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Regional Consultations on the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism
As the lead agency for SDG4, 91麻豆国产精品自拍 been coordinating consultation meetings to discuss the need for a reformed and revitalized global education cooperation mechanism (GECM) to accelerate progress to 2030. This was necessitated by the challenge COVID-19 presented, and to solicit the views of Member States on the proposed mechanism and their programmatic priorities.
Accordingly, a virtual GECM consultation meeting was jointly organized by the UNESCO Regional Offices for Eastern and Southern Africa on 18 May 2021. Ten countries participated from Eastern Africa. These were Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda. A further six countries - Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe 鈥 attended the meeting from Southern Africa.
Opening the meeting, the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, Ms. Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, highlighted the urgency of the task ahead to realize the goals the global community has set itself when the SDGs were launched in 2015.
The presentations and discussion questions during the meeting highlighted the core components of the global education cooperation mechanism. Participants have also contributed through the deliberations in breakout sessions that focus on particular aspects of the GECM and priorities of Member States.
The meeting was attended by Member States from the sub-region, and each one of them reiterated their commitment to redouble their efforts to the attainment of SDG4 through a more coordinated work at national, regional and global levels. They also stressed the need for a renewed and heightened level of political commitment and accountability on the part of governments to honor their pledge of leaving no one behind.
The Member States represented in the consultation meeting emphasized that the end date for the attainment of the sustainable development goals is fast approaching, and we are now left with only a little over nine years. 鈥We should therefore pool all our resources together and make up for lost time due to COVID-19 and the backlog from our earlier less than desirable performance鈥, said participants.
During the consultation meeting, special emphasis was given to the involvement of all stakeholders at the national level, and strengthening of the coordination mechanism at regional and global levels. 鈥Think global, and act local,鈥 was the motto highlighted by Member States in the meeting.
The participants have also stressed the dire need for data and suggested that ministries of education and other relevant sectors have a data bank where up-to-date information is stored for monitoring and reporting purposes. In this connection, the need to map the targets of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) and SDG4 was emphasized.
The salient points that emerged from the consultation shall feed into the improvement of the scenario document that is being prepared for the Global Education Meeting that is planned to take place in July 2021.
The Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, Dr. Hubert Gijzen, made closing remarks in which he commended the participating Member States for their commitment and active participation.
