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Dear
Mr Twyford,
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I
have read with interest your e-mail message regarding UNESCO
and Dakar follow-up which was circulated on 6 December 2000.
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at the outset emphasize that UNESCO welcomes all efforts by
non-governmental organizations in general and especially by
the Global Campaign to maintain and intensify the momentum generated
by the Dakar World Education Forum. The publicity, advocacy
and general interest created by the Campaign have definitely
had a positive impact in terms of increased awareness about
education, and UNESCO, as the designated lead agency in Education
for All, is gratified by these new dynamics. UNESCO is committed
to working constructively with all partners in the pursuit of
the Dakar agreements and we look forward to close cooperation
and engagement with OXFAM too. |
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course, there are bound always to be competing views, assessments
and hence debate about strategies, objectives, approaches and
timing. This is healthy and indeed necessary. An open debate
can actually help further our common cause and should not be
shunned. For its part, UNESCO will not shy away from this, as
we have demonstrated at the Commonwealth Education Ministers
meeting in Halifax and the meeting of the Canadian National
Commission for UNESCO in Ottawa. But we should be all clear
about our respective responsibilities and mandates which determine
our room for manoeuvre. |
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Advocacy
organizations like yours have a different framework of operations
and concerns. UNESCO as an inter-governmental organization
is accountable to its Member States through an Executive Board
and a General Conference. Education is one of our largest
responsibilities. As such, we are bound to pursue education
as a prime task in each country, involving all actors of society
at large. To achieve EFA, political will, backed by open democratic
debate, will be crucial. As the Dakar Framework states: "the
heart of EFA activity lies at the country level". UNESCO's
role will be to facilitate this process, in the service of
and through engagement with our Member States and partners.
Our Institutes, notably the UNESCO International Institute
for Educational Planning, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
(which houses the EFA Observatory) and the International Bureau
of Education, are important assets in helping countries build
the capacity and formulate strategies they so urgently need
to strengthen and expand their education systems
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regard, UNESCO has been invited and encouraged by a host of
partner governments and organizations to assume the role of
a – hopefully trusted - intermediary between national authorities
and the donor community. This happened recently at the Working
Group meeting on EFA which took place in Paris from 22 to 24
November. As invited, UNESCO will therefore undertake to act
as a convener and coordinator for EFA in countries and regions
and, by doing so, promote the implementation of the Dakar goals.
I sincerely hope that we can count on your cooperation and involvement
and those of your sister NGOs and civil society organizations |
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| Contrary
to your perception, the Paris Working Group meeting has indeed
led to a number of concrete recommendations, notably the setting
up of sub-committees to accelerate progress on specific issues.
For example, a sub-committee to move forward on the "global
initiative" is being set up and will start its work early in
the New Year. Its purpose is to design concrete strategies to
ensure increased funding for Education for All, in a realistic
way. |
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| Other
sub-committees are being set up to reflect on "codes of behaviour"
so as to ensure better coherence in international partnerships
at country level, as well as to develop a more operational version
of the Country Guidelines on the preparation of national EFA
plans of Action. This new version will also take into account
the inter-agency flagship programmes, such as FRESH (Focussing
Resources of Effective School Health), the United Nations Girls
Education Initiative and HIV/AIDS Education. |
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| A time-bound
action plan which will outline the respective roles of UNESCO
and its partners in the 12-month period to come will soon be
finalized and published |
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| Non-governmental
organizations (one of which represented the Global Campaign)
made much appreciated, constructive contributions at the Working
Group meeting. Indeed, we noted carefully that regarding the
Global Initiative, the Global Campaign stated in a document
circulated at the Paris meeting that it had "listened to the
critics of the GAP and that the GCE therefore is proposing a
Global Initiative whose chief stock in trade would be information,
not control of funds." |
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| As regards
financing required to achieve EFA, we may well be aspirational
but we must also remain within the realm of reality. The Director-General
outlined in early October in a speech to OECD/DAC the enormous
task we all face in securing funding for EFA and he has challenged
the donor community to deliver the supplementary level of funds
required to bridge the US$ 8 billion financing gap. This was
buttressed by UNESCO discussion paper Development Partner Co-operation
in Support of Education for All, which addressed both the issues
of resource mobilization and efficiency improvements. The presentation
and paper were positively received both by OECD/DAC and by the
participants in the first meeting of the Working Group on Education
for All. |
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| Important
as funding may be, however, we should also be conscious that
money alone is no panacea. It cannot by itself solve the multi-faceted
and complex issue of providing quality education to all, including
to the millions of out-of-school children. Here your comparison
with a vaccination campaign is somewhat misleading. While vaccines
can be bought with money, and a successful international fundraising
campaign can mobilize private sector donors, often with direct
stakes in the health and pharmaceutical markets, and help bridge
the ‘health divide’, money will not suffice to bridge the "education
divide", as it were. Pouring money on non-functioning education
systems will regrettably not turn them into good education systems.
Rather, education is a long-term undertaking that necessitates
capacity-building in an open, democratic environment. |
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| Besides,
funding for the Global Alliance for Vaccines may have a commercial
angle to it, which facilitates the emergence of public/private
partnerships. In the present international climate of shrinking
ODA, fundraising for education, which is more multi-dimensional
undertaking, must be tackled in different, more demanding and
maybe more patient ways. We should not delude ourselves that
we merely need to put forward a cogent document to the G-7/G-8
summits and the funds will start to flow. No matter how well-reasoned
and urgent the rationale, the history of past G-7 initiatives
has shown that they evolve rather slowly |
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| To be sure,
achieving EFA is well beyond the scope of any single agency
and will not be a simple matter of months or a one-shot campaign.
We have seen more than half a century pass since the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated and more than ten
years since Jomtien. Expecting miracles within 6 months after
Dakar may not be a realistic – or fair – expectation. UNESCO
is seeking to build strong partnerships with all organizations
interested in abolishing the education and knowledge gaps within
the Dakar time-frame. The battle may be tedious, but we will
win it only if we work together, as in the case of poverty eradication |
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Yours
sincerely
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Jacques
Hallak
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