UNGEI Global Advisory Committee
Paris, 12 - 13 November 2007
Minutes of Meeting
UNGEI GAC Business meeting
12 November 2007
1. Introductory session
The UNGEI Global Advisory Committee (GAC) held a two-day meeting at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 12-13 November 2007. The business meeting opened with welcome remarks by Mr. Øystein Lyngroth of Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of Norad as GAC Co-Chair.
He explained that the main objectives of the business meeting were to review the implementation of the 2007 work plan; review experiences from selected UNGEI countries; examine how UNGEI can strengthen its work at country level; discuss priorities for 2008; and undertake a discussion with other groups working to support the inclusion of excluded groups in the EFA Fast Track Initiative (FTI) process at country level. The main objective of the technical meeting was to prepare recommendations to the Working Group on EFA (WGEFA) meeting to be held immediately following the GAC meeting, including an UNGEI-led thematic workshop on gender equality. The technical meeting discussion was to be based on the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2008.
Due credit was given to members of GAC for their ongoing work since the last meeting, particularly within the sub-groups, and also to the effective follow-up by the Secretariat. (The full list of participants is available on the meeting web site.)
The question of the rotation of co-chairs was raised by the Co-Chair Norad. Currently, Norad and Camfed are co-chairing the GAC, with Camfed’s term expiring in the summer of 2008, and Norad’s at the end of 2008. The terms of reference (TOR) of the GAC require that this rotation be timed to ensure a 6-month overlap between an outgoing and incoming co-chair. The Co-Chair invited organizations to express their interest in taking up the co-chairmanship so that, by the next meeting, a consensus decision can be taken.
2. Follow-up points
In reviewing the action points from the minutes of the last GAC meeting held in June 2007, the Secretariat explained that all the pending items had also been factored into today’s agenda.
Membership in GAC
The Secretariat was asked during the last GAC meeting to perform a housecleaning activity in light of the lack of participation of some GAC members, in order to create space to invite new members. Following that exercise, ASPBAE and the Gambia EFA Coalition, representing ANCEFA, were invited to join.
Private sector participation
During the last GAC meeting, the Secretariat was asked to invite a representative from the private sector to participate in this meeting, starting with contacting the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) Secretariat for its perspective on partnership with the private sector. The Secretariat reported that FTI has moved forward in working with the private sector. Subsequently, the Secretariat approached the Nike Foundation and the World Economic Forum and the former expressed interest in being involved. But before formally inviting them as observers or full-fledged members, the Secretariat sought guidance from the GAC on what its expectations were from the private sector collaboration. Also, since UNGEI is not a funding mechanism, what would be the proper representation from the private sector – companies or foundations?
Members’ feedback included the need to clarify the objectives of involving the private sector – whether for sensitization or advocacy purposes, whether to engage them at the global or country level, and whether to accord them full-fledge membership or observer status.
It was pointed out that some private companies have been gender insensitive; we have an opportunity to invite “benevolent” corporations to include protection policies and deal with the issue of women and employment on country level. Corporate Social Responsibility should be a guiding principle for choosing a representative from the private sector. It was noted that the private sector represents a group that we cannot neglect; UNGEI needs to influence their agenda, to make girls’ education one of their top priorities. Suggestions of organizations that should be considered included: women’s organizations working with small businesses, foundations rather than individual companies, the Council of Women World Leaders, and umbrella groups such as the UN Global Compact.
New corporate foundations tend not to be well versed in the area of education either in language or agenda. Therefore, when inviting them, there is a need to articulate specific points, tap into their power with the media to “sell” girls’ education, and be clear and strategic about our expectations with them.
The Co-Chair summarized by stating that this discussion was a good example of the advisory role of the GAC. Action point: The Secretariat was subsequently charged to prepare draft terms of reference for involving the private sector, preferably umbrella institutions, to be shared with the GAC and finalized early next year. The objective is to be able to invite a private sector representative to participate in the next GAC meeting.
3. Work plan
Highlights of the global and regional implementation reports were made by the Secretariat. The full reports – physical and financial – are available online and were distributed in the meeting folders.
CIDA, chair of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) sub-group established in the previous GAC meeting, reported that the anticipated framework was not yet available, but that work is progressing. Action: An external consultant will be hired with CIDA funding to develop a framework by early 2008. The draft framework document will be shared electronically and validated by the next GAC meeting.
The communication report included the showing of a video clip of the new and improved web site and the request for GAC members to establish communication focal points within their organizations (both at HQ and national levels) to be in regular contact with the UNGEI communication team. TOR describing the work of a communication focal point have been shared and are available online.
4. Working at country-level
The regional focal points (RFP) from Eastern and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Pacific, and Middle East and North Africa reported on progress of UNGEI at country level, by focusing their presentations on country-level experiences.
Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) reported on gender audits conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda for the purpose of obtaining a deeper analysis on girls’ education and gender issues. The full report is available online. A new publication Making UNGEI Work in four countries has been produced and disseminated.
West and Central Africa (WCA) focused its presentation on the Nigeria experience, where UNGEI was launched in 2003. The full report is available online.
South Asia (SA) made a presentation on Afghanistan, which launched UNGEI this year, but has already made much progress. There is strong political commitment, ownership and participation in the country, but key challenges in security, lack of female teachers and status of women and girls remain. More involvement of GAC members at country level is needed. The full report is available online.
East Asia and Pacific (EAP) focused its presentation on Papua New Guinea, where the “One UN programme” is to start next year. The full report is available online.
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) focused its presentation on Yemen which shows a history of coordinated donor efforts. The full report is available online.
Excerpts from mission reports to ESA and EAP regions were given by the Secretariat. The ESA trip was tied to a workshop on financing for gender equality in education held by the Commonwealth Secretariat and UNGEI in Kampala, which resulted in recommendations to the subsequent Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers’ meeting. The country visits held after the workshop were both inspiring and revelatory. The Secretariat noted the fascinating work being done to get girls to enroll or re-enroll. However, although most UNGEI GAC members are present in the countries visited, their local representatives had not received guidance from their organizations on the importance of working in partnership for girls’ education; the perception persists that UNGEI is limited to the headquarters level. The Secretariat highlighted the need for partners to strengthen internal communication and not rely exclusively on the RFPs. All were encouraged to read the trip reports, which are available online: ESA and EAP.
Action points:
§ GAC members should ensure better communication with their country-level representations on the importance of partnership for girls’ education
§ The Secretariat will develop guidelines for planning its field missions to emphasize the partnership aspect
§ The Secretariat will draft an outreach strategy for regional bodies working on gender issues in consultation with the RFPs
§ At the next GAC meeting, the Secretariat and Co-chairs will allot sufficient time for a structured country-level reporting.
At the end of the session, participants felt that there was not enough time to capture fully the rich experiences at country level that were being shared through presentations. The co-chair acknowledged the time constraints and encouraged participants to read the documents online. It was suggested a panel discussion to share experiences at country level be explored for the next GAC meeting.
Draft child protection strategy
The Camfed Co-Chair gave the background to the draft paper, noting that the need for guiding policies in child protection to be used by GAC members was identified in earlier meetings and that Camfed had been charged to develop a draft. The draft, available online, was circulated to all partners for feedback, but no response was received. In developing this draft, Camfed noted that a number of partners have their own child protection policies, so the current draft seeks to bring out the main issues that could be included. The objective of having this policy is to ensure that operations would not compromise children but protect them, especially in communication where, in many cases, the rights of children are ignored. It is also to guide UNGEI on how to communicate about children in a way that respects their privacy – e.g. in interviews and images. Although the target groups are manly children below the age of 18 years, in some instances those above 18 would still need protection – so the policy should include young adults. The policy could be reviewed regularly as necessary.
The ensuing discussions questioned the implications of a policy for each agency, and consensus was to return to the original concept of a “code of conduct/practice”, with emphasis on contact with the media and stressing girls’ education as a protection strategy. Another suggestion was to interface this with the broader framework for social protection, which often has tools and strategies to protect vulnerable groups, where we could include the gender dimension.
Action point: A working group made up of UNICEF (Mannathoko), Gambia EFA Coalition (Sosseh) and the Secretariat, was created to assist Camfed in revising the draft document based on the discussions and circulate it before the next meeting.
5. Future work plan
The Secretariat presented the proposed priority actions for 2008 with the aim to receive feedback from the GAC. A draft work plan 2008 was presented, which a continuation of many current activities as well as some new ones related to: a workshop on gender in education in emergencies in collaboration with INEE; monitoring and evaluation of UNGEI, initiated this year, plus an evaluation of good practices in partnership in a select number of countries; the development of a strategy for outreach to regional bodies working on gender; the incorporation of key events targeting CSW 2008 Session which will be on gender financing and International Women’s Day with the theme of investing in girls; piloting the first regional GAC meeting in South Asia region, including development of a research paper that would feed into the discussions; organizing and holding a major conference on gender and education to focus attention on girls’ education around the December 2008 EFA High Level Group meeting in Oslo and to prepare for the extension of UNGEI’s mandate beyond 2010[1]; taking forward this afternoon’s discussion in integrating gender within the FTI, including other disparities.
In the ensuing discussion, members recommended that any research, policy paper or M&E framework undertaken next year should highlight gender equality, while maintaining the pressure to attain parity. The need for an impact assessment, especially looking beyond primary education, was also raised.
The meeting was reminded that it had been previously agreed to include in the work plan the development of gender tools to be used at country and regional levels. This would help address concerns raised in the Secretariat’s mission report, and would encourage GAC to work more effectively at national level.
Another suggestion was to “think big and bold” on an event or product that would make the world hear our voice loud and clear, e.g. an event on the importance of girls’ education, underlining the fact that, without it, there will not be gender equality. On the proposal for the virtual symposium, one suggestion was to develop a concept paper (framework) for the preparation of the symposium, and calls for paper to focus on equality, as well as to ensure that girls and boys are included in the discussions. The Commonwealth Secretariat volunteered to collaborate with the Secretariat in organizing the proposed symposium.
As 2008 is the midpoint to the MDGs, the focus should be on UNGEI’s vision for gender equality and education for the second half of the period to 2015, and where to go from here. Emerging issues include boys’ education, keeping girls in school and learning outcomes. Focus on these issues would also contribute to the larger EFA agenda. UNGEI should now move to the issues of how to accelerate the gender equality goal, beyond access, and to get returns from girls’ education. The Secretariat was tasked with developing a vision on how to reach gender- and education-related MDGs and EFA goals by 2015. The suggestions would be incorporated into the draft work plan and presented to the group the following day.
6. Country-level FTI processes
A joint working session took place with members of the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team on Education (IATT), the Global Task Force (GTF) on Child Labour and EFA, the EFA flagship on the right to education for persons with disabilities, and the FTI Secretariat on collaboration for mainstreaming equity issues in country-level FTI processes. The full list of participants is available on the meeting web site.