Gender and Education for All THE LEAP TO EQUALITY

ABOUT US

Profile The Education for All Global Monitoring Report is the prime instrument to assess global progress towards achieving the six 'Dakar' EFA goals. The Report tracks progress, identifies effective policy reforms and best practice in all areas relating to EFA, draws attention to emerging challenges and seeks to promote international cooperation in favour of education. The aims of the Report are set out in its Vision Statement . The overriding aim of this Report is to inform policy and spur heightened political commitment towards education for all. It is also to help in the process of keeping all parties accountable for promises made. The publication is aimed at decision-makers at the national and international level, and more broadly, at all those engaged in promoting the right to quality education – teachers, civil society groups, NGOs and the international community. Whilst the report has an annual agenda for reporting progress with each of the EFA goals, each issue also adopts a particular theme, chosen because of its central importance to the EFA process. The 2003/4 Report focuses on where countries stand in their efforts to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education. The theme of the 2005 report will be the quality of education, reflected in EFA Goal 6. The 2006 Report will focus on literacy. The Report is produced by an independent, international team based at UNESCO in Paris (France), with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in Montreal. The Report Team is headed by Professor Christopher Colclough, an eminent British education and development expert. It is funded jointly by UNESCO and multilateral and bilateral agencies, and benefits from the expertise of an international Editorial Board , chaired by Ingemar Gustafsson of the Swedish International Development Cooperation (SIDA). During bi-annual meetings, the Board discusses the scope and contents of the Report underway and provides advice on its future development. The Report is developed over a 12 to 18-month period. It draws on scholarship and expertise from governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies, UNESCO institutes and research institutions. Research Papers commissioned for the Report are made available on the website. Funding is received from UNESCO, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Eire, Germany, Norway and support from the Dutch goverment. It is submitted to the Director-General of UNESCO on an annual basis and considered by the High-Level Group on Education for All , comprising 24 members, including government ministers, representatives of donor organizations, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. Its role, as stated in the Dakar Framework for Action (paragraph 19), is to sustain and accelerate the political momentum created at the World Education Forum and serve as a lever for resource mobilization. Translations Our policy is to facilitate translation of the Report into a large variety of languages so that its messages and findings are widely shared. 2003/4 Report The date the full version of the 2003/4 Report “Gender and Education for All: The Leap to Equality” is available in English and French. The Summary Report is available in English , French , Spanish , Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese , German and Thai. Translations into Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Khmer will be available. 2002 Report The full version of the 2002 Report, “Education for All: Is the World on Track?” is available in English , français and Portuguese. The Spanish and Russian are forthcoming in April 2004. The Summary version of the 2002 Report is available in English, French, Spanish , Russian, Chinese and Arabic. The EFA movement The Education for All movement can be traced back to the World Conference on Education for All , held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. The Conference was convened by UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank in response to widespread concern over a “lost decade” in education during which significant advances were eroded in many countries. The Conference, attended by delegates from 155 governments, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs, agreed on an “expanded vision” of learning for all children, youth and adults. This vision focuses on universalizing access and promoting equity; better learning; broadening the means and scope of basic education; enhancing the environment for learning and strengthening partnerships. The World Declaration on Education for All adopted in Jomtien affirms that “Every person - child, youth and adult - shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs.” Participants pledged to provide primary education for all children and to massively reduce adult illiteracy by the end of the decade. As a prelude to the ten-year review at the World Education Forum in Dakar, 180 countries took part in the EFA 2000 Assessment, a detailed analysis of the state of basic education around the world. Each country assessed its own progress toward the goals of Jomtien and then reported its findings at regional meetings in late 1999 and 2000. The Assessment can be consulted along with fourteen thematic studies on educational issues of global concern. An interim monitoring report was published in 2001.