Topic for discussion:
A Proposal for the Organization of Annual GAC Meetings:

UNGEI’s goal is to improve the quality and availability of girls’ education in support of the gender-related EFA goals and MDGs – of eliminating the gender gap in primary and secondary education originally set for 2005, and ensuring that by 2015, all children, girls and boys alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and have equal access to all levels of education. In order to achieve this, there is a need to strengthen our efforts at country level. One means of doing this would be to allow the Committee the opportunity to engage with UNGEI at national/regional levels and see to it that they are better informed on issues relating to gender and education. Up to now the two annual GAC meetings have been organized in connection to the WGEFA and HLG meetings. The co-chairs and the UNGEI Secretariat solicit a response to the following proposal that aims at a reorganization of the location and focus of the two annual GAC meetings.

The Proposal

The Terms of Reference of UNGEI’s Global Advisory Committee (GAC) envisages a maximum of two face-to-face meetings per year. The present co-chairs, CAMFED and Norad, and the UNGEI Secretariat would like to propose that the two meetings be organized in the following manner:

·  One meeting will be a global business and technical meeting preferably linked to another global meeting such as the WGEFA, HLG, FTI

·  The other meeting will be a technical meeting taking place in alternating regions each year. This meeting will focus on sharing experiences within the region. Regional meetings will be stand-alone events that do not have to link up with other meetings in the country or region. Regional meetings can, however, be linked to countries where UNGEI has commissioned studies that map out important gaps in achieving the above mentioned goals.

Rationale for the Proposal

Meetings at regional level can facilitate interaction with governments and policy-makers, providing a better foundation to identify how the UNGEI network can work together with them to address gender education needs.

We believe that reorganizing the location and targeting strategy for GAC meetings can contribute to greater inspiration and motivation within UNGEI and improved efforts at country level. The value-added elements of holding a yearly GAC meeting at a regional level and in the region could be seen as the following:

a)  It would bring on board regional and country-level stakeholders (national constituencies, policy makers, national UNGEI committees, regional bodies, etc.) who would otherwise not be able to travel to attend the global GAC meeting and be involved in the discussions – a participation that would foster sharing of information, and enable better analysis of issues;

b)  It would enable the GAC to engage with UNGEI at the national/regional levels, and Committee members to be better informed of national/regional issues;

c)  It could contribute to better information sharing and cross-country comparisons, especially if UNGEI were to commission (through budgetary means) national level studies to be presented at GAC meetings held at regional level. Studies could be commissioned in 2-3 countries per region. Existing studies could also be used as starting point. The aim of the studies would be to map out the gaps related to achieving the goal UNGEI is working for (see above) and identify actions needed in collaboration with the authorities to achieve the goals. How the various network participants contribute to this goal should then be agreed upon. Initial discussions will take place at country level and later be shared in the regional UNGEI meeting.

Suggestion for Timing and Division of Regions for Regional Meetings

Considering the time needed for preparation, we propose that the first regional meeting be held in 2008. We propose that the most effective way of dividing the regions would be to follow the continents rather than UNICEF’s regional offices, i.e. Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The annual global meeting will continue to have a global focus, preferably linked to the EFA working group or EFA HLG meeting. The content of the global meeting should continue to be linked to the theme of the GMR.

Norad

May 2007