181 GOVERNMENTS ADOPT FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION AT THE WORLD EDUCATION FORUM
Dakar, Senegal, 28 April {No.2000-43} - Delegates from 181 countries today
adopted a Framework for Action committing their governments to achieve
quality basic education for all, with a particular emphasis on girls
education and a pledge from donor countries and institutions that "no
country seriously committed to basic education will be thwarted in the
achievement of this goal by
lack of resources."
The 1,500 participants at the World Education Forum emphasized that
while there had been significant progress in many countries, it is not
acceptable that more than 113 million children (mostly girls) have no access
to primary education, 880 million adults are illiterate, gender
discrimination continues to permeate education systems and the quality of
learning falls short of the needs of societies.
The Dakar Framework addresses the challenges of the twenty-first
century by focusing on the importance of girls' education, quality learning
and reaching those who continue to be excluded from education (girls,
working children, children of ethnic minorities, and children affected by
violence, conflict, disabilities and HIV/AIDS).
Education was defined as a fundamental human right and the key to
sustainable development and peace. The participating governments committed
themselves to achieve the following goals:
1) Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and
education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
2) Ensure that by 2015 all children, especially girls, children in
difficult circumstances, and from ethnic minorities have access to and
complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
3) Ensure that the learning needs of all young people are met
through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes.
4) Achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by
2015, especially for women as well as equitable access to basic and
continuing education for adults.
5) Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education
by 2005 and achieve gender equality by 2015 - with a special focus on
ensuring full and equal access for girls to basic education of good quality.
6) Improve all aspects of the quality of education to achieve
recognised and measurable learning outcomes for all-especially in literacy,
numeracy and essential life skills.
In order to achieve these goals, the delegates pledged to develop
accountable systems of educational governance and management, implement
education programmes to combat HIV/AIDS, meet the needs of educational
systems affected by armed conflict, create safe and friendly schools,
harness new information and communication technologies and systematically monitor the progress towards the goals. They
also committed themselves to encourage the participation of civil society in
the monitoring and implementation of strategies for educational development.
The strategies will mainly be implemented through existing
mechanisms, primarily at the country level. Participating countries will
prepare a comprehensive National Educational for All (EFA) Plan by 2002, at
the latest, with the consultation of national civil society. The plan will
be prepared in the context of wider poverty reduction and development
strategies and will, among other things, specify reforms, include mid-term
performance indicators and establish budget priorities for achieving the
goals no later than 2015. Concrete strategies for those currently excluded
from education will be identified.
Regional activities to support national efforts will be based on
existing regional and sub-regional organisations, networks and initiatives,
and may be augmented when necessary. The United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will serve as the Secretariat,
whereby the UNESCO Director General will annually convene a small mobilising
group of highest level leaders from governments, civil society and
development agencies. Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the President of
the United States, announced at the Forum today that his government will
increase by 50% its bilateral funding for basic education this year. He
further said that the US administration will expand debt relief to countries
that make a commitment to basic education, as well as insist that the final
Dakar Framework of Action be a top priority at the upcoming G-7 summit in
Okinawa, Japan. It was estimated that an additional USD8 billion a year in
cost was necessary to achieve EFA.
The World Education Forum was a follow-up to the World Conference on
Education for All, which was convened in Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990.
It synthesised the results of a two year Education for All Assessment which
was conducted in 181 countries by national teams in co-ordination with
advisory groups from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
UNESCO, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, bilateral donor agencies,
development banks and inter-governmental organisations.
Heads of State and key decision makers from 181 countries
participated in the Dakar Forum, along with representatives from more than
100 international and grassroots NGOs. The convenors of the Dakar meeting
were UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, and the World Bank. Participants included
Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General; Peter Piot, Executive
Director of UNAIDS; Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of UNDP; Koichiro
Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO; Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of
UNICEF; Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UNFPA; and James Wolfensohn,
President of the World Bank.
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For further information contact the World Education Forum Media Co-ordination Office at:
tel: (221) 826 80 52 or (221) 641 8281
email: a.muller@unesco.org
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