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| DIRECTOR-GENERAL
URGES INCREASED DEVELOPMENT FUNDING FOR EDUCATION AND POVERTY
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Paris, 2 October 2000 - UNESCO Director-General Mr Koïchiro
Matsuura today appealed for increased development aid in an
address to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
about the role of education in poverty reduction. |
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| The
Director-General declared that "UNESCO has a core role to play,"
in poverty alleviation and in "translating into reality the
goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015." He explained: "UNESCO's
fields of competence [education, science, culture and communication]
are critical for empowerment; for creating an enabling environment
for people to participate actively in individual and social
development through education, respect for human rights, cultural
and historical sensitivity in policy design, environmental sustainability,
and access to information for all." |
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| Mr
Matsuura said: "UNESCO believes that it is vital to foster the
development of an integrated concept of education, one that
enables individuals to adapt to a rapidly changing social, economic
and cultural environment, and to continue to learn throughout
life. It is no longer enough to learn how to read, write and
count." He added that education "must also result in improved
social conditions for the poor." |
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Director-General reiterated the goals for education set out
in recent G8 meetings: "Achieving the goals of universal primary
education by 2015; achieving gender equality in schooling by
2005" and ensuring "that no government seriously committed to
achieving education for all would be thwarted in this achievement
by lack of resources." |
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of EFA [education for all], the Director-General declared: "A
new Framework for Action to this effect was adopted by the World
Education Forum [which took place in Dakar, Senegal in April
2000]. UNESCO was given a heavy responsibility for the follow-up
to this Conference. It is committed to meeting that responsibility.
[...] And it will do so, as is natural, co-operatively. With
other agencies, multilateral and bilateral. With NGOs. But first
and foremost with Member States. As they have said and I willingly
repeat, they are in the driver's seat. But they need massive
international assistance." |
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called the financial contribution by the world community to
poverty reduction and education for all a "make or break factor"
but argued that "responsibility for resource provision rests
mainly with national governments in the South". Mr Matsuura
urged that "a mutually reinforcing relationship must be developed
between macro-economic stability and structural reform on one
hand, and growth and reduction of poverty and inequality on
the other." |
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Mr Matsuura denounced the fact that "as a percentage of the
combined GNP of DAC countries, Official Development Assistance
[ODA] has fallen by more than one-fifth in constant dollar
terms from 1992 to 1997. [...] Private investment flows constitute
the major proportion of overall financial flows. [...] We
must remember that just to reach the goals of education for
all, we have a perceived funding gap of $8 billion per year."
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"The international community must now mobilise itself, rethink
the provision and modalities of aid, identify new financial
sources and mechanisms, and show that it is capable of practising
what it preaches", Mr Matsuura declared. He added: "A development
process oriented towards poverty alleviation should involve
increasing both domestic resource mobilisation in the South
and private international capital flows. [...] The international
community should assist in the design of strategies that will
help to increase savings, attract private investments, improve
the efficiency of local financial systems, manage and reduce
debt, improve public financial management and make the best
use of ODA." He particularly urged "the international community
to make concerted efforts: To achieve policy coherence; to improve
trade relations; to ensure debt relief; to increase aid; and
to target the aid carefully and effectively." |
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Mr Matsuura appealed to the OECD and DAC-member countries, in
particular those with large economies, to: "allocate a proportionately
higher share of overall ODA to social development [and] increase
support for education for all." He proposed "increased overall
support for education, with particular emphasis on basic education
[...] from the current US$3.5 billion to US$ $7 billion by 2005,
US$ 10.5 billion by 2010 and US$ 14 billion by 2015." |
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The Director-General added that "UNESCO, for its part, will
fully play the leadership role assigned to it in Dakar by co-ordinating
the international community's delivery of its commitments and,
in particular, facilitating more effective donor co-ordination;
promote co-ordination at the country level through adoption
of sector-wide approaches; help in ensuring monitoring of targets
and goals for EFA nationally and internationally, in which UNESCO
will play a key role." |
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"But," he emphasised, "perhaps most of all, we must ensure that
debt relief serves as an immediate catalyst for sustainable
social and economic - including educational - development and
poverty reduction. We must revisit the terms of the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and enhance the speed of
its enactment, while carefully scrutinising the context in each
country." |
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Finally Mr Matsuura said that "even if we all have much to learn
still about the underlying causes and relationships that determine
the state of poverty within nations, we do know enough to put
preventive and counter-active measures into place. [...] We
have the political will of States for the Dakar goals. We also
need the financial will. This is in the interests of us all."
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