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OVERVIEW
The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), an EFA flagship initiative led by UNICEF in partnership with other United Nations Agencies, governments, donor countries, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector, and communities, will hold a Technical Consultation linked to the 5th meeting of the High-Level Group on Education For All in Beijing, People's Republic of China , 26-27 November 2005.
The focus of this UNGEI Technical Consultation is on exploring the links between girls' education and female adult literacy, particularly to the extent that this link could serve both as a challenge and as an opportunity. As a challenge, the link is a vicious cycle that thwarts progress in education and development. As an opportunity it is a virtuous cycle through which education contributes to empowerment of women and the development of nations.
On the occasion of the Consultation and following EFA High-Level Group meeting, UNICEF will launch t he Gender Achievements and Prospects in Education or GAP report, a multimedia project on achievements, challenges and new directions in girls' education.
Participants at this Technical Consultation will explore the challenge and opportunity of the link between girls' education and female adult literacy by taking stock of progress in both of these fields, sharing experiences on advocacy and programming work, and reviewing options for the way forward, These options will concentrate on bold initiatives and quick impact strategies that will accelerate progress and get countries “on track” for achieving the 2015 Millennium decade goals (MDGs) and the EFA goals related to gender, education and literacy.
The main outcome of this Technical Consultation is expected to be recommendations on the way forward, which will outline concrete steps and commitments to design, implement and support a number of bold initiatives for accelerating progress on girls' education and for transforming the vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle that links girls' education with female adult literacy. This statement will be addressed to the main EFA High Level Group meeting and is expected to be discussed with a view of including it in the Communiqué and action points for countries and their development partners. On this basis, UNGEI partners will prepare an Action Plan for implementation at country and regional levels.
Background Note to the UNGEI Techical Consultation (PDF)