Education for All

New lease of life for E-9 The initiative falls short on collaboration, but progress on EFA goals is evident Education ministers from the world’s nine high population countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan –got one bad mark on their report card at their last meeting in December in Cairo. Countries had not collaborated enough on Education for All goals, concluded an external evaluation of the first decade of the E-9 Initiative. Was it time to stop there? More

3 questions on the E-9 Interview with Abhimanyu Singh, Director of UNESCO’s Division of International Coordination and Monitoring for EFA We have decided to strengthen the administrative structure. A secretariat in one country will rotate every two years, and be responsible for follow-up to ministerial meetings. In addition, each of the nine countries will have a focal point, working on E-9 continuously. More

The Big Lobby takes off Over 100 countries have signed up for the Big Lobby – this year’s EFA Week campaign for out-of-school children (19-25 April). By participating in the Big Lobby, children will be calling on governments to ensure that all children get an education of good quality. More

Understanding on funding It is now almost a tradition. Once a year, UNESCO’s education staff set their sights on developing projects to assist countries in providing education for all (EFA). The best projects – those most in line with the programme ‘Capacity-Building for EFA’ –are funded and implemented. In 2003, twenty-four projects were selected for funding from a new UNESCO multi-donor account. More

World tour UNESCO Beirut convened the Arab Regional Conference of Ministers of Education on EFA – “EFA National Plans: What’s Next?” (20-23 January) – to draw lessons from national plans and elaborate a joint Arab vision on future action. To promote EFA goals, the UNESCO and UNICEF offices in Latin America will award three Annual Regional EFA Prizes, starting in 2004, rewarding a government educational initiative, one by an NGO, and one by a school and community. More