UNESCO - EFA Global Monitoring Report

Box 6.7. Initiatives and campaigns of relevance to EFA

The Millennium Project Launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, the project is designed to recommend the best strategies to meet the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations, 2003b). By June 2005, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Millennium Development Goals, will present the final recommendations of the Project to the Secretary-General. The project focuses on operational priorities, organizing the means of implementation and financial structures. There are ten theme task forces, one of which is on Education and Gender Equality, led by Nancy Birdsall (Center for Global Development). The Task Force has already strongly endorsed the underlying concepts of EFA, voiced support for the partnership embodied in the Fast-Track Initiative and highlighted the need for a substantive increase in current levels of external support and improvement in the effectiveness of the mechanisms by which this is channelled. Task Force papers are available on the project website (e.g. Levine et al., 2003). www.unmillenniumproject.org The Global Governance Initiative The World Economic Forum has launched this Initiative to monitor progress in the global effort to implement the goals in the United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000). Each year the Initiative will highlight the gaps between the goals endorsed by the international community and the effort that is being made to achieve them. It will provide a factual summary of progress, a qualitative assessment of changes in the level of effort by, and co-operation among, governments, international organizations, civil society, and business in the pursuit of each goal. This assessment will take the form of an overall rating of progress in effort and co-operation during the preceding year, accompanied by a discussion of the significant developments, initiatives, or problems. One of the seven groups is devoted to education (World Economic Forum, 2002). www.weforum.org Global Campaign for Education Set up in 1999, the Campaign is a membership organization (nineteen national and seven regional coalitions, and ten international networks and organizations) that promotes education as a basic human right. It mobilizes public pressure on governments and the international community to fulfil their promises to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people; in particular for children, women and all disadvantaged, deprived sections of society. It produces briefing and position papers on a regular basis (e.g. Global Campaign for Education, 2003b). www.campaignforeducation.org Global March Against Child Labour The movement began as a physical march in 1998 and culminated with the adoption of the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 1998. It has partners in 150 countries. Its mission is to mobilize world-wide efforts to protect and promote the rights of all children, especially the right to receive a free, meaningful education and to be free from economic exploitation. globalmarch.org

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