SPECIAL IN THIS ISSUE:
Report on the global Education for All Week (22-26 April)
*****

More than 90 countries mobilized for global EFA week (22-26 April)
Thousands of people in more than 90 countries are currently taking part in
the global Education for All week that took off on Monday. The week
celebrates the second anniversary of the World Education Forum (Dakar, April
2000) and is an annual opportunity to renew the momentum generated in Dakar
and to provoke public debate on Education for All.

Teachers, pupils, parents, civil society organizations and international
organizations have engaged in hundreds of events around the world. At the
international level UNESCO and the Global Campaign for Education have
jointly organized the worldwide children’s drawing competition on “What I
Want to Be When I Grow Up”. Meanwhile, mass rallies and marches have been
organized in major cities and in villages and towns, activities have ranged
from street theatre to seminars, from press conferences to football matches,
from petitions to TV debates, from workshops for parliamentarians to
on-the-spot drawing competitions, from radio phone-ins to village meetings.

Visit the Education for All Week website
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/index_new.shtml
and don't forget to send an EFA-card to a friend
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/e_cards/
Summaries of country action during EFA week
- by UNESCO field office -
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/events.shtml
- by the Global Campaign for Education -
http://www.campaignforeducation.org/_html/2002-news/enews-04-gaw_en/fram...
.shtml

------------------------
UNESCO's Director-General expresses optimism but says there are no easy or
quick solutions to EFA
April 26, 2002 - "Despite a situation which remains very worrying, there
have been several highly positive and encouraging developments in recent
weeks, especially in regard to the financing of EFA, and the spirit of
partnership within the EFA movement is healthy," said UNESCO's
Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, on the occasion of the second
anniversary of the World Education Forum in Dakar.

In a meeting with the permanent delegations to UNESCO in Paris on Friday, Mr
Matsuura said that there is a positive will at large in the world to deal
practically and productively with the EFA question but stressed that "the
EFA challenge continues to defy easy or quick solution".

He welcomed the major boost given in recent weeks to the creation of a
financing framework for EFA and presented the just-published international
strategy on EFA prepared by an International Taskforce of EFA partners.

"We must press on with determination and drive, keeping constantly in our
mind’s eye the needs of EFA’s beneficiaries: the children, the young people,
and the men and women whose lives will be enriched by basic education of
good quality," Mr Matsuura said.
More - http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/address_by.shtml

------------------------
UN heads issue joint statement on Education for All
April 26, 2002 - The five agencies most involved in the EFA endeavour
(UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and the World Bank) reaffirm in a joint
statement released on the occasion of the second Dakar anniversary their
commitment not only to EFA but also to working closely together.

This year’s joint statement focuses on four key gaps that must be closed to
accelerate the EFA process: the policy gap, the financing gap, the
information gap and the capacity gap. The statement points out that closer
cooperation is needed to close these gaps.

The five heads welcome the new international consensus around enhanced and
well-coordinated financing for EFA and express their determination to work
with countries on practical strategies and measures to make EFA a reality.

The joint statement is currently being placed in major newspapers around the
world. It is available on the Education for All website at
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_week/joint_statement.shtml