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Background
Spanish
The Sustainable
Development Department (SDD) of FAO and UNESCO are inviting
member countries, UN entities and civil society to join
in the establishment of a new Partnership on Education for
Rural People.
The initiative seeks to address
rural-urban disparities, which are a serious concern to governments
and the international community as a whole. About 70 per cent
of the poor live in rural areas. Despite the fact that education
is a basic right in itself and an essential prerequisite for
reducing poverty, improving the living conditions of rural
people and building a food-secure world, children's access
to education in rural areas is still much lower than in urban
areas, adult illiteracy is much higher and quality of education
is poorer.
In this regard, FAO and UNESCO
are joining efforts in the establishment of a new flagship
within the Education for All (EFA) initiative with a focus
on Education for rural people. The partnership will be open
to members committed to working separately and together to
promote and facilitate quality basic education for rural people.
The new FAO/UNESCO flagship
was officially launched at a side event during the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa,
3 September 2002
The flagship objectives are:
- building awareness on the
importance of education for rural people as a crucial step
to achieve the Millennium goals of eradicating extreme poverty
and hunger and achieving education for all http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)
- overcoming the urban/rural
education gap
- increasing access to basic
education by rural people
- improving quality of basic
education in rural areas
- fostering national capacity
to plan and implement basic education plans to address learning
needs of rural people
For more information, the concept
paper "Targeting the rural poor: the role of education
and training" (March 2002 http://www.fao.org/sd/2002/kn0301a_en.htm
) can be consulted.
The flagship is a call for
a collaborative effort to increase the coordination of efforts
targeting the educational needs of rural people.
Activities
1. At national level
Technical support to countries
willing to address the basic educational needs of the rural
people by formulating specific plans of action as part of
the national plans on EFA
2. At international level
Advocacy and mobilisation
of partnerships for education of the rural people concentrating
on strategic global, regional and international events, and
encouraging the same within countries.
Identify capacity for different
substantive components on education for rural people within
partners institutions
Support the exchange of good
practices and knowledge on education for rural people
Meetings
The new FAO/UNESCO flagship
was officially launched at a side event during the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa,
3 September 2002.
Collaborators will be mentioned
during the WSSD side event as well as in every other occasion
where the flagship may be presented. UNESCO Director General
Matsuura and FAO Director General Diouf or his representative
will be there, indicating the importance of this flagship
and the high regard attributed to this partnership.
The flagship will also be
presented during the subsequent meetings:
1. Regional workshop on Education for Rural Development
organized in partnership with FAO, UNESCO and UNESCO- International
Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), Bangkok,Thailand,
5 -7 November 2002
2. An Aid Agencies workshop on Education for Rural Development,
organised by FAO, with the technical collaboration of UNESCO
and UNESCO/IIEP (Rome, 12-13 December 2002)
3. Youth Employment Summit 2002 (Alexandria, 7 - 11 September
2002)
4. International symposium on Rural Education organised
by UNESCO Office in Beijing together with the International
Research and Training Center for Rural Education (INRULED,
China) the Chinese Ministry of Education, and the Chinese
National Commission for UNESCO, (20 to 23 January 2003).
Members
(as of November 2003)
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