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Meeting
of EFA National Co-ordinators for Sub-Saharan Africa
UNESCO Headquarters, 17- 19 September 2001
I
Context
At
the world summit on education for all held in Dakar in April 2000,
the International Community undertook to achieve the goals of education
for all by the year 2015. Within this framework, each country will
have to draw up a credible plan of action before the end of the
year 2002.
In
order to facilitate the formulation of national EFA plans of action
and to strengthen synergic action between the various partners,
UNESCO's Regional Office in Dakar (BREDA), in collaboration with
the main development partners, organised at the UNESCO headquarters
in Paris, from 17 to 19 September 2001, a meeting of national EFA
co-ordinators from 46 African countries South of the Sahara.
II
Specific goals of the meeting
·
Assess the progress made by the region's Member States in the formulation
of national education for all programmes ;
· Make suggestions for a Regional plan of action in support
to education for all ;
· Make proposals for a regional education for all follow-up
mechanism ;
· Strengthen partnership in favour of education for all.
III
Content of the meeting
EFA
National co-ordinators of the Sub-Saharan African region (42 out
of 46) effectively took part in the meeting, along with representatives
of multilateral and bilateral organisations working for the development
of education in Africa, as well as representatives of non-governmental
and civil society organisations.
The context of education for all in Africa was recalled in view
of the following aspects :
- Actions were undertaken to follow up the Dakar forum such as the
appointment of 45 of the existing 46 EFA National Co-ordinators
by the Ministers, the establishment of national education for all
follow-up mechanisms, the mobilisation of human, technical and financial
resources …
- The need to overcome stringent constraints such as those related
to gender disparity in education, the situation of countries in
crisis or under reconstruction, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, structural
adjustment and indebtedness…
- The EFA process involves commitments related to the formulation
of plans of action before 2002, integrated into the wider framework
of poverty alleviation, the mobilisation of various forms of partnerships
and resources in favour of EFA, EFA follow-up thanks to the scope
of the progress made.
Several
presentations were made during the meeting to give national EFA
co-ordinators as much useful information as possible for the accomplishment
of their mission. On the meeting's four main goals, the deliberations
may be summed up as follows :
A
Progress of the preparation of National plans of action
Concerning
this agenda item, discussions were organised around six sub-regional
working groups. Three progress reports emerged from this (supplement
provided after the Paris meeting for 41 questionnaires received)
:
- Countries
which will finalise the preparation of their EFA plans of action
in the course of 2001 : 11 countries, one of which has already finished
;
- Countries which will finish in the first half of 2002 : 17 countries
;
- Countries which will finish in the second half of 2002 : 13 countries.
The
meeting identified the difficulties facing the EFA process at national
level ;
- Institutional
difficulties with respect to the organisation of the EFA process
at national level ;
- Inadequacy of human resources and technical capacities ;
- limitations in financial resources;
- weakness of the support provided by external partners.
This
identification of difficulties is correlated with the expression
of needs arising from the review of the questionnaire issued by
BREDA and completed by 41 countries. Support needs in capacity-building
are, in order of priority, as follows :
- workshop
training in the various fields (simulation and projection technique,
statistical information system, gender promotion policy, etc…)
- advisory services for the preparation of EFA plans of action (expertise
and technical advice)
- documentation
and information.
No
matter what the current situation is, all national EFA co-ordinators
are determined to do everything possible to ensure that their country
is present at the 2002 rendezvous. To this end :
- they
will draw up their own plan of activities ;
- they will make use of the information and instruments disseminated
during the meting;
- they will resort to UNESCO specialised institutions and various
agencies ;
- they will call for partners' support;
- they will rely on national leadership.
B Regional plan of action for the follow-up of the World forum on
education for all
A draft
regional plan of action was presented in a plenary session and discussed
in working groups. The plan of action is mainly aimed at mobilising
and co-ordinating support to member States of the Africa region
in their efforts to attain education for all goals.
The
plan of action comprises the following five specific goals which,
at the same time, are its five components :
- Co-ordination
and follow-up of the progress made in the attainment of EFA goals
;
- Communication and advocacy with a view to mobilising partnerships
needed for attaining EFA goals ;
- Regional and sub-regional co-operation in convergence with EFA
and by taking into account the implementation of the African Unity
Plan of Action for the Education Decade in Africa (1997-2006) ;
- Strengthening the capacities of member States, namely through
training actions, for the formulation and implementation of education
for all plans ;
- Support to expanding innovations in education for all, in the
perspective of sustainability, life-size evolution and exchange
among countries.
It
appears from the proceedings of the meeting that the principle of
the regional plan of action for the follow-up of the World Forum
on education for all has gained wide acceptance. For the finalisation
of the document , observations on relative to the following main
ideas were made :
- the heart of EFA activity lies at national level ; as a result,
the link between regional activities and national activities needs
to be strengthened ;
- In
the EFA process, national leadership is paramount, and this characteristic
must be reckoned with in the design and implementation of the regional
plan of action ;
- The
sub-regional dimension must be taken into consideration in the regional
plan of action ;
- The
regional plan of action must be understood as an evolving process
with the progressive involvement of all stakeholders both at national
and international levels.
C EFA Regional follow-up mechanism
The
Dakar Framework of action in its paragraph 18 specifies that "
the regions and sub-regions will decide on an EFA supervisory network
that will ultimately become the regional or sub-regional forum,
with an explicit mandate in that field ". On that basis an
explicit proposal of a regional EFA Forum was presented during the
meeting. Moreover, the regional plan of action also dealt with the
issue of the EFA regional follow-up mechanism.
In the summary of the discussions, the principle of a regional mechanism
for the follow-up of the Dakar Forum was accepted.
It
is understood that various functions must be assumed regarding the
Dakar Forum's regional follow-up, namely :
- A
political orientation and instigator function which rightfully lies
with Education ministers ;
- An advisory and animation function which lies with all national
stakeholders and external partners ;
- A technical function that goes to specialists ;
- A daily management function that goes to UNESCOMBREDA.
All
these functions must be organised within the regional follow-up
mechanism. Whatever the name given to it, this mechanism must also
be consistent with mechanisms adopted at global level.
The
concerns expressed by national EFA co-ordinators are as following
:
- The
regional mechanism must take a sub-regional approach into account,
and by so doing lean on existing African sub-regional entities such
as the OAU, ECOWAS, UEMOA, SADC, etc…
- National EFA co-ordinators should be represented in the regional
follow-up mechanism by their sub-regional representatives elected
during the Paris meeting ;
- The regional mechanism must be based on a participatory approach.
D Strengthening of partnerships
Several
technical and financial partners contributed in the preparation
and effective holding of the meeting of EFA national co-ordinators
of the Sub-Saharan African
region :
- multilateral co-operation: UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, World
Bank, ADB, AIF;
- bilateral co-operation: JICA, DFID, France , Holland, USAID;
- NGO and civil society: FAWE, Education Internationale, People
for action forum, Aid and Action, ACC/ONG;
- Network : ADEA.
Representatives
of these various agencies which were able to take part in the meeting
have, both during the opening session and the special session devoted
to partnership, affirmed their entire readiness to support countries
in their efforts. Some have made specific arrangements to bring
to countries, through work programmes or duly formulated requests,
the needed contribution to the formulation of national EFA plans
of action before the end of 2002.
IV Conclusions and recommendations
On
progress made in the preparation of national plans of action
The
process for the preparation of national plans of action is still
in its early stages for most countries. The recommendations in this
regard were as folows:
- A
strong leadership by national authorities,
- The animation of the EFA process based on participatory methods
by national co-ordinators,
- An advocacy in favour of the main EFA actors.
On
the regional EFA draft plan of action
The
principle is accepted, its general thrust approved. The project
will be finalised by BREDA in the light of the suggestions formulated
during the meeting, in liaison with representatives of co-ordinators
(at both sub-regional and regional levels).
On the regional EFA follow-up mechanism
The principle of an EFA regional forum was accepted. It will comprise
:
- 6
sub-regional representatives of national EFA co-ordinators;
- representatives of agencies of the United Nations System ;
- representatives of technical and financial partners ;
- representatives of African regional and sub-regional entities
;
- representatives of NGOs and the civil society.
The
regional forum will be chaired by an Education Minister from Sub-Saharan
Africa elected by his colleagues every other year , alongside the
UNESCO General Conference or during an appropriate meeting. It could
meet twice a year, on a rotating basis, in one of the six sub-regions
depending on the funds available.
The
Secretariat of the forum, proposed by the Paris meeting, is already
being put in place at BREDA/UNESCO and will be strengthened with
the support of different EFA partners. BREDA/UNESCO could delegate
certain functions to other partners, including responsibilities
on specific themes.
National
co-ordinators could meet at sub-regional and regional levels when
this proves necessary.
Sub-Committees and working groups will be formally established to
fuel reflections at the level of the Secretariat and the Regional
Forum.
The
organisational structure and the different levels of representation
can be found in the blueprint appended to this report.
Finally,
the Regional Forum will be integrated in the regional EFA plan of
action in the section dealing with regional follow-up mechanisms.
On partnership
Partnership remains a leitmotiv of any EFA process : partnership
at national level and partnership at the level of the international
community. A strong national leadership at the highest level guarantees
the necessary the national and external partners for the EFA process.
VI
Call on Education Ministers
To
follow up this meeting, he appealed to the Education Ministers to
take the following actions and decisions :
1)
Strengthen the national leadership of the EFA process by :
- mobilising
all stakeholders,
- co-ordinating the contribution of external partners,
- supporting national EFA co-ordinators in their mission.
2)
Confirm the main thrusts of the Regional programme for the follow-up
of the Dakar forum such as presented below at point B.
3)
Confirm the organisation of regional EFA co-ordinators comprising
six sub-regional groups. Each group is chaired by a representative
elected by his peers during the Paris meeting : These are :
- Group
I West Africa ( in French ): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire,
Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo;
Chairmanship: Côte d'Ivoire
- Group
II Central Africa ( in French ) : Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo
Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic,
Gabon, Chad;
Chairmanship: Gabon
- Group
III East Africa ( in English) : Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,
Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania;
Chairmanship: Kenya
- Group
IV Southern Africa (in English ) : South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe;
Chairmanship : Zimbabwe
- Groupe
V The Islands ( in French ) Cape Verde, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea,
Madagascar, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Djibouti;
Chairmanship : Cape Verde
- Group
VI West Africa ( in English ) Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra
Leone.
Chairmanship : Sierra Leone
4)
Confirm the proposed regional follow-up mechanism, namely : the
Regional EFA Forum as presented below.
5)
Confirm the election of one Education Minister from Sub-Saharan
Africa by his Colleagues every other year, to chair the Regional
Forum, alongside the UNESCO General Conference or during an appropriate
meeting.
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