Technical Meeting on
Partnering the UN Girls’ Education Initiative to
Intensify Progress towards Gender Equality in Education

21-23 January, 2002

Background

UNICEF was mandated by the Secretary General of the UN at Dakar in April 2000 to lead the UN thrust in support of girls’ education through the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). The 10-year Initiative aims to mount a sustained campaign to improve the quality and availability of girls’ education in the 61 countries in which girls’ net enrolment ratio (NER) falls below 85% (see Annex 1). The Initiative works through existing mechanisms and instruments to encourage and facilitate strategic action on girls’ education, especially at the country level. The Initiative emphasises commonality of approach to girls’ education, particularly within the UN system, and proposes five strategic objectives as guidelines of effective intervention (see Annex 2).

To offer a forum for inter-organisational dialogue around the UNGEI, UNICEF is organising a meeting of UN, bilateral, and selected NGO representatives. The meeting will be hosted by UNESCO and partially supported by DfID. This document offers the rationale, purpose, expected outputs, and structure of the January consultation.

Rationale

Attaining gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005 (a target shared by the Millennium Development Goals and the Dakar Framework for Action) will be extremely challenging for many countries. The UNGEI offers opportunities to accelerate progress towards this goal. To exploit these opportunities it is important that the full range of partners identify the ways in which engagement with the Initiative can add real value to progress toward gender parity by 2005, and gender equality and EFA by 2015. The consultation will offer an opportunity to take stock of gender inequality in education, with a particular emphasis on the potential contribution of the UNGEI to the attainment of the 2005 and 2015 gender in education goals.

Purpose

To provide an opportunity for all partners to:

• Take stock of progress toward the 2005 gender parity goal;
• On the basis of this stocktaking exercise, identify ways in which development and other organisations can contribute to accelerate progress towards gender equality in education;
• Determine how agencies and other organisations and the UN Girls’ Education Initiative can work together at international and country levels to assist countries to meet the gender in education goals to which they have committed;
• Better understand the fit between UNGEI and agencies’ and other organisations’ ways of working with regard to action on girls’ education at the country level; and
• Contribute to shaping the strategic direction and activities of the Initiative.

Outcomes

As a result of the consultation, the following will result:

• Progress towards the 2005 gender parity goal analysed and assessed
• Identification of ways in which better collaboration among partners can facilitate countries reaching the 2005 target; and
• Suggestions for how the UN Girls’ Education Initiative might more strategically engage with other partners, at the country, regional, and global levels.

Location and logistics

The meeting will be held at:

UNESCO Main Building
7, place de Fontenoy 75700 Paris 07
Room VII, Basement
Fontenoy Building

Participants are responsible for their own expenses and hotel reservations. A list of hotels is included for your possible use.

French/English interpretation will be available.

Annex 1 - List of 61 countries with NER below 85%

United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
~ Five Strategic Objectives ~

Strategic objective 1: Led by the Secretary General, the UN will help to build "compacts" that consist of political and resource commitments at the highest levels on a country by country basis to end gender inequality in education.

Strategic objective 2: In the 52 countries with a gender gap of 5% or more at primary level (in 47 of which girls are disadvantaged) a plan of action to end the gender gap, with measurable indicators, will be in place by 2001, and there will be demonstrable progress toward closing the gap by 2005.

Strategic objective 3: In all countries, a plan of action will be in place by 2002 at the latest and operational by 2005 ensuring gender equality and sensitivity in all aspects of education. This includes enrolment policies and practices, curriculum, teacher behaviour and attitudes, equity in the teaching force, learning environments, pupils’ safety, access to information and skills that enable girls to make positive life choices in areas such as, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention, and access to use of new technologies.

Strategic objective 4: Countries affected by, or recovering from, armed conflict or natural disaster or external shock will put in place short-term (by 2000-2001) and medium-term (by 2005) measurable actions that guarantee access to and completion of quality education for girls and boys.

Strategic objective 5: All countries, especially those reporting gender parity and NERs of 90% or more, are encouraged to sustain or improve that level of equality in education and should eliminate all discrimination against girls, as established through the international norms and standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and on Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.