A contact group for the creation of an African Parliamentarians' Forum for Education, FAPED, meets in Port Louis (Mauritius) from 6 to 8 June to put the finishing touches on the institutional texts that should confirm the institution of FAPED in December.

Like other networks of parliamentarians mobilizing for causes like population and development, the fight against drugs, environmental protection, town planning and housing, FAPED intends to "strengthen the Parliamentarians' undertaking to be increasingly attentive to issues of education" considered as "the major challenge for Africa, the key to progress, individual and social welfare and peace."

FAPED's objectives include, among others, the project to amend national laws to introduce the right to education in African constitutions.

African parliamentarians also intend to mobilize themselves in fervor of the eradication of illiteracy, the fight against poverty, the promotion of the education of girl children and women, the fight against AIDS and other diseases severely affecting the future of Africa, access to new information and communication technologies, the promotion of education for peace.

In its approach, FAPED intends to give priority to the closest possible partnership with UNESCO as well as with other international institutions like UNDP, UNICEF, World Bank, UNFPA, the African Development Bank (ADB), the Union of African Parliamentarians and other civil society components.

FAPED, which envisages to open its head office in Dakar (Senegal), alongside the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA), will be headed, as provided for in its draft statutes, by a president assisted by six vice presidents representing the six natural regions of Africa: southern, central, east, west, north and the Indian Ocean.

The FAPED budget will essentially rely on funds from member States and the international community, particularly UNESCO.