Initiative looks to fast-track efforts to realise education for all

The Commonwealth Secretariat, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda, is organising a four-day workshop which aims to fast track the progress of Commonwealth countries that are in danger of not meeting their Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals targets.

Participants will look at preparing and implementing education sector plans within the Framework of the EFA/Fast Track Initiative (FTI), and also discuss a report on the status of planning in four ‘unendorsed’ countries - Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Uganda.

This workshop, taking place between 29 September and 2 October 2008 in Kampala, Uganda, will address studies undertaken in these four Commonwealth countries, whose education sector plans are yet to be endorsed, and identify any common teething problems.

FTI is a global partnership which helps low-income countries meet the education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the EFA goal that all children complete a full cycle of primary education by 2015.

Funding is channelled through existing bilateral and multilateral channels and also through the FTI Catalytic Fund, which supports countries with insufficient resources to implement their sector plans.

Countries already implementing their plans, such as Kenya, will share their experiences from the planning to the implementation stages, encompassing challenges met on the way and how they overcame them. There are currently eight Commonwealth countries benefiting from the FTI: Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Sierra Leone.

The workshop will bring together 40 participants including directors and commissioners of education planning and other officers who work in education planning and policy development in Tanzania, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, India, The Gambia, Guyana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Uganda. Other participants will be from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, representatives of education funding agencies in Uganda, and the EFA/FTI Secretariat in Washington DC.

“The way we work with member states is through advocacy, brokering and at times being a catalyst in helping countries access the support that they need,” said Florence Malinga, Education Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“We have conducted workshops on education for nomadic or migrant populations in Africa and Asia and prepared a publication on good practices in inclusive education targeting children with disabilities.”

A 2006 Secretariat report indicated that six Commonwealth countries in Africa and South Asia were responsible for 30 per cent of the world’s children who did not go to primary school.

Ms Malinga said: “Progress is really being made in Kenya because of the FTI and if they continue with the interventions that they are making then they will move towards achieving their MDGs.”

She added that “the education MDGs actually influence all the others. When a country’s children don’t go to school then the population will not participate in the development of their country and then all the other MDGs will not be achieved.”

Countries expected to be endorsed by the FTI by the end of 2008 are Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Uganda and Vanuatu, and in 2009 Bangladesh, Nigeria, Solomon Islands, Tanzania and Tonga.

Key Links:

• Education
• Country Profile: Uganda