representatives from WFP, UNDP, World Bank, bi-lateral donors and over twenty NGOs currently engaged in education programmes in countries in crisis.

The Network on Education in Emergencies has a mission, through its activities, to reinforce the co-ordination between the humanitarian assistance co-ordinating structures and the EFA follow-up process; the Network is guided by a Steering Group consisting of representatives of UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF plus one donor representative and one representative NGO.

The Network, with a secretariat in UNESCO, is available to assist LDCs in the elaboration of the National Emergency Plans within the context of EFA plans being developed before December 2002.

HIV/AIDS AND EDUCATION

In less than two decades HIV/AIDS has been transformed from a medical curiosity to an international emergency. It can no longer be conceived of as just a health problem – it is already a development disaster and is becoming a security crisis with social impacts as devastating as any war. The spread is not decreasing; on the contrary, it is still accelerating. Unlike other epidemics, it primarily affects young adults, and although it strikes the poor it also heavily affects the skilled, the trained and the educated – i.e. the groups most vital for development. LDCs, already seriously affected by shortage of resources, are particularly concerned.

AIDS attacks not only human bodies, but the body politic as well. It has an unprecedented institutional impact, not only on the institutions most needed for development but also on those most needed to prevent the spread of the epidemic itself. By the high rate of disease and death among teachers and other trained professionals it will erode access and interfere with the capacity of key institutions to function. Children will lose teachers at school and parents who can support them from home. Classes will be empty and schools will close. Not only will children and the young get a poorer education as the industrialized world moves into the knowledge society – there will be fewer opportunities for them to learn how to avoid what is afflicting their elders.

Since there is no cure and the treatments that are available that can bring improvements in the quality of life are still too costly for large parts of the world’s population, prevention through education followed by action is the best medicine – indeed the only thing that works.

Two key questions deserve thorough investigation:

• How does the epidemic affect the institutions of society in general and educational institutions in particular?
• How can these institutions counteract the spread of the epidemic disease and respond to its impact?

The first question needs to be answered in order to plan for coping with the ravages of the epidemic on the very institutions that should protect against it. How to plan and organize this process? With which partners? What countermeasures can be taken? At which level? What has been tried and what works? To answer such questions, studies and research are needed – but at the same time strategies have to be drawn up before full knowledge is attained. The world cannot wait for complete answers before moving to meet the challenge.

The second question is what kind of education should be provided, and how, in order to ensure that children, youth, and adults gain the knowledge, skills, and values needed to reduce the rate of acceleration of the pandemic. What teaching material or curricula should be prepared for learners in different institutions and programmes, for teachers, for managers? And how can such materials ensure that both information is transmitted and behaviours changed?

With respect to both questions clearly it is essential to help ministries of education to tackle the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS crisis. It is also essential to mobilize all actors working at the national, regional and local level and to build partnerships. In developing this strategy, knowledge about local conditions as well as sensitivity to culture is imperative.

Collect information systematically and put it at the disposal of governments, NGOS, and international agencies working in this field. This function has to be carried out at the sub regional, regional and international level.

a) Continue to develop flexible and adaptable resource packages for curriculum planners, providing them with tools to place HIV/AIDS information and awareness messages squarely into curricula.

b) Work with pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes to update curricula and develop teacher manuals, and training of trainers’ manuals to include relevant subjects, including life-skills and HIV/AIDS awareness.

c) Include assertiveness-training modules in literacy programmes and non-formal education activities, especially for girls/women.

a) Analyze best practices and success stories, try out and support new interventions at local, regional and national level;

b) Elaborate the various alternatives to cope with the pandemic in terms of the organization of education provision in formal and non-formal programmes, the delivery of education to those affected by the pandemic ( e.g. orphans), teacher supply and training and the provision of a secure and caring environment for those infected and affected;

c) Formulate UN policy guidelines concerning teachers and HIV/AIDS. These guidelines should enable governments to formulate teacher policies on an informed basis to address questions such as: What is the status of teachers with HIV/AIDS? What are their rights and responsibilities? What support should be given to them? When and how must assignments of teachers affected by AIDS change to match the impact of the illness? How should policies of teacher recruitment, training, employment and deployment be changed?

d) Assist countries in developing a personnel policy to deal with high attrition rates, and declining productivity among staff members. Analyze best practices to replace the large numbers of teachers who have had to stop teaching because of HIV/AIDS.

e) Work with teacher unions on the definition of a code of conduct for teachers, and on strategies to cope with teacher shortages;

f) Strengthen the quality of education in contexts of HIV/AIDS prevalence;

g) Work with communities and parent teacher associations to sensitize them on the real risks of infection, and how teachers that are affected should be treated;

a) Train and support planners and managers to anticipate and cope better with HIV/AIDS

b) Assist governments to implement and monitor new organizational and curriculum strategies

c) Assist communities to implement local initiatives to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS

Design and implement research in order to monitor and evaluate both the current impact of HIV/AIDS on education (formal and non-formal), and the introduction and impact of new strategies and interventions.

Promote the strengthening of political will to publicly address the nature, extent, and implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on education and on national development.

The Inter-Agency task Team on AIDS, Education, and Schools is promoting the development of key modes of operating to carry out the above activities, including:

a) working with Ministries on a cross sectoral basis

b) working with communities on local initiatives

c) partnering with NGOs and strengthening their capacities

d) fostering public and private partnerships for a range of co-ordinated activities

e) paying particular attention to the protection of young girls and empowerment of women.