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Special
issue of the electronic news bulletin board of UNESCO's Education
Sector
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No.
11
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Contents
(23 November 2000)
-
Linking EFA efforts to development frameworks is key to
success
- Mobilizing international financial support for basic education
- Better data for better education
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Linking
EFA efforts to development frameworks is key to success
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National plans on Education for All (EFA) need to be placed
within wider development frameworks in order to meet the goals
of the Dakar Framework for Action. In a session on linking EFA
plans with sector strategies and development objectives during
the second day of the meeting of the Working Group on EFA, participants
stressed the need to integrate education into major development
initiatives. "The strategic framework is our last chance," said
one participant. |
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Maris O'Rourke of the World Bank presented on behalf of UNDP,
UNICEF and her own organization, a strategy for achieving EFA.
It seeks to integrate EFA efforts into existing development
frameworks and initiatives, such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers (PRSPs), the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative
(HIPC), the Comprehensive Development Framework and others.
This involves developing a cross sectoral policy framework,
communication strategies, sharing good practices, brokering
financial deals, improving resource utilization, capacity building
and supporting appropriate use of debt relief. |
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Ms O’Rourke explained that if the international community is
to move ahead quickly on this basis, it must agree on a set
of principles, such as the criteria by which countries become
part of it and on what constitutes a national plan. Other principles
include resource mobilization, evaluation and monitoring. |
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The debate that followed focussed on such issues as the need
to involve the civil society in EFA action and the importance
for countries of having a sense of ownership for the initiative.
On this score, Jean-Bernard Thiant from France, said that "we
have a tendency to address the will of donors at the expense
of the countries", and Anil Bordia of India called for organizations
such as UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP to help countries negotiate
better deals with donor agencies. |
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Seiji Kojima, the G8 representative, said that the leaders of
these eight countries attached great importance to the level
of ownership because, "we have less chance of success if the
civil society is not behind the process," he said. |
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A number of participants stressed the need for EFA national
plans to identify the reasons for past failure in reaching their
education goals, firstly for countries themselves and secondly
so that development agencies are better placed to help them.
Sheldon Shaeffer of UNICEF added that these national plans should
be costed and have time-bound strategies to remove inequality,
and be linked with other sectors. |
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Drawing up national action plans and the wide consultation process
that it implies could also be the opportunity to reflect on
the purpose of education and to reinvent strategies and approaches
as well as addressing the question of values. |
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The Working Group meeting that ends tomorrow is organized just
six months after the World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal,
26-28 April 2000) and comprises key actors in the Education
for All movement, including representatives of governments,
regional bodies, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and
non-governmental organizations. The meeting is expected to further
the Education for All process in the organizations represented
and help shape the agenda of the informal High-Level Group to
be convened by UNESCO's Director General in April 2001. |
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Mobilizing
international financial support for basic education
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Although the responsibility of financing education rests predominantly
with national governments, the international community has a
critical catalytic and supportive role to play in achieving
Education for All. This was one of the main conclusions of a
session on how to mobilize international financial support for
basic education including the characteristics of the global
EFA initiative, as foreseen in the Dakar Framework for Action.
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"International financial resources are in short supply and high
demand," said Lene Buchert of UNESCO, who presented a draft
paper entitled Development Partner Co-operation in the Support
of Education for All: Rational and Strategies. "The international
community needs to think creatively in terms of resource mobilization
and to act with more urgency than in the past," she said. UNESCO's
paper constitutes one part of the global initiative, which,
in Ms Buchert's words, is not only a finance initiative but
a framework outlining how to work together at all levels and
facilitating governments'leadership role. |
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The paper outlines five main lines of action: Increasing external
funding for education, ensuring greater predictability in the
flow of external assistance, providing debt relief and/or debt
cancellation for poverty reduction and basic education, facilitating
more effective donor co-ordination and strengthening sector-wide
approaches. |
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Ms Buchert pointed to the decrease in international development
aid during the 1990s and reiterated the recent recommendation
by UNESCO's Director-General to bilateral donor agencies to
double their support for education to constitute a total of
$7 billion by 2005, $10.5 billion by 2010 and $14 billion by
2015. "But this is only a complement to what countries themselves
have to invest in education," Ms Buchert said. Today, external
financing accounts for only 3 per cent of education spending
in developing countries. |
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In the discussion that ensued, recurring themes were the lack
of comprehensive frameworks and strategies in education in many
countries, the need for co-ordination, monitoring and risk-taking
and issues such as accountability and transparency. |
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"We need to agree on a certain number of elements to move forward
with funding," commented Jose-Javier Paniagua of the European
Commission, adding that education is now one of the priorities
on the Commission's funding agenda. |
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Steve Packer of the United Kingdom Department of International
Development stressed the importance of looking at the finance
systems at a whole. "The Dakar Framework for Action focuses
a great deal on external financing but many countries need to
reallocate resources within the national budget and within the
education budget itself," he said. |
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Gabriel Bayemi of the African Development Bank raised the question
of efficient use of resources and improved aid co-ordination
and mentioned that where the Bank previously had 'one client'
(the government), countries are now asked to consult with civil
society and other groups before they present new plans. |
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Marion Molteno of Save the Children Alliance cautioned participants
to make sure that external resources reach the right hands.
"We need to see how money is distributed within countries. Does
the amount of money correspond to the expectations at the different
levels?" she asked. |
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NGO representatives of the Global Campaign on Education yesterday
shared with participants a paper on their vision of a global
initiative whose central element would be information not control
of funds, as previously proposed by the Campaign. Main features
include the creation of an inventory or ledger that would track
each country's progress towards implementation of a viable and
participatory EFA plan, as well as identification of resource
gaps and existing and potential mechanisms for external support.
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Better
data for better education
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The question of monitoring Education for All goals and targets
was the theme before participants at this afternoon’s session.
A presentation on the newly-established EFA Observatory based
in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) was made by Denise
Lievesley, its Director. While the need for regular monitoring
of education is widely accepted, the EFA 2000 exercise amply
demonstrated that assessments cannot be rushed through and must
be based on regular reporting systems, she explained. |
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The objective of the EFA Observatory is to collect, analyse
and disseminate regularly relevant information required by all
users -- countries, regions and those interested in international
monitoring -- and to help build sustainable national statistical
systems to do so. Assessment exercises are intended to assist
governments develop, review and amend policies so that their
EFA goals are reached as quickly as possible. They also provide
a tool for international monitoring |
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In the aftermath of the Dakar Forum, the first step is to evaluate
existing indicators, not merely from a statistical perspective
but from a policy relevance standpoint. The Institute is dependent
on education experts to determine the relevance for policy of
indicators, Ms Lievesley explained. In the meantime and to ensure
that a solid benchmark for the year 2000 is established, it
has tried to anticipate some future needs and to minimize data
gaps by including a few new indicators in the exercise known
as Survey 2000. |
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Another focus of the Institute is striking a balance between
core data collection across all countries and subsets of data
of interest to specific regions or countries sharing similar
characteristics. Developing a strategy for policy purposes and
an early warning system to assist countries falling too far
behind is another aim. |
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UIS is not the only organization that produces statistics and
Ms Lievesley warmly invited organizations that are better placed
to collect some of the data to come on board. "We will be looking
for partnerships and organizations that want to work in this
area," she said, adding that financial co-operation will also
be important if the Institute is to carry out its mandate effectively.
Speaking from the chair, Emily Vargos-Baron of USAID echoed
her plea calling on all present to collaborate fully. |
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Sheldon Shaeffer of UNICEF said that greater emphasis should
be placed on obtaining disaggregated data, saying that this
was one of the pluses of the EFA 2000 assessment which had made
a specific effort in this area. |
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Several participants stressed the difficulty of comparing data
on an international level, pointing out that educational systems
are not unified. Others were concerned about the target audience,
insisting that statistics addressed an elite and a suggestion
was made to avoid producing over-sophisticated data that countries
are unable to use. Richard Sack of the Association for the Development
of Education in Africa (ADEA) called for statistics to be taken
away from the experts and put into the general arena. He particularly
called for more “user-friendly” data for journalists. |
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| Information
Contact: Anne Muller (a.muller@unesco.org) |
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