Education for All (EFA) was a global commitment to provide quality education for all children, youth and adults. At the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, 164 governments pledged to achieve EFA and identified six goals to be met by 2015: early childhood care and education, universal primary education, youth and adult learning, literacy, gender parity and quality education.

As the lead agency in promoting EFA, UNESCO coordinated international efforts to achieve Education for All, working closely with governments, development agencies, civil society and the private sector, among others.

Since Dakar, countries made ​​progress in achieving the objectives set. However, too many countries remained at significant distance from achieving them by 2015. Achievements in education, moreover, were not the same in all countries and show large differences not only between countries but also within them. Indeed, the inequalities within countries are very important as they hurt mostly to the poorest rural populations and ethnic minorities, a critical issue in the region.

UNESCO prioritized the support to the countries in their 'big push' to accelerate progress towards EFA in 2015, to make an assessment of their experience and also to generate national debates on the future of the next educational agenda, as well as giving support to the regional conferences and the Global Education Conference 2015, held in the Republic of Korea, and summarized the achievements since 2000 and at the same time established a new global education program: Education 2030