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Special
issue of the electronic news bulletin board of UNESCO's Education
Sector
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No. 12
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Contents
(24 November 2000)
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New climate of collaboration in Education for All
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New
climate of collaboration in Education for All
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The follow-up to the World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal,
April 2000) received new inspiration at the first meeting of
the Working Group on Education for All that ended today at UNESCO
headquarters in Paris. An informal gathering of some forty key
actors discussed over the last three days concrete steps towards
meeting the challenge of EFA. |
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"The EFA movement has taken a step forward," said Jacques Hallak,
UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education a.i in his
closing speech, referring to a variety of presentations made.
He stressed that, despite the daunting new challenges facing
the movement, including widespread conflicts, HIV/AIDS and increasing
poverty, there is today a much more favourable political climate
for furthering this agenda. |
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"This debate has been an invaluable source of inspiration for
UNESCO's work in the coming weeks and months," Mr Hallak told
the participants representing constituencies such as governments,
regional bodies, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and
non-governmental organizations. |
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In today's closing session, three groups reported back on issues
of primary importance to Dakar follow-up, which also occupied
a large part of yesterday’s discussions. These were monitoring
of EFA targets, planning to achieve these objectives and funding
support. |
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Suggestions from this reporting exercise and the discussions
that followed were wide-ranging. Mr Hallak promised that participants'
views and recommendation will now be put before UNESCO's Director-General
for consideration, in view of the up-coming High-level Group
meeting that he will convene in April 2001. |
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An issue, that cropped up time and time again, was that of 'ownership'
of the movement at all levels. In the case of Senegal, for example,
the process underway is involving local plans on a school-by-school
basis as well as local-level partners. |
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The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) present voiced their
interest in being involved in drawing up the national action
plans. The People’s Action Forum in Zambia suggested that NGOs
also have the opportunity of training in workshops organized
by UNESCO's Institute for Statistics. Mr Hallak assured participants
that the Institute would do everything to accommodate suggestions
concerning the use of statistics in monitoring educational progress.
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He also said that the following areas would be part of UNESCO's
follow-up activities in the coming months:
Examining
in greater detail strategies for financing EFA including
the establishment of mechanisms to ensure that national
plans of action are backed by external technical and financial
assistance.
Helping
in organizing discussions between donor agencies to improve
co-ordination of EFA efforts. Close collaboration with the
Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European
Commission will be sought.
Expanding
the collaboration between United Nations agencies at international,
regional and, in particular, national levels. Memorandums
of understanding have already been signed between UNESCO
and UNICEF in West and Central Africa and in Latin America
and the Caribbean. In addition, UNESCO is planning to provide
technical assistance to some twenty-five least developed
countries that do not have an EFA co-ordination mechanism,
as well as for another group of countries on their request.
Improving
the country guidelines for the preparation of national plans
of action in order to make them more operational. Participants
of the Working Group meeting were asked to submit proposals.
Particular emphasis should be given to how to link national
EFA action plans to flagship programmes on key issues in
basic education.
Closely
involving the private sector in EFA. A particular effort
would be made in this regard at the High-level Group next
year
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Communications between all the actors in the movement is also
vital to move forward quickly. "Bad news tends to travel quicker
than good news," one participant said, adding that this tends
to mask the successful activities and best practices going on
all over the world. "We should look at these success stories
and share them out among us for enlightenment," said Mr Hallak.
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A report on the Working Group meeting will be published in the
first quarter of 2001. This Bulletin Board will continue to
inform you regularly of activities, innovations and EFA news
in the weeks and months ahead. |
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| Information
Contact: Anne Muller (a.muller@unesco.org) |
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