UNGEI GLOBAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
NEW YORK, NY, 1-2 June 2007
Minutes of Meeting
Day One – 1 June 2007
Session I: Welcome, Introductions and Updates
The business meeting of the Global Advisory Committee (GAC) opened with welcome remarks by Mr. Øystein Lyngroth, co-Chair representing Norad. The meeting was an occasion to take stock of the last two quarters and plan ahead for 2007-2008. He mentioned that among the issues to be discussed were decisions on upcoming GAC meetings–includinga regional venue and thematic focus, a possibility of establishing a Code of Practice for partners as well as a monitoring and evaluation subgroups.(List of participants)
Opening remarks were made by H.E. Mr. Johan L. Løvald, Ambassador and Permanent Representative ofNorway to the United Nations, who commended the group on their expertise and the Secretariat forits successful preparation of the meeting. He noted and that the UNGEI Partnership has progressed on regional and country levels since the last GAC meeting. Women’s rights are at the core of the Norwegian effort and the education sector has been given high priority. The focus on the rights for all children to quality education is a major objective which can be achieved by strengthening the education sector holistically. Women’s rights and gender equality should be mainstreamed into all levels of education sector plans and UNGEI must ensure that its efforts to support the gender-related EFA goals and MDGs are coordinated at the country and regional level. He challenged other governments, particularly the G8 countries, to make good on theircommitments to Education for All, underscoring that Norway will support an even stronger country and regional focus moving forward. (Full statement)
Following the Ambassador, Mr. Kul Gautam, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEFcommended all the participantsand UNGEI for the dynamism in taking on one of the most important challenges of our time – of ensuring that the international community adheres to its promise to enable all children, especially girls, to develop to their full human potential through quality education. He said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon is equally committed to the Initiative just as the former SG Kofi Annan, who launched UNGEI in Dakar.He highlighted UNGEI’s pivotal role in strengthening the momentum for achieving MDG 2 and MDG 3, and gave assurances that UNICEF will continue to increase its efforts to leverage resources for children and their right to education, which is reflected in UNICEF’s new education strategy to be presented to the UNICEF Executive Board the following week. (Full statement)
Session II: 2007 UNGEI GAC Workplan
A presentation was made by Cheryl Gregory Faye, Head of the UNGEI Secretariat, on the progress on the work plan in the last six months (Full presentation). Key highlights include:
Objective I: Reinvigorate the UNGEI partnership mechanism at all levels
Tointegrate gender equality into national policies, planning and process at the global level, UNGEI organized a side panel to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), in which young girl activists from around the world talked about their experiences; inEastern and Southern Africa (ESA), a sub-regional SWApworkshop was held in Malawi; in West and Central Africa (WCA), at the regional level,a draft concept note for a joint project on quality and gender in education was developed with UNESCO, Bureau International de la Francophonie, ADEA and UNICEF; in East Asia and Pacific (EAP), an Education for All (EFA) Mid-decade assessment progress review was held to ensure gender is reflected in the country assessment.
On monitoring & evaluation, a joint sub-regional workshop was held in WCA on education indicators. Participants included UNICEF, UNESCO and WFP. Apart from this, no other M&E activities have been undertaken, and more focus will beneeded in the current and next quarter. A proposal was made to establish a subgroup.
On the work plan, proposed revisions were made and emerging issues are being addressed, such as education in emergencies in WCA and transition to post-primary education in ESA.
On civil society and private sectorparticipation, efforts are being made to enhance these relationships at all levels.Support was provided for ASPBAE, CAMFED, the GambiaEFA Coalition Network, and FAWE to attend this meeting and interesting work is being done in ESA with the private sector: puberty education and feminine hygiene initiative in KenyaandMalawi with Procter Gamble. More efforts will be made to engage the private sector, and participants were encouraged to share ideas on how to achieve this.
Frequent communication withregional focal points (RFPs) was maintained and much support was provided by them to the Secretariat.Support was provided for EAP RFP to participate in a Bangkok briefing of Norwegian embassiesin Asiaand maintain close and continuous partnership with GENIA. In ESA, a MOUhas been signed with FAWE.
On peer learning and sharing of best practices, support has been provided to ESA RFP to participate in UNICEF EAP Education Officers’ meeting. In addition, a proposal for a Code of Practice was developed for discussion at the meeting.
Objective 2: Enhance UNGEI’s global and regional communication and advocacy strategy
The UNGEI websiteis updated regularly; French and Spanish versions were launched; information on UNGEI, Fast Track Initiative (FTI), and the Commission on the States of Women (CSW) was featured; and resources such as the UNGEI Forum were posted.
The GirlsEd-Net newsletter,Girls Too!, is published monthly; eDiscussions on HIV/AIDS and Life skills were moderated by Anna Maria Hoffmann from UNICEF and on secondary education by Jennifer Gibson from CAMFED. A video onCameroon from the WCA series was presented during the meeting.
On support to regional and country level advocacy initiatives, communication focal points were identified from some of the partner organizations, and a young champions training of trainers (ToT) workshop was held in South Asia (SA).
Objective 3: Facilitate closer integration within the EFA Framework
On strengthening links with the EFA movement, Cream Wright, UNICEF Global Chief of Education, represented UNGEI at the Bonn FTI Technical meeting. Gender reviews of FTI country proposals for Sierra Leone and Liberiawere conducted, andBenin is expected to soon present its Education Sector Plan to FTI for consideration.
On the integration of UNGEI meetings with EFA Working Group (WG)and High-Level Group (HLG) meetings, further discussion was held later in the meeting.
Financial Implementation
Of the estimated annual budget of US$280,000, just under half was spent to date. While there was over-expenditure in some areas, others were under-spent. Support to meetings such as the CSW accounted for much of the expenditure.
Discussion:
Sida raised the issue of mainstreaming in PRSPs and SWAps, to which ESA replied that a training tool was developed for education project officers (EPO) and counterparts, where gender is embedded. Training was held twice in English and French in Kenya. Another initiative is on gender auditing, for which a consultant was hired to go country by country, starting in Kenya, to assess progress to date. In addition, work is ongoing with FAWE to mainstream gender issues into teacher training curriculum. In South Asia, three studies have been commissioned to find gender disparities in SWAps, which will be used for evidence-based planning in upcoming SWAPs.
Sida also raised the issue of Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2007 readiness, to which UNESCO responded that it is drafting the mid-term strategy for 2008, with a new approach of moving away from women’s needs towards mainstreaming gender equality. In the next week’sglobal meeting in Paris for management and education, a session will be held on EFA GMR, with a focus on sex-disaggregated data.Norwayreported that it sits on the GMR advisory board, which mettwo weeks earlier and decided to launchthe report at the HLGmeeting in Dakar. An online version for participants of the HLG meeting will be available. Gender is an important part of stocktaking, but there is no specific theme – the report will be a stocktaking of all six EFA goals. Communication work will start in September to prepare for the launch. EAP and SA have been supporting the EFA mid-decade assessment to collect disaggregated data.
The Secretariat noted that positive feedback was given on the FTI gender review. On the question raised as to whether there were reactions to the review, the Secretariat responded that theFTI welcome letterto the countries specifically enumerated UNGEI’s concerns. Issues will be addressed during the implementation phase at country level, where UNGEI support is particularly essential due to concern over weak national capacity on gender issues. Gender reviews have attracted interest from other sectors, such as HIV/AIDS,that wantto influence the FTI process. This issue was discussed further on Day Two during the discussion on EFA mechanisms.
Session III: Working at Country Level
Regional reportswere presented by the participating Regional Focal Points (RFPs).
South Asia (SA): A Young Champions for Education ToT workshop was held to help break the cycle of disparities excluding girls from education, with the participation from seven SA countries (33 participants). The Young Champions identified areas to influence policy. Interactive sessions included presentation of case studies, movies (Back to School), presentations on their own work, and more. Other activities included school security issues in Afghanistan, the expansion of radio programs in Bhutan, the formation of an eGroup of all champions in Nepal; and the Girl Stars in India, to be featured in a National Geographic program. In SA, three countries have formal UNGEI partnerships; everywhere they are building on existing structures.
East Asia & the Pacific (EAP): Viet Nam supports ethnic minorities in transition from primary to secondary school. A call was made for a flexible partnership approach to gender integration. UNGEI should build upon already existing networks and EFA structures – each agency can push the agenda: teaching, learning process review and gender sensitive matters. (Full report)
West and Central Africa (WCA): The presentation focused on Ivory Coast, where partners came together to develop a Back to School program after experiencing problems with the existing education system, political crises and geographical division within the country. The collaboration around this initiative was so successful that when the country re-gained stability in relative terms, it was decided to maintain the partnership, however redefined as one that works for developing the sector and for girls’ education, led by the Ministry of Education. Activities include: Back to school every year; a joint fundraising meeting with partners and the private sector in June; establishment and training of gender focal points in every education ministry in ECOWAS countries; ongoing work with UNESCO to expand to Central African countries. (Full report)
East and Southern Africa (ESA): The Girls’ Education Movements (GEM) started in Uganda, spread to Lesotho and Botswana (GBEM), South Africa (higher education) and Uganda (at district level and in emergencies). A ToT workshop was held to help break the cycle of disparities excluding girls from education. In Ethiopia, gender is part and parcel of SWAps. The partnership with FAWE was highlighted as a key strategy for implementation in ESA.
Discussion:
On process, World Vision raised the issue of the capability of governments to interact with the different frameworks, to which RFPs responded that regionally, the aim is not to create separate structures, but to enhance the gender aspect in existing ones.
On PRSPs and SWAps, DfID cautioned that we need to be consistently involved, and involve the government from the beginning. Planning is important, as is accompanying government in the implementation phase. In ESA, SWAps focus on donor coordination and planning and less on capacitybuilding. SA argued that the regional role is planning, whereas implementation is at country level.
Code of Practice for Working with Girls
The main purpose of this discussion was to answer and clarify what standards are expected from GAC members and partners with a view to looking at whether a Code of Practice should be set in place, and what form this should take.
The consensus was that this is a good idea; as several UNGEI partner organizations do not have written guidelines on working with children, it is imperative to set up standards for how partners function in this regard. Renaming the Code of Practice as Minimum Standards for Child Protection was preferred. Further discussion was postponed for the second day in particular to look at the scope of such a document.
Session IV: GAC Working Modalities
The objective of this session was to propose specific modalities for the two annual GAC meetings: a global meeting in conjunction with the EFA WG or HLG meeting and a stand-alone, regional meeting with focus on knowledge sharing on regional themes related to gaps in access, equity and quality of education for girls. The first regional meeting is to be scheduled for 2008.
Ensuing discussions reached consensus that this approach should be implemented, but further work neededto be done on expected outcomes and added value of regional meetings. Agreement was reached to holdthe next GAC meeting in Paris at which time a more concrete proposal for the future working modalities for UNGEI GAC will be presented. The next meeting will be linked to the WGEFA meeting 14-16 November 2007. This venue is preferred because the WGEFA aims to make well-prepared recommendations to the HLG. Precise scheduling will be worked out with UNESCO. A possible scenario is to hold a technical meeting before the WGEFAmeeting and then a business meeting afterwards.
Agreement on holding regional meetingswasreached, and South Asia has been chosen as the venue for the first regional meeting to be held in 2008. A subgroup was formed, comprised of Raka Rashid, Aya Aoki, Jyotsna Jha, and ASPBAE. The country and theme will be discussed by the subgroup and concrete recommendations proposed to the Secretariat for dissemination to the GAC by September. The thematic focus will relate to realities of the region.
Discussion:
UNESCO raised its concern over parallel processes and the divide between education and gender equality specialists. The Commonwealth Secretariat offered an example of bridging these gaps – financing for gender equality is the theme for the upcoming Eighth Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting (8WAMM), where UNGEI will hold a session, and where education is a focus.
Sida, DFID, FAWE, AED, Norad, the Secretariat, RFPs, USAID, and World Vision raised issues to be considered when selecting the venue: possible linkage to events, risk of overburdening country offices, emerging issues, visibility of UNGEI partners. Thematically, GMR themes would be a possible focus, but given that they will be discussed at the global meeting, other themes pertaining to specific regions should be considered. Invitations to policy makers, gender specialists and others in addition to the GAC were discussed.
Agreement was reached on holding two meetings annually: one with global focus, tied to the EFA Working Group or High-Level Group meeting; and one with regional focus, which must be well planned to ensure added value. For the latter, the region will first be decided, after which a specific theme will be determined. The specific focus of these meetings will be guided by the realities of the region.
(ASPBAE Presentation)
Session V:Membership in the Global Advisory Committee
This session reviewed the current membership in the GAC and noted that some members had not participated actively for quite a while. Given the current and anticipated composition of the GAC, the ToR was revised to 20-22 members.
To strengthen civil society, FAWE was invited last year as arepresentative from Africa, and ASPBAE made a presentation to this GAC meeting seeking membership as a CSO from Asia. It was agreed that ASPBAE would be invited to join the GAC representing Asia. There was some confusionoverthe representation from GCE: it was noted that GCE had previously nominated World Vision, CAMPE and ANCEFA for membership on the GAC, in addition to GCE being members themselves. CAMFED had also agreed to provide feedback to GCE when they were not in a position to attend meetings. As ANCEFA does not have a structure independent of its national constituents, it requested that the EFA Gambia CoalitionNetwork represent it on the GAC. Neither GCE nor CAMPE have responded to emails or outreach.
It was agreed that the Secretariat will conduct a “housecleaning” exercise to removeorganizations that are not participating regularly from the GAC list. Accordingly, CAMPE, a Bangladeshi national organization,willbe deleted from the list. ANCEFA (Africa Network Campaign on Education for All) will be considered for acceptance into GAC once the housecleaning exercise is completed. CAMFED will follow up with GCE on whether they want to remain members of GAC, which will require more active participation on their part. Once this exercise is completed, the others will be invited to join the GAC, such as ANCEFA, research-based organizations and private sector representatives.