Unesco Director General Establishes Flagship on "Education for All and Disabilities"
By Jerry Mindes, Coordinator, International Working Group on Disability & Development (jerrymindes@juno.com)
Following the September 10-12, 2001 meeting of the Unesco Education for All Working Group, Unesco Director General Koichiro Matsuura announced that Unesco would form a "flagship" programme on education for all and disabilities.
With this action, the issue of EFA and disability joins other "flagship" initatives established by Unesco, including those on the girl child, HIV/AIDS, teacher training, early child care and development, and effective school health.
What Does "Flagship" Mean?
A key purpose of all of these "flagship" programmes is to focus extra attention on certain issues which are key to achieving the overall goals set at the World Education Forum of April 2000. Therefore, establishing a "flagship" on disability issues creates a structure and mechanism through which advocates of quality public education for people with disabilities can have a voice in the EFA process, and through which they can work in concert with "mainstream" EFA actors from both government and non-governmental agencies.
At this time, it is not certain how the disability flagship will be structured, when and how often it will meet, what it will be named, and what process or goals it might establish. The IWGDD EFA Task Force is one of a number of entities which will be involved in these important issues.
However, it is important to clarify that "flagship" programmes are in reality alliances of individuals and organizations who are willing to work together to help advance a certain aspect of the overall EFA agenda. These "flagship" initiatives have no set-aside budget within Unesco or any other agency, and do not fund specific programmatic activities. However, they can be instrumental in helping countries and donors alike to address the specific "flagship" issue as they develop and fund country-level plans to achieve education for all goals.
Again, more will be known about the "disability" flagship in the coming weeks and months.
Background on the September Meeting
The meeting at which the "disability flagship" was established was attended by approximately 40 organizations invited by Unesco to participate in the "Second Meeting of the Working Group on Education for All." Unesco calls and convenes these meetings pursuant to its role as coordinator of the global commitment to achieve the EFA goals set in Dakar. Meeting participants included representatives of education ministries from 10 developing nations, several bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, regional organizations, and civil society organizations.
The IWGDD was also a participant, marking the first time that any disability-related organization was so invited. The IWGDD was represented by Nancy Breitenbach (Inclusion International) and Hannu Savolainen (Niilo Maki Institute). Both Ms. Breitenbach and Mr. Savolainen spoke during the "plenary" sessions of the EFA Working Group meeting. IWGDD participants Jerry Mindes (Coordinator) and Phyllis Magrab (Georgetown University) were observers to the plenary sessions, and participated during the sub-group meetings on the second day of the conference.
During the last meeting session on September 12, Nancy Brietenbach made a brief statement about the prospect for a flagship on disability. The statement, which was agreed to in advance by the four IWGDD participants present, reads as follows:
"A flagship on EFA and the disability dimension would recognize growing donor interest and commitment to placing disability issues squarely on the development agenda; and would recognize as well the diversity of the disability community, estimated to number 600 million. "Importantly, such a flagship would also advance inclusive education as a primary approach to achieving EFA's goals for children, youth, and adults with disabilities, and insodoing recognize the leadership role which Unesco has played in this area."
|
