ISLAMABAD, May 17: The first ministerial meeting of South Asia Education for All (EFA) forum is being organized here in Islamabad from May 21 to 23.
The meeting will be attended by the Education ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India to review progress of EFA, consider strategies for mobilization of additional resources to achieve the targets of the Dakar Framework of Action on EFA, and plan future actions.
Unesco, in its capacity of a leading coordinating agency for EFA at the global level, is the main sponsoring agency, while the education ministry is hosting this major sub-regional event.
Eminent educationist including Sir John Daniel, assistant director general for education Unesco Paris, Sheldon Shaeffer, director of Unesco Regional Office for Asia and Pacific, Bangkok, and senior UN officials and donors like Carol Bellamy, executive director, Unicef New York, have confirmed their participation.
Education ministers and national and international experts will discuss financing of EFA, quality of basic education and strategies for bridging gender gap.
South Asia is home to 22 per cent of the world’s population, but its share in the world’s income is not more than 1.3 per cent. About 40 per cent of the world’s poor and 45 per cent of world’s illiterates live in the region.
The EFA global movement was initially launched in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, where education ministers from 150 countries adopted the historic declaration on EFA and set ambitious targets.
Ten years after Jomtien, in April 2000, education ministers from 184 countries met in Dakar, Senegal, to review the progress and set an agenda for the future. The Dakar framework of action envisaged to achieve six EFA goals by 2015.
A delegation, led by education minister Zobaida Jalal, represented Pakistan. Pakistan was the first country to prepare a draft National Plan of Action for EFA, which had been finalized and launched in April 2003. The education ministry, Unesco and other donors are now vigorously working together to mobilize additional resources of $4 billion needed to achieve the EFA targets in Pakistan.
The South Asia EFA Forum came into being as one of the outcomes of the ministerial meeting held in Kathmandu in April 10-12, 2001, with a core objective of intensifying regional cooperation for the promotion of education in this underdeveloped part of the world.
The forthcoming meeting of education ministers of South Asia is seen as an important milestone in accelerating the implementation of EFA in the region. The meeting is likely to contribute towards building up momentum for enhanced allocation for education of millions of out of school children and adult illiterates in Saarc countries.
Another expected outcome of the ministerial meeting will be increased cooperation among the South Asian countries for exchange of experiences. The international community, including the UN system and bilateral donors, are taking keen interest in this emerging alliance for education in the context of South Asia EFA forum. President Gen Pervez Musharraf is expected to open the ministerial meeting.
A joint declaration is likely to be issued by the education ministers of South Asian countries at the end of the meeting, spelling out strategies for regional cooperation and their commitment to EFA. This joint Islamabad declaration is planned to be presented by the ministers on May 23 in a joint press conference.