Honorable Youssou DIAGNE, President of the National Assembly of Senegal,
Honorable Premnah RAMNAH, President of the National Assembly of Mauritius,
Honorable Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Education,
Honorable Ministers,
Honorable Parliamentarians,
Honorable Ambassadors,
Dear colleagues of the United Nations System,
Dear Representatives of the international organizations,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of the Press,
Distinguished Guests,

On behalf of the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) and on behalf of myself, I would like to welcome the President of the National Assembly of Mauritius the Honorable Premnah RAMNAH and the eminent Parliamentarians from Morocco, Capo-Verde, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Sudan and Namibia. I hope that their stay in this country, which kindly and happily has welcomed us with Teranga, to be fruitful; and that the Dakar meeting takes to the baptismal fonts this project which is dear to us, I mean the Forum of African Parliamentarians for Education.

I would like to thank the President of the National Assembly of Senegal Honorable Youssou DIAGNE for his active support and availability. During the preparatory phase of this meeting, we have benefited from the support of the Parliamentarians of Senegal, especially the members of the Parliamentarian Committee for Education which has been created recently.

We are requesting the President of the National Assembly to kindly transmit our gratitude to the President of the Republic Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, who, during a meeting we had with him, has manifested to us his determination to helping the project and has given us precious advice.

I salute the presence of the Senegelese Minister of Education, Mr. Moustapha Sourang. At the last General Conference of UNESCO, your African colleagues had appreciated this initiative, inviting us thus to pursue it.

The fact that UNESCO is represented at high level by Sir John Daniel, Assistant Director-General for Education is the exact measure of the commitment of our Organization. The Forum responds to three expectations.

First, that of the Secretariat of UNESCO, which is eager to expand its institutional partners conformably to the relevant recommendations of the last international conferences on education.

Second, there is the will of the Conference of the Ministers of Education of UNESCO African Member States (MINEDAF) to encourage Parliamentarians to play an active role in the promotion of education.

Finally, the project proves the concern of the Parliamentarians themselves who also want to be partners of education. This is the reason why, the Forum has taken shape rapidly.
It is delighting that Senegal and Mauritius have taken the initiative to put together this long awaited Forum.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are greatly encouraged by the presence of our partners, the World Bank, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, ADB, OAU and the African Parliamentarian Union (APU), which are supporting this project. Their collaboration will be instrumental to our efforts to eradicate child and female illiteracy, ignorance and poverty and in promoting basic education for all.

Having been a parliamentarian in my country for 14 years, I am particularly pleased to be associated through BREDA, with this mobilization of African parliamentarians, in favour of education. This initiative responds to the call made in the World Charter on Education for "new and revitalized partnerships", for genuine partnerships, on an equal footing of mutual respect. Such partnerships are necessary for the success of education policies, which depend, to a large extent on political commitment and community support.

This Forum of African Parliamentarians will, certainly create the synergistic vision which would enable us to achieve the objectives of education for all and build the foundations for a beaming, open, creative African society.

It is a privilege for UNESCO to be engaged in this special effort to involve parliamentarians in promoting education and in helping to strengthen the human and institutional capacities of African parliaments which constitute the symbol of our dynamic and living democracies. Allow me to quote in this context our Director General, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, "It is clearly in the mutual interest of UNESCO and parliamentarians to work hand in hand. As the elected representatives of people from the world over, Parliamentarians are indeed the natural and essential partners of UNESCO in its efforts to improve the quality of life everywhere through education, science, culture and communication".

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Dakar meeting is only one step towards the constitutive General Assembly, which is planned for December 2002 in Port Louis, in the context of the Conference of Ministers of Education of African Member States (MINEDAF VIII). BREDA will work closely with the Contact group to achieve this objective.

This is our commitment. This is also our conviction.

Thank you for your attention.