So let me begin by thanking the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa, Mme Lalla Aïcha Ben Barka, not only for her role in organising this meeting, but also for maintaining UNESCO's tradition of strong leadership in furthering the goals of Education for AIl movement. Let me assure you that we are fully committedt9 the realisation of the goals of EFA in Africa.

You will recall that the World Conference on Education held in Jomtein, Thailand in 1990 was a turning point for the international community and its was resolve to implement a bold and forward looking vision:
- a world where Education for All is transformed from a cherished dream to a living reality. The
international community thus set itself a monumental challenge : to provide basic education for al! the people of the world and reduce illiteracy.
Ten years after, the End of Decade Assessment of EFA conducted by UNESCO, showed that the challenge before the international community, remained enormous. The international goal of EFA was thus given a new vitality at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000 when 164 countries agreed to chart a comprehensive new course in achieving their six major goals.
These goals referred to as the Education for All (EFA) goals and adopted as the Dakar Framework for Action, laid clown a set of strategies for achieving EFA by 2015. They called for strong leadership, political commitment at the highest levels, adequate financial support and an all-out attack on poverty, inequality, discrimination and exclusion.

It is pertinent to note that the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed the same year. Two of these include the EF A Goals of UPE and the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education, which are critical to poverty alleviation. The MDGs have therefore, reinforced the Dakar Framework for Action. Furthermore, it has become clear that the achievement of EF A goals is a precondition to the success of other UN initiatives aimed at poverty reduction, human resource development, capacity building, sustainable development and the construction of an equitable world order.

ln spite of these initiatives, many countries still face huge challenges in fulfilling their obligations to the global agenda of EFA ad the Millennium Development Goals. This distressful situation is compounded by the stark. realities of HIV/AIDS worsened by grinding poverty. The findings of recent Global Monitoring Reports (2003/4; 2005) published by UNESCO are sobering. Both indicate clearly that progress towards the six Dakar goals is slow. Many disparities and gars continue to keep millions especially girls and women away from quality basic education. Sub-Saharan Africa is categorised as being farthest from achieving universal primary education because the number of children out
of school increased by 17% between 1990 and 2000. Besides, participation in Early Childhood Cafe Education still remains low; adult illiteracy continues to elicit a leisure of concern white HIV/AIDS pandemic remains a serious challenge. Why the epidemic growing in many countries, there is a strong risk of AIDS digging even deeper into educational systems.

With specific reference to gender, eliminating the disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 stands as the first test of credibility in global commitment to both EF A and the MDGs. The 2005 deadline remains a serious challenge particularly in regions or countries with relatively low enrolment rates. Many African countries fall into this category. The bottom line is that the gender parity target will be difficult to attain before the end of 2005. However, it is important to give gender issue in education, because it an important tool in poverty eradication for developing countries. This is central to the Millennium Development Goals. High priority should to be given to the promotion of girls' education, not only as a means of achieving gender parity and equality in education, but a1so for leveraging EFA gains for all boys and girls and the society at large.
Years of experience have shown that there is no single solution to increasing access to education and improving its quality, but rather, thousands of proven local and global solutions. It is therefore essential that we build on the current synergies around EFA, that have evolved a tapestry of new partnerships that have begun to come together since Dakar. These include all sectors ,and levels of
society, from governments and donors to civil society in all diversity and the private sector.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,
From the foregoing, it is clear that many African countries are not on track in achieving Education For all by 2015, in spite of the gains already made by some countries.
Most countries are committed to the EFA goals but are constantly torn between what needs to be done and what can be done. Against the backdrop of the results already obtained, the period 2000 - 2015 will appear to be too short for many countries in Africa to achieve the objectives of EFA unless the implementation of educational policies are accelerated. Therefore besides building political momentum to achieve EF A, focus should be placed on the following important areas:
" Adequate and sustained levels of funding for EF A in national budgets;
" EFA planning processes that are participatory and inclusive and ensure the integration with sector plans, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
" (PRSP) and other national development and reform strategies;
" Workable strategiesto!-EI4\jn countries affected by HIV / AIDS, conflict, disaster and teacher attrition
" Strengthening partnership mechanisms with Civil Society in order to reach marginalized groups, especially girls, through innovative approaches;
" Reinforcing weak technical capacities of national EFA teams (inc. skills for mainstreaming cross cutting issues) ;
" Provision of credible data and reliable information systems for basic education ;
" Ensuring the right to education for all through appropriate legislation and its enforcement
" Accelerated action on external resource flows for funding gars in national budgets to achieve EFA

I wish to commend African countries in their efforts to spend more in education and tackle difficult reforms in the sector. All of this is in the extremely difficult terrain of conflict, emerging democracies, HIV AIDS and drought. However we must continue to advocate for increases in our budgets for EF A in particular, so that we achieve the necessary impact required to deliver our goals.
l also take this opportunity, to call on our African Governments to ensure that we harmonise and integrate the policy objectives of our regional initiatives such as NEPAD, while ensuring we achieve the MDGs.
Let me now take the opportunity to make a few remarks in respect of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).
While conceding that national leadership and ownership of the EFA process is key to achieving EFA, it is important to note, that our partner's in the international community have undertaken to work in a coherent manner in support of the national EFA plans. However, the performance of Aid since Dakar, has been rather low and disappointing. Analysis of the most recent data shows that the overall support for basic education from both multinational and bilateral ageJ1cies bas been declining in
recent years.
One of the core conclusions of the Joint Evaluation of External Support to Basic Education undertaken by UNESCO, is that the international community is failing in its funding commitment to reach the EFA goals. This is partly due to the challenges of achieving donor coherence and effectiveness in ODA, through concrete mechanic ms for harmonisation at the country level.

While we acknowledge that the commitment to partnership in many countries is increasing, improving basic education through locally developed solutions to complex challenges at the grassroots has float received adequate attention.
This has resulted in funding for basic education remaining limited to primary education, white we all agree that Africa's needs go way beyond UPE and are reflected clearly in the EFA framework.
However we are confident, that the on-going global mapping of EF A partners'
contributions will lead to, in the words of the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, "a greater degree of coherence and bettercomplementarity of efforts".
This will guarantee enhanced resources (both human and financial) in order to meet the EFA challenge.

At this juncture, Ladies and Gentlemen, we must ask our development partners; to tell us:
" How can we move the EFA process towards effective implementation of our national action plans; that are deemed to be credible, when commitments made by our development partners in Dakar 2000 "that no countries seriously committed to EF A will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resources". and reaffirmed iD the Monterrey Consensus; remain a far cry from being redeemed ?

I wish to call on donors, to active now, in scaling up the resources for the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) funding mechanism, which although commendable in its intentions has not yet yielded the required results to achieve EFA by 2015.

It is against this'" background that I urge our development partners to work genuinely with African Governments in closing many disparities and gaps that continue to keep us away from the achievement of EF A in Africa.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen
The year 2005 is the first target ';et . for both the EFA and MDGs, in achieving Gender Parity. It is also the point at which a mid-term review of the MDGs will be held at the United Nations in September ibis year. This also coincides with the G8 meetings, which ibis year have underscored the importance of Africa, debt and global poverty, the burden of which lies most heavily on Africa and
its women.
As we are all aware the debt issue bas taken its toll on the African continent. For most countries, including Nigeria, (where debt servicing is 4 limes the national budget for Education) the debt overhang is unsustainable especially if we are to reach the MDGs in the next decade.
The call on African governments to demonstrate better governance and accountability in their countries bas been heeded. Last year over 20 countries signed on to the NEP AD, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) while many of our countries have put in place mechanisms and institutions to tackle issues such as corruption. Therefore these efforts must be rewarded with the removal of a1l barriers to our achievement of the MDGs and Debt relief is a major barrier to the eradication of poverty.
We would like to commend the pre-summit meeting of the G8 finance ministers, who ibis weekend agreed to cancel outright, the debt of 18 highly indebted African countries. ln addition they agreed to consider over the next 12-18 months another Il countries on our continent. .However we would urge that the G8 go further and demonstrate in real increases in OD1 that respond to the funding gaps that will be required for the implementation of the MDGs y 2015.

It is therefore an opportune moment, for us in the education sector at ibis meeting, to articulate a strong voice that clearly links the provision of basic education to eradication of poverty and further underscores the integral nature of Education to the success of all the MDGs. We should also emphasize the importance, especially in Africa of the implementation of the wider EFA Agenda which goes beyond UPE to address literacy, skills acquisition and the quality of education.
Finally, let us not forget that Education has a central from in the transformation of our nations as many grapple with emerging democracies, fighting corruption, ending and preventing conflict, all in a bid to give our people their fundamental rights to a life of dignity. To this end we must ensure that in so doing, a culture of reform evolves, that takes into cognizance our heritage, culture and diversity;
all of which are our greatest strengths on this continent.

The urgency today, of delivering to our people a quality basic education cannot be underestimated. We must ensure that we equip our youth with the necessary skills to govern our societies and grow our economies lest we be saddled with a future generation unable to neither govern nor be governed.
I enjoin you all, to bring together our synergies and continue to forge a sustainable path to the achievement of the Dakar Goals by 2015. It is achievable and we must in partnership with all key stakeholders accelerate those actions at both national and international levels.

Ladies and Gentlemen, once again I welcome all to this gathering of eminent men and women and wish us all, fruitful deliberations.

Thank you for your attention
HME NIGERIA
13th JUNE 2005

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