Education for All (EFA) 2015 Review

The target date (2015) to achieve the six Education for All (EFA) goals is fast approaching. Member countries are conducting National EFA 2015 Reviews in order to assess the progress made towards achieving the goals since 2000, with a view to identifying lessons learned and to making recommendations to inform the post-2015 global education agenda.  In 2005, Afghanistan committed to achieving EFA with an extended deadline of 2020. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is conducting the National EFA 2015 Review to produce a national report along with other member countries.

The EFA Review is led by the Ministry of Education (MoE) with technical support from the UNESCO Office in Afghanistan and financial support from UNESCO regular programme budget

through a participatory process involving many different stakeholders and line ministries. An EFA Review taskforce has been established at the national level to work closely with three Technical Working Groups (TWGs) which each focus on the analysis of one or more EFA goals. The first draft of the report has been prepared and will be finalized by the end of June 2014.

In order to strengthen the capacity of government counterparts to produce a quality report, the UNESCO Office in Afghanistan invited experts from the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics in New Delhi to conduct a four day training on qualitative and quantitative data analysis from January 26-29, 2014. The overall goal of the training was to enhance the capacity of the participants to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data needed for preparing the EFA Review. Representatives from Afghanistan also attended a series of international and regional workshops on the National EFA 2015 Reviews which providing them with the opportunity to exchange good practices and lessons learned and establish working relationships with delegations from other developing countries.

The successful completion of the National EFA 2015 Review is a good indication of the increased capacity within the MoE to analyze and draft reports assessing progress towards international targets. The review process established good coordination and collaboration between the MoE and national and international stakeholders, setting a foundation for strengthened participatory review processes in the future. Launch of National EFA 2015 Review is expected to take place in December 2015 in Kabul.