1. WORLD EDUCATION FORUM, DAKAR 26-28
APRIL
The World Education
Forum, a ten-year review of the Jomtien “Education for
All” Declaration convened by the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF,
UNDP and UNFPA, took place in Dakar from 26-28 April. It
resulted in the adoption of 7 pages of commitments compared to
the detailed 30-page draft document of strategies and goals that
was circulated prior to the conference. The organisers intend
for the drafting committee to continue to work on the framework
between now and the World Social Summit Review with the intention
that a final document will be adopted at that meeting.
NGO representation
was very strong. Although the organisers had insisted that only
55 NGOs be admitted prior to the meeting, NGOs lobbied UNESCO
hard before and during the conference to increase the number of
places for NGOs inside the official meeting. By the end of the
first day UNESCO capitulated and gave badges to all of the 300
NGO representatives who were asking for them. Once inside all
national delegations were able to meet with their official
delegations on several occasions. Louise Hilditch of ActionAid
representing Eurostep was a member of the European
Commission delegation to the Forum.
Eurostep's
fundamental objective of increasing civil society participation
(established January 1999) was reflected in the text that was
agreed. It now contains a new commitment to "ensure the
engagement, participation of civil society in the formulation,
implementation and monitoring of strategies for educational
development". Eurostep had also lobbied for
two other demands, which were met in whole or in part at the
Forum. These were on support to free and compulsory education and
on the allocation of 8% of aid budgets to basic education. The
agreed text now contains an unequivocal commitment to "ensuring
that by 2015 all children, with special emphasis on girls,
children in difficult circumstances and from ethnic minorities
have access to and complete free and compulsory education of good
quality". This is a vast improvement on the
original text. The final document is not specific, however, on
the amount of resources donors should earmark for support to
basic education. The document affirms that no government
committed to education for all will be thwarted by lack of
resources. It commits the international community to developing a
'global initiative' to, inter alia, mobilise resources, including
increasing aid to basic education, ensuring greater
predictability in aid flows, debt relief and more effective donor
co-ordination.
The commitments that have been agreed so far allocate an influential role to civil society in contributing to the design and implementation of education policies. In this sense, the outcome of the meeting was very positive. The challenge now is to effectively hold governments and donor agencies to account for these commitments.
A Eurostep position paper titled “Education for All: Making it a Priority” addressing the Dakar Conference is available from the Eurostep website: http://www.oneworld.org/eurostep/weforum.htm. For further information contact [email protected]
Louise Hilditch, ActionAid
2. NGO/EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON COMMISSION PAPER ON EC
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
MEP Glenys
Kinnock’s, with the assistance of Eurostep, organised
a roundtable discussion on May 3 at the European Parliament (EP)
in Brussels on the Commission’s paper on the EC’s
development policy that was adopted last week (see PAF 178).
Around 40 participants representing different NGOs, and MEPs, mainly from the Development Committee, attended. Among those from the Parliament were: MEP Caroline Lucas, MEP John Corrie - Co-President of the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and Mr Friedel, head of functionaries of the EP Development Committee. NGOs present included Eurostep members ActionAid, Movimondo and Norwegian People’s Aid, as well as representatives from the Liaison Committee of EU NGDOs, APRODEV and CIDSE. The outgoing Director General of the Commission’s Development Directorate, Philip Lowe, was also present for the last section of the meeting.
The meeting
provided the participants with the opportunity to brainstorm on
ideas and opinions mainly concerning the EC’s development
policy paper. Many participants pointed to the lack of an
action plan within the paper and stressed the need for such a
plan to implement the policies being outlined. Another
issue that was brought up was the paper’s failure to deal
with the issue of coherence of EC policies. Both NGOs and MEPs
expressed their disappointment that the Commission’s
attempts at producing a paper on coherence of EC policies had
been abandoned.
A more
comprehensive report of the meeting will be made available before
the EU Development Council on May 18. For further information
please contact the Eurostep Secretariat.
3. COMMISSION
PROPOSES FINANCIAL GUARANTEES FOR AID FOR THE BALKANS
EU Budget Commissioner, Michaele Schreyer, this week proposed
a revision of the EU’s financial perspectives in order to
secure the financing of aid for the western Balkans under the
stability pact over the next 6 years. A maximum of €5.5
billion will be earmarked for the western Balkans. The aid is to
be financed from three sources: 1) Financial programming had
already set aside €1.85 billion for the western Balkans and
it was decided during the 2000 budgetary procedure to allocate a
further €200 million from the flexibility instrument for
reconstruction in Kosovo. 2) Redeployment of appropriations for
external relations will release €1.4 billion. An additional
€1.8 billion (€300 million per year from 2001 to 2006)
will also need to be allocated to external policy measures. 3)
For 2001 and 2002 the Commission proposes to redeploy €300
million per year from agricultural expenditure. The Commission
proposal includes aid for Serbia on condition that Serbia
embraces democracy.
4. EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON FOOD AID
The European Parliament, this week, adopted a report and resolution on food aid drafted by MEP Agnes Schierhuber (Austria, Conservative), which in turn approves the United Nations Convention on food aid. An amendment to the resolution, proposed by the conservatives, that calls for priority to be given to the use of EU food products in the provision of aid, was accepted without debate.
The Parliament’s acceptance of the inclusion of this
article in the resolution is surprising as it seems to set the
discussion on food security back 20 years when European food aid
was mainly seen as a means of clearing excess stocks of European
agricultural products. The Parliament resolution cannot also
be seen in isolation from the Commission’s proposal to
redeploy funds from the agricultural budget to Kosovo.
5. CUBA
WITHDRAWS ITS REQUEST TO ACCEDE TO NEW ACP-EU AGREEMENT
Cuba formally withdrew its request for accession to the new ACP-EU Agreement following the EU’s support of a UN human rights resolution against Cuba. In a letter to the ACP Committee of Ambassadors, Cuban External Relations Minister Felipe Perez Roque, stated “Insisting on adherence application would only serve to expose ourselves as victims of unacceptable demands from the EU”. Reportedly, the ACP considers that Cuba meets the conditions required for accession to the Agreement namely: a) belonging to one of the geographical regions of the ACP; b) having the same level of economic development as some of the countries in the same region; and c) having the legal right to sign as an independent state. According to one ACP Ambassador if the conditions imposed on Cuba had been imposed on other ACP States when acceding to the Lomé Conventions there would not be many members within the ACP group.
The Commission has
stated that EU humanitarian and health assistances to Cuba will
continue.
6. IN BRIEF
An
“Assessment of the new ACP-EU Agreement and Recommendations
for Implementation” is available on the publications list of
the Eurostep website.