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Contents
(24 April 2001)
---> First anniversary
of the World Education Forum
---> New EFA Forum
established in South Asia
---> Bidding process begins
for inter-agency evaluation on development
aid to basic education
---> Recommendations
on HIV/AIDS and education in West Africa
---> New website on a United
Nations Literacy Decade Consultation
---> Update on the United
Nations Girls' Education Initiative
---> Joining hands for
EFA in Ibero-American states
---> Arab States: Network
of United Nations focal points set up to assist
country efforts
---> The Caucasus: Second
meeting of the Network of Pedagogical Institutes
(16-18 May)
---> Countries in action
for EFA (the Gambia, Lithuania, the Republic
of Moldova and Thailand)
Attachments to this issue:
---> Joint
statement of the South Asia Ministerial Meeting
on Education for All (in English only)
---> Note
on international bidding process for inter-agency
evaluation (in English only)
---> Recommendations
of the Senior Experts Conference on HIV/AIDS
and Education in West Africa (in English
and French)
---> Minutes
of the second meeting of the Arab regional
forum (ARABEFA) (in English only)
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First
anniversary of the World Education Forum
Countries need to show greater commitment
if they are to meet the goal of providing
quality education for all by 2015, says John
Daniel, UNESCO's new Assistant Director-General
for Education, one year after the World Education
Forum in Dakar.
The
Forum agreed that governments bear the major
prerogative and responsibility for education.
But one year on, many of them have not yet
established the mechanisms to orchestrate
their efforts and implement their strategies.
The first task facing these countries is the
drafting of national action plans by 2002
which is essential, not only to chalk out
the measures required to meet the target but
also to mobilize external aid.
Some
countries have forged ahead nevertheless.
In the past year, Senegal and Brazil have
drawn up or are finalizing their action plans
after consultations with civil society. Moreover,
the EFA partnership has been consolidated
and consensus is being reached on the principles
of a global initiative on funding and strategies
to assist countries in their EFA efforts,
as specified in the Dakar Framework for Action.
New
subregional EFA forum established in South
Asia
The
recent South Asia Ministerial Meeting on EFA
(10-12 April, Kathmandu, Nepal) decided to
establish a country-driven subregional forum
to monitor progress in basic education and
keep the momentum of political and social
mobilization for EFA.
The some seventy-five participants including
five Ministers of Education, two secretaries
for education, senior experts, leading NGOs
and representatives from UNICEF, UNDP, the
World Bank and DANIDA, opted for a light structure:
the subregional forum will meet every two
years. The next meeting is planned to take
place in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2003. UNESCO
will serve as the secretariat of the forum
and UNESCO Islamabad will be in charge of
preparing the next meeting that will focus
on the quality and the financing of basic
education. Bilateral and multilateral agencies,
development banks and NGOs will contribute
to the work of the subregional forum.
The
meeting in Kathmandu adopted a joint statement
(attached) which spells out achievements and
challenges for the seven countries in the
subregion (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). It recognizes
the pivotal role of basic education in national
development and enumerates fifteen points
considered essential to achieve the EFA goals.
The challenges are huge: South Asia is home
to the world's largest number of out-of-school
children and adult illiterates.
(File
attached: jointstatementnepal.rtf)
Contact: Wolfgang Vollmann, co-ordinator of
the nine high-population countries (E9) /
E-mail: w.vollmann@unesco.org
Bidding
process begins for inter-agency evaluation
on development aid to basic education
An
international competitive bidding process
has been launched to find qualified consulting
bodies to carry out an evaluation of development
assistance to basic education. A notice inviting
relevant bodies to express their interest
in carrying out the evaluation is attached
to this Bulletin Board.
"We would like this notice to be brought to
the attention of interested consulting entities
around the world," says Ted Kliest of the
Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs who
is co-ordinating the bidding process.
The
notice is currently being published in several
international journals including the Journal
of the European Union and the UN Development
Business.
The
results of the evaluation are expected to
be used in several ways: as inputs into the
design of agency strategies, in the context
of discussing specific management and partnership
issues, to improve practice in the field,
to identify best practices and to improve
aid efficiency and effectiveness.
The evaluation is supported by the following
countries and agencies: Canada, Denmark, the
European Commission, Germany, Ireland, the
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UNESCO, UNICEF,
United Kingdom and the World Bank. It is co-ordinated
by an inter-agency steering committee and
a management group, led by the Netherlands.
(File attached:
Invitationevaluation.rtf)
Contact: Ted Kliest, Policy and Operations
Evaluation Department (IOB), Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, The Netherlands / E-mail:
tj.kliest@minbuza.nl
Recommendations
on HIV/AIDS and education in West Africa
The
recommendations of the Senior Experts Conference
on HIV/AIDS and Education in West Africa,
organized from 18-23 March in Elmina, Ghana,
are now finalized and attached to this Bulletin
Board.
The
conference brought together more than 130
participants from 13 countries to assess the
scope of the pandemic in the region, and the
needs and inadequacies within current national
responses as regards the education sector.
The conference was organized by UNESCO and
followed two major UNESCO meetings on HIV/AIDS
preventive education for experts in curriculum
development and teacher training in Dakar
1997 and in Accra 1998.
(Files attached: HIVrecommendationseng.rtf
and HIVrecommendationsfr.rtf)
Contact:
Marie Paule Roudil, UNESCO / E-mail:
mp.roudil @unesco.org or
Anna-Maria Barthes-Hoffman / E-mail:
am.barthes@unesco.org
New website on a United Nations Literacy
Decade Consultation
A
new UNESCO website invites the world to consider
a "renewed vision to literacy". The site is
devoted to a United Nations Literacy Decade,
envisaged to be proclaimed by the United Nations
General Assembly at this year's session as
part of the global efforts toward education
for all. In a previous resolution of the General
Assembly, the Director-General of UNESCO was
specifically asked to take leadership in the
process toward the Decade.
The new website is dedicated in particular
to a worldwide consultation with civil society.
It is available in English, French and Spanish
at http://www.unesco.org/education/litdecade
Update on the United Nations Girls' Education
Initiative
The
United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
(UNGEI) launched by the United Nations Secretary-General,
Kofi Annan, at the World Education Forum last
year, is one of the "Flagship Programmes"
of the EFA movement. It is designed to ensure
that girls' education has a prominent place
in the United Nations reform processes at
national level, including a thorough gender
analysis at the initial stages and inclusion
of specific activities in the United Nations
Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
The
Task Force that guides this UNICEF-led Initiative
has now finalized a summary report featuring
UNGEI activities in the period January to
December 2000. It can be consulted on the
DevLink website, under the section on Girls'
Education (www.undg.org).
Contact: Maida Pasic, Programme Assistant,
UNICEF / E-mail: MPasic@unicef.org
Arab
States: Network of United Nations focal points
set up to assist country efforts
A
network of United Nations focal points in
the Arab States has been established to facilitate
and assist EFA activities at country and regional
levels. During the second meeting of the regional
inter-agency EFA mechanism, ARABEFA, on 29
March in Beirut, it was agreed that the United
Nations focal points (education officers of
UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP) will start working
immediately with countries to set up national
EFA teams. The teams are expected to include
all active agencies, including United Nations
offices, Arab organizations, bilateral donors,
NGOs, universities, research centres etc.
The
four regional committees (Early Childhood
Development, Girls' Education, Primary Education,
and Literacy/Women and Non-Formal Education)
established at the first meeting of ARABEFA
in October last year were also discussed.
It was agreed that each committee should have
a work plan ready by the end of May.
The
meeting also agreed to hold three subregional
workshops in September and October when the
national EFA teams are expected to be up and
running. A regional ambassadors team will
shortly undertake a fund-raising tour to increase
awareness and mobilize resources for EFA.
Their efforts will be part of a regional media
strategy currently underway.
Members
of ARABEFA are UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA,
the Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia (ESCWA), the World Bank, Arab non-governmental
organizations and several education specialists.
(File
attached: ARABEFA2minutes.rtf)
Contact:
Victor Billeh, Director, UNESCO Beirut E-mail:
v.billeh@unesco.org
The Caucasus: Second meeting of the Network
of Pedagogical Institutes (16-18 May)
Some
30 representatives of Pedagogical and Languages
Institutes as well as Ministries of Education
in the Caucasus region are invited to attend
a conference, 16-18 May in Baku, Azerbaijan.
On the agenda is, inter alia, the follow-up
to the World Education Forum. Participants
will present reports on progress made in the
past year and will discuss ways and means
of regional co-operation to meet the Dakar
goals of quality education by 2015.
Contact:
Alexandre Sannikov, UNESCO Paris / E-mail:
a.sannikov@unesco.org
Joining hands for EFA in Ibero-American
States
During a conference of the Organization of
Ibero-American States for Education, Science
and Culture (OIE), 26-27 March in Valencia,
Spain, participants decided to join efforts
in the follow-up to the World Education Forum.
They agreed to set up an education portal
for Ibero-American States (led by the Ministry
of Education of Argentina), to reinforce inter-university
co-operation (lead by the Secretariat of the
Ibero-American Co-operation) and to come up
with a plan of co-operation in basic education
to be presented at the XII Conferencia Iberoamericana
de Ministros de Educación in 2002. For more
information on this conference visit http://www.oei.es/xiciedec.htm
Countries in action for EFA (the Gambia,
Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova and Thailand)
The
Gambia: harmonizing
efforts in education initiatives
UNESCO Dakar will assist the Gambia in the
preparation of the country´s EFA plan of action
which will be contextualized within the existing
Education Master Plan which ends in 2003.
The EFA plan of action will cater for preparatory
activities that will form the basis for the
development and finalization, by the end of
2003, of a new fifteen-year Education Policy
for 2004-2018.
UNESCO
Dakar is providing support to the national
expert team behind the EFA plan. The team
is composed of experts representing planning,
basic education, information technology, human
resources and project co-ordination. Each
team member was heavily involved in the revision
of the current policy and the development
of the present Education Master Plan. The
EFA Team now meets daily to review the assignment
of specific tasks and responsibilities and
to assess progress.
The
Gambia is also hosting the Regional Office
for the Decade for Education in West Africa
(DEWA), set up in conformity with the wish
of the Organization of African Unity (OAU)
to have a Decade for Education in Africa (1997-2006).
The Decade complements the EFA goals set in
Jomtien in 1990 and reaffirmed in Dakar last
year. Serious effort is now being given through
DEWA to address both the Dakar and the African
Decade for Education goals. It has for example
been suggested that the EFA Coordinators and
the Focal Points for Decade activities collaborate
to help countries refocus and harmonize their
efforts in the field of basic education.
Lithuania:
Brainstorming
meeting set for 25-26 June
The Ministry of Education of Lithuania is
planning a meeting, 25-26 June in Vilnius,
to discuss the establishment of a national
EFA Forum and launch the preparation of a
national EFA plan of action. The meeting will
be co-financed by UNESCO, UNDP and the Lithuanian
National Commission to UNESCO.
The
Republic of Moldova: Broad
coalition behind Dakar follow-up process
During
a recent mission of UNESCO to the Republic
of Moldova, the Moldavan government decided
to hold a brainstorming meeting, 25-27 September,
in Kishinev, to discuss the modes and ways
of launching the process of preparing a national
EFA plan of action and the establishment of
a national EFA Forum.
The
meeting will be jointly organized by the Ministry
of Education and Science, UNESCO, UNICEF,
UNDP, the World Bank, the Soros Foundation,
the Moldavan National Commission for UNESCO
and the Moldova State University.
It was also decided that Professor P. Gaugash,
Pro-rector of the Moldova State University
and former Minister of Education, will be
the EFA National Co-ordinator a.i.
The
Republic of Moldova is the second European
country (after Lithuania) to receive assistance
from UNESCO to launch the Dakar follow-up
process.
Thailand:
New
committee set up to co-ordinate EFA plan of
action
Thailand's
Minister of Education, Dr Kasem Watanachai,
appointed on 16 March a national EFA forum
under the name "Committee for Thailand Education
for All Planning under the Framework of Dakar".
The
committee is chaired by the Permanent Secretary
and served by twenty-five members, of whom
four are from foundations for children and
the disabled and another seven represent other
agencies dealing with health, skilled labour
development, national planning and budgeting.
Its mandate is to determine the framework
and policy for Thailand's EFA plan of action
and eventually to approve the plan (to be
drawn by a task force under this Committee)
Contact: Duangtip Surintatip, EFA coordinator,
Thailand / E-mail: duangsur@emisc.moe.go.th
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