| Communiqué
from the Second Meeting of the High-Level
Group on Education for All
Abuja,
Nigeria
19-20 November 2002
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We, the participants in the second
meeting of the High-Level Group on
Education for All, met, at the invitation
of the Director-General of UNESCO,
during 19-20 November 2002 in Abuja,
Nigeria. The Government of Nigeria
generously hosted the meeting. In
fulfilment of our mandate to promote
political commitment and mobilize
technical and financial resources,
we examined the progress that is being
made towards the achievement by 2005
and 2015 of six Education for All
goals agreed upon at the World Education
Forum in Dakar in April 2000.
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We welcomed the EFA Global Monitoring
Report 2002 (Education for All. Is
the world on track?) as a valuable
tool to hold governments and the international
community to account for the delivery
on commitments set out in the Dakar
Framework for Action and the Millenium
Development Goals. We find it alarming
that, on present trends, only 83 countries
have achieved or have a high chance
of achieving by 2015 three of the
six Dakar goals that can currently
be quantitatively monitored - Universal
Primary Education (enrolment and completion),
gender equality and adult literacy.
- In
view of the urgency of the goal of
eliminating gender disparities in
primary and secondary education by
2005, we urge that countries at risk
be assisted to accelerate progress
on girls' education and specifically
address cultural barriers. Multi-sectoral
programmes and strategies must be
implemented to combat forms of exploitation
and other constraints that adversely
affect female participation and performance
in education. The production of gender-disaggregated
data for secondary education must
be given urgent and high priority
to ensure monitoring at this level.
- The
impetus given by the World Education
Forum to plan for the achievement
of Education for All in a comprehensive,
inclusive, gender responsive and outcome
driven way must be sustained and urgently
translated into action. External prescription,
planning and reporting overload must
be avoided and coordinated support
for national processes at the country
level promoted. In order to avoid
parallel planning processes, we underline
the necessity to view planning for
EFA flexibly and according to the
circumstances of individual countries.
This may mean either a specific plan
for EFA or one that is integrated
with other education sector or wider
development plans - with due attention
paid to all six Dakar goals. The opportunities
afforded by Poverty Reduction Strategies
and the Fast-Track Initiative to promote
EFA and the education-related Millennium
Development Goals must be exploited.
- National
plans must be set in the economic
context of countries and present a
holistic approach to educational development
that addresses challenges such as
HIV/AIDS, conflict, crisis and transition
to democracies. Country plans to address
the HIV/AIDS pandemic must enable
the education sector to more strongly
prevent the further spread of HIV,
as well as engage the entire sector
in addressing the impact of AIDS on
the supply and demand for quality
education.
- We
are seriously concerned by the reported
decline in Official Development Assistance
for basic education during the 1990s.
Despite recent commitments from some
countries, existing evidence suggests
a serious gap in international support
to achieve the EFA goals even after
countries undertake maximum efforts
to improve domestic resource mobilization
and efficiency. We urge the international
community to accelerate progress to
deliver on the commitments made at
Dakar. These commitments have been
followed by the development compact
agreed upon in Monterrey which necessitates
mutual accountability and responsibility
for global development between governments
in the North and the South. We welcome
and support the Fast-Track Initiative
as one of the means to facilitate
such compacts at the country level,
building on existing development processes
and matching credible plans with needed
resources. The Initiative should be
complemented with alternative instruments
to reach other countries over time.
International funding and technical
assistance agencies must develop strategies
for assisting countries outside the
Fast-Track Initiative in their achievement
of EFA. Country-led coordination and
harmonization of procedures and reporting
must be undertaken effectively with
support from the international funding
and technical agencies.
- Concrete
actions are needed, especially at
the local and national levels, to
broaden and intensify the involvement
of civil society (including the poor,
religious/faith and business communities)
in the planning, implementation, monitoring
and evaluation of EFA. Timely information
and outcomes must be shared openly
with committed civil society organizations.
Funding and technical assistance agencies
and governments need to support capacity
building of civil society to enable
it to participate effectively in the
EFA process. Policies and legislation
recognizing the important role of
civil society should be elaborated.
Indicators for successful partnership
need to be developed.
- To
improve policy formation and monitoring
of all six EFA goals, more accurate
and timely quantitative and qualitative
data are needed. This calls for intensive
capacity building for the collection
and effective use of data for national
policy and planning processes at the
local, national and international
levels. We welcome the announcement
by the Government of Canada of $5
million over five years for the UNESCO
Institute of Statistics and encourage
other partners to intensify their
support for such capacity building
efforts. We see the necessity for
building on the synergy between the
six EFA goals and the two education
Millennium Development goals.
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We resolve to intensify our advocacy
at global, regional and national levels
for increased political commitment
and resources to accelerate progress
on EFA.
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As next steps we particularly recommend
that:
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Governments in the South must
ensure that free and compulsory
primary education is a right reflected
in national legislation and in
practice. National strategies
to achieve the goals of Education
for All must receive its necessary
share of government budgets and
benefit from all possible funding
sources, including debt relief.
- Strong
and committed action is required
by Governments to improve the
status and working conditions
of teachers to address the anticipated
shortages signaled by the monitoring
report. This anticipated shortage
is being exacerbated by the impact
of HIV/AIDS, conflict and emergencies.
This action is particularly important
as young people are no longer
attracted to the teaching profession
in some countries.
- Regional
and sub-regional forums, starting
with Regional Education Proyecto
Regional de Educación para
America Latina y el Caribe (PRELAC)
(November 2002), Conferences of
the Ministers of Education of
African Member States organized
by UNESCO (MINEDAF) (December
2002), and regional initiatives,
such as the New Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD) and
Forum for African Women's Educationalists
(FAWE) that promote South-South
collaboration are important opportunities
for mobilizing political commitment
and resources for EFA.
- The
meeting of funding and technical
assistance agencies in Brussels
(November 2002) offers an important
opportunity for bilateral and
multilateral agencies to coordinate
their commitment to deliver on
the promises made at Dakar and
Monterrey.
-
The G8 meeting in Evian, France
in 2003 presents a critical opportunity
for this influential body to continue
and to accelerate the valuable
contribution made through its
Task Force on Education.
- An
advocacy strategy on EFA must
be designed and coordinated by
appropriate agencies, to address
specific areas of concern in different
countries and regions (for example
girls' education by UNICEF and
teachers' conditions by UNESCO).
- Every
advantage should be taken of the
coming UN Decade for Literacy
and the proposed UN Decade for
Education for Sustainable Development
to advance the EFA agenda.
- Maximum
use must be made of opportunities
presented by the High-Level Group,
the annual monitoring report,
the annual EFA week and high-level
international events on development
issues to underline the importance
of education for global development.
- UNESCO
should strengthen urgently its
capacity to fulfill its international
coordination role.
- UNESCO
and other key EFA agencies must
devise and implement a strategy
to ensure that subsequent High-Level
Group meetings have higher-level
representation with stronger capability
of mobilizing political commitment
for the EFA goals.
- We
acknowledge that important advances
have been made in many countries that
were not reflected in the data available
to the Monitoring Report Team. We
encourage the Monitoring Report Team
to include case studies of good practice
and successful experiences in achieving
the EFA goals and of providing free
education as part of the analysis
of forthcoming reports. Future reports
should also contribute to clarifying
the concepts and indicators that would
permit more effective monitoring of
the three goals of early childhood
care and development, adult literacy
and learning needs of youth and adults
through skills development.
- We
welcome the invitation of the Government
of India to host the next meeting
of the High-Level Group in November
2003.
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