The Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on EFA came at the crucial midway point along the time-line to 2015. Despite significant advances over the past seven years, it was clear that progress must be accelerated if the six EFA Goals and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be reached by 2015. It was in this perspective that the sequence of key annual EFA events has been reorganized, and adjustments made to the linkages between them as well as to working methods and expected outcomes.

The Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on EFA was accordingly focused on specific outcomes, working with the findings of the 2008 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) - essentially an overall review of EFA progress to date - to identify strategic policy priorities for the coming year. These have taken the form of recommendations to the Seventh Meeting of the High-Level Group on EFA (Dakar, Senegal, 11-13 December 2007) particularly as concerns aspects such as financing of education, equity and quality.

Report