EDUCATION FOR ALL: Towards learning to live together

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EFA Flagships multi-partner support mechanisms
to implement Dakar Framework for Action

Fourth Meeting of the Working Group
on Education for All 22-23 July
2003 UNESCO, Paris
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What is an EFA Flagship?

• EFA Flagship is about partnership
• A structured set of activities carried out by
  voluntary partners, under the leadership of one
  or more United Nations specialized agencies, in
  order to address specific challenges in achieving
  the Dakar goals

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Background and Rationale

• Dakar highlighted the importance of inter-agency
  partnerships to enhance progress towards EFA
• Most EFA flagships have emerged as by-products
  of the collective commitments made in Dakar
• They reflect flexible approaches for support and
  co-operation as regards particular aspects of the
  EFA agenda
• Flagships adopt an interdisciplinary
  perspective linking education and other factors
  (health, nutrition, rural development and
  conflict)

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The EFA flagships The rationale for
multi-partner initiatives

• The Initiative on the Impact of HIV/AIDS on
  Education
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
• The Right to Education for Persons with
  Disabilities Towards Inclusion
• Education for Rural People (ERP)
• Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis
• Focusing Resources on Effective School Health
  (FRESH)
• Teachers and the Quality of Education
• The 10-year United Nations Girls Education
  Initiative (UNGEI)
• Literacy in the Framework of United Nations
  Literacy Decade (UNLD)

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Impact of HIV/AIDS on Education

• The HIV/AIDS pandemic impacts on learning
  opportunities and education systems in myriad
  ways
• 508,000 children under 15 years died from AIDS
  in 2001
• 14 million children under 15 years are orphans
  from AIDS
• 860,000 children lost their teachers to AIDS in
  sub-Saharan Africa in 1999
• 1,000 teachers are dying of AIDS each year in
  Zambia
• Globally, HIV/AIDS is estimated to add US975
  million per year to the cost of achieving EFA

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Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)

• A large body of research has shown the
  importance of Early childhood care and education
• Early childhood education programmes prepare
  children for school, improving their performance
  and retention, and reducing the need for
  repetition
• Girls enrolled in early childhood programmes are
  better prepared for school and frequently stay in
  school longer
• It is inadmissible that fewer than 50 of
  children aged 3-5 years had access to pre-primary
  education in 2000.
• In sub-Saharan Africa only 18 of eligible
  children have access to pre-primary education.
  In half of the countries, less than 4 children
  are enrolled in pre-primary education

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The Right to Education for Persons with
Disabilities Towards Inclusion

• This flagship strives to address the challenge of
  ensuring the right to education to children and
  youth with disabilities
• 98 of children with disabilities in developing
  countries do not attend schools
• 500,000 children every year lose some part of
  their vision due to vitamin A deficiency
• 41 million babies are born each year at risk of
  mental impairment due to insufficient iodine in
  their mothers diets
• Out of 26,000 persons killed and injured by
  landmines every year, 40 are children

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Education for Rural People (ERP)

• Three billion people or 60 per cent of the
  population in developing countries, amounting to
  half of the world population, live in rural areas
  
• Children's access to education in rural areas is
  still much lower than in urban areas
• Adult illiteracy is much higher in rural areas
  than in urban areas
• Quality of education is poorer in rural areas
• Most of the worlds poor and hungry live in
  rural areas
• Education to serve rural development is one of
  the main challenges facing the drive to achieve
  EFA

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Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis

• Crisis, conflicts and emergencies affect
  education systems in different ways
• 50 million displaced throughout the world
• 45-95 of classrooms neglected or damaged
• Teachers dispersed, killed or not working
• Reduction in enrolment
• Diversion of educational resources to military
  or security purposes
• Values and social cohesion eroded, HIV/AIDS
  proliferation
• Poverty and conflict are linked 60 of low HDI
  and 24 of medium HDI are conflict countries

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Focusing Resources on Effective School Health
(FRESH)

• Evidence has shown that investing in school-based
  health and nutrition programmes results in real
  educational advantages
• Better learning in school and better educational
  outcomes can be obtained by boosting attendance
  and educational achievement
• Enhanced Equity particular benefits for the poor
  and disadvantaged children
• Contribution to youth development tackling
  violence, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and
  sexually transmitted diseases
• A cost-effective investment in education (not
  just health) by promoting learning and reducing
  repetition, absenteeism and dropout

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Teachers and the Quality of Education

• This flagship aims at implementing this EFA
  strategy No. 9 Enhance the status, morale and
  professionalism of teachers
• 15 to 35 million additional primary school
  teachers will be needed to meet the 2015 MDGs and
  the Dakar Goals
• No country can implement EFA without good
  quality teaching
• It is crucial that teachers and their
  organizations be involved in decision-making in
  the formulation and implementation of EFA
  national plans

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The 10-year United Nations Girls Education
Initiative (UNGEI)

• This Initiative aims to mount a sustained
  campaign to improve the quality and availability
  of girls education so that to ensure gender
  parity in education.
• Out of 104 million school-age children not
  enrolled in school in 2000, 57 were girls
• About 49 countries are seriously at risk of
  missing the Dakar gender goal in2005, nearly 50
  are in sub-Saharan Africa
• Gender issue in education is at the heart of
  poverty eradication and achievement of MDGs in
  developing countries

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Literacy in the Framework of United Nations
Literacy Decade (UNLD)

• UNLD offers an opportunity to put special
  emphasis on literacy for all ages. This flagship
  promotes literacy as a lifelong learning process
  that takes place both within and outside the
  school system.
• In 2000, 862 million adults were illiterate, 2/3
  of them are women
• 79 countries are likely to miss the Dakar
  literacy goal of halving their rate of adult
  illiteracy by 2015

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Potential and impact of the EFA flagship
initiatives

• Synergy from a collective endeavour tailored to
  overcome serious bottlenecks to achieving EFA
• Partnership, engaging a wide range of entities
  globally and locally
• Increased mutual understanding of inter-related
  challenges of EFA
• A growing co-operative spirit among EFA partners
  at international level
• International partners working to a commonly
  interpreted agenda

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Some concerns at country level

• Confusion and overlap in existing EFA
  mechanisms/flagships (e.g. FRESH and HIV/AIDS)
• Information, communication and coordination gap
• Inadequate links with other international support
  mechanisms and development frameworks (UNDAF,
  PRSP, SWAP)
• Insufficient funding of flagship initiatives

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Emerging issues

• Sequencing countries struggling to cope with
  successive international requirements UNDAF,
  PRSP, FTI
• Coordination and ownership UNDAF are United
  Nations driven, SWAP, PRSPs and FTI are led by
  the World Bank, in collaboration with donors
• Opportunities great potential to introduce
  flagships systematically into the UNDAF and PRSP
  processes since they are cross-cutting
• EFA flagships should be promoted as
  multi-partner support strategies rather than
  United Nations initiatives

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Perspectives for enhancement of impact of EFA
flagships

• At the country level, action needs to be taken in
  order to
• Close the information gap
• Integrate flagships into EFA planning process
• Support inter-ministerial collaboration
• Support pilot projects at decentralized levels
• Reinforce integration of flagships in regional
  and sub-regional mechanisms
• Integrate flagships into other development
  frameworks
• Involve national government and local EFA
  stakeholders in all flagship activities

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Perspectives for enhancement of impact of EFA
flagships

• At regional/international level, there is need
  to
• Integrate flagships into regional development
  frameworks (NEPAD)
• Discuss EFA flagships within United Nations and
  bilateral agencies, from central to decentralized
  levels
• Strengthen monitoring and evaluation of EFA
  flagships
• Support inter-flagship collaboration through
  dialogue between focal points
• Strengthen the cooperation and communication
  between EFA partners sponsoring flagships
• Avoid competition and duplication promote
  complementarity
• Include EFA flagships updates on agenda of WGEFA

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In conclusion

• EFA flagship initiatives demonstrate commitment
  and cooperative spirit of EFA partners
• EFA flagships inform policy on the
  multi-dimensional aspects of education
• Achieving EFA goals implies a multi-pronged
  approach, taking into consideration the impact on
  education as well as interaction between
  education and other development sectors

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Open questions for Discussion

• How far do the different assistance frameworks,
  (UNDAF, SWAP or PRSPs) present opportunities to
  reinforce the impact of EFA flagship programmes?
• What should be the articulation between
  assistance frameworks and the EFA flagships?
• What are the next steps to be undertaken in order
  to promote this articulation?

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Presented by John Daniel Assistant Director
General for Education Education Sector UNESCO 7,
Place de Fontenoy 75700 Paris, France