© UNESCO-GMR-Akash

Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan are the nine most highly-populated countries of the South (E-9). Between them they represent more than 60 per cent of the world's population, over two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults and over half of the world's out-of-school children.
At the 2012 Ministerial Review meeting, the E-9 countries will report on progress on specific actions since the last E-9 meeting in 2010 with ongoing monitoring to 2015.

India will host the ninth E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting in New Delhi in 2012 and assume the chair of the E-9 Secretariat from 2012-2014.