The third high-level
group meeting on the global campaign for Education For All is
taking place in New Delhi on 10-12 November 2003. Presidents
of Finland, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka, besides Education
Ministers of a number of countries are likely to
participate. The meeting will be co-chaired by the Director-General
UNESCO and the Union Minister for HRD, Science & Technology
and Ocean Development Dr Murli Manohar Joshi.
The agenda of the meeting will depend on the findings of the
Global Monitoring Report on Education For All [EFA]. The Monitoring
Report of 2003, likely to come out a few days before the meeting,
will have the theme of gender and EFA. The high-level group
will discuss
appropriate policy responses and strategies to accelerate progress
on education of girls and women to eliminate gender disparities
in primary and secondary education by 2005.
The high-level group has the responsibility of driving the EFA
process forward, strengthen partnerships, identify priorities,
gaps and needs, and highlight the resources to be mobilized.
The high-level group brings together some thirty participants
from four constituencies - Ministers of Education from developing
countries, Ministers of International Development Co-operation/Foreign
Affairs from developed countries, heads of multilateral/bilateral
agencies and civil society representatives. Participants are
invited on a rotating basis while ensuring continuity as well
as regional and gender balance. The Director General of UNESCO
calls high-level group meetings every year, as provided in the
Dakar framework of action for achieving the Education For All
goals. The first meeting was held at Paris in 2001, and the
second in 2002 at Abuja, Nigeria.
