World AIDS Day: When education helps to save lives

On World AIDS Day, it’s vital to remember that education has a key role to play in reaching the goal of “zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.”

Every day, about 1,000 children are infected with HIV. Almost all of them contract the virus during their mother’s pregnancy, during childbirth or when they are being breastfed. These infections could be avoided if mothers knew more about how HIV is transmitted.

As we highlighted in the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, only 59% of mothers with no formal education surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa knew that condoms could help reduce the spread of HIV. Among mothers who had attended secondary school, however, 81% knew how important it is for their partners to use condoms. Similarly, awareness of mother-to-child transmission and the effects of anti-retroviral drugs increases with years of schooling.

Awareness of HIV and AIDS - education provides protection. Percentage of female respondents answering questions on HIV and AIDS awareness, by education, in selected sub-Saharan countries. Source: 2011 GMR

Education can also help reduce adult transmission of HIV by promoting safer sexual behaviour and addressing “the structural factors that facilitate the spread of HIV, including lack of opportunity and gender inequality,” according to UNESCO’s recently published strategy for HIV and AIDS. According to another UNESCO study, sexuality education programs are not only highly effective in reducing the spread of HIV, they can also save society money. Schools are “well-positioned to provide leadership in how to talk to young people about difficult subjects like HIV & AIDS”, as UNESCO experts told Harward EdCast earlier today.

Beyond Busan 3: What management, for which results?

By Manos Antoninis, senior policy analyst, Education for All Global Monitoring Report

The inclusion of “managing for results” as one of the pillars of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness signalled strongly the need to turn a page in development cooperation relationships; the need to shift from recounting the volume of overseas development assistance to accounting for what this assistance delivers. There was a genuine demand to use evidence to reflect on what kind of support best helps transform the lives of the poorest.

According to the OECD Development Assistance Committee, increased availability of information would be the key to improving decision-making. On the eve of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, being held this week in Busan, South Korea, the latest evaluation of the implementation of the Paris Declaration argued that progress has been slow. Tensions are spotted “between the longer-term Declaration commitment to strengthening partner country systems … and the pressures from donors for short-term reporting in line with their own results systems.”

In the case of the education sector, as the Education for All Global Monitoring Report team’s Policy Paper on aid effectiveness argues, experience shows what can be achieved when the aid effectiveness principles are adhered to. Where donors have aligned with national plans, positive outcomes for education are visible:

• In Ethiopia, the number of primary school-age children out of school declined from 6.5 million in 1999 to 2.2 million in 2009, backed by an increase in the education budget (from 3.9% of GNP in 2000 to 5.5% in 2007).

• In the United Republic of Tanzania, the number of primary school-age children out of school declined from 3.2 million in 1999 to just 0.3 million in 2009, backed by a substantial increase in the education budget (from 2% of GNP in 1999 to 6.8% in 2008).

Beyond Busan 2: Should imputed student costs and scholarships be counted as aid?

By Elise Legault, research officer, Education for All Global Monitoring Report team

Aid analyses by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report tend to put greater emphasis on basic education than on the whole sector. One reason is that the Education for All and Millennium Development Goal movements have focused on increasing access to basic education. But another is that figures on total aid to education are misleading because they include large amounts about which we know little – and that often do not cross donor countries’ borders. As  2,000 aid policy makers gather at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, it’s worth assessing what this money buys – and whether it might be spent more effectively.

Aid to post-secondary education makes up 40% of all aid to education, as we note in a new Policy Paper, but it is a melting pot of different types of items, many not spent in developing countries.  In 2009, 39% of aid to post-secondary education was made up of “imputed student costs,” meaning that around US$2 billion a year in “aid” is spent in donor countries to pay for the costs of students from developing countries. The vast majority of this sum is spent in France and Germany. Much of the remainder is also effectively spent in donor countries through scholarships, although the exact amount is unknown since the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) reporting system does not require donors to specify what is spent on scholarships.

For example, Japan provides almost no project descriptions for its aid to post-secondary education in the DAC’s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database. To know how much is spent on scholarships we must chase reports from Japan’s aid agency, JICA; we estimate that over 60% of their aid to post-secondary education is made of scholarships for study in Japan. The United Kingdom spends about 18% of its aid to post-secondary education on scholarships, and Australia 29%. Results for most other donors are similar, though these figures are probably underestimations because of opaque reporting.

The lack of transparency in aid to post-secondary education makes it hard to hold donors accountable for large shares of their aid to education. But we can also question the effectiveness of spending money on imputed student costs and scholarships, compared with what the same money could buy if it were spent in developing countries.

Beyond Busan 1: Will “new partnerships” with BRICs and the private sector help get all children into school?

By Pauline Rose, director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report

The 2,000 aid policy makers gathering at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, could offer renewed hope for the 67 million children around the world who are still not in school. Delegates will discuss how to improve aid spending given the urgency of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and in the light of the financial crisis. However much their discussion will be couched in technical jargon, the meeting has real implications for people’s lives.

Over the past decade, both national governments and aid donors have increased the amount of money they spend on development priorities. In discussions with policymakers, two views are often expressed. The first is that education has benefited disproportionately from aid increases. This is not true. As the EFA Global Monitoring Report team’s Policy Paper prepared for the Busan meeting shows, education’s share has remained static at around 12% of aid that can be allocated to sectors.

Second, assumptions are made that the focus of the Millennium Development Goals on basic education has resulted in a shift in spending to this level. This is also not true. In fact, the share of education aid going to basic education has remained around 40% over the last decade – equivalent to US$5.6 billion in 2009. This is vastly insufficient to ensure all children are able to go to school, as the EFA Global Monitoring Report team shows in a policy paper on aid trends. And the financial crisis that is hitting rich countries is posing a real threat even to these aid levels.

In the light of these threats, the draft Busan outcome document indicates a shift from “aid effectiveness” language towards euphemisms of “new partnerships” united by “shared principles” and “common goals.” These new partnerships would bring national governments and the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) club of aid donors together with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and private philanthropists.

But will these “new partnerships” make a difference for the millions of children out of school? The evidence in our Policy Paper prepared for Busan suggests not.

BRIEFLY: 7 million children out of school in the DRC

Children in eastern DRC look inside a classroom where their friends attend class. Photo: M. Hofer/UNESCO

Around 7 million primary age children are still out of school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though primary education officially became free in 2010, the IRIN news service reports, citing a study conducted by the DRC government with the UK Department for International Development and UNICEF. The wars between 1996 and 2003 have left the country struggling to cope with ongoing violence, corruption and poor governance.

The 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report, The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, highlighted the fact that violent conflict is one of the greatest obstacles to achieving Education for All. It means lower school enrolment, higher dropout rates, less literacy and greater inequalities in access to education, even years after conflict ends. The DRC still spends more than twice as much on its army as it does on education.

G20 leaders need to speak out for education and skills

By Pauline Rose, director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report

With the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All goals just four years away, some questions about the future of global development efforts are becoming urgent. Where will the development agenda be in 2015? How will education fit into it? Who will be the political champions for the post-2015 development agenda? And who will be speaking up for education?

These questions have become even more pressing in the light of the outcomes of the recent G20 summit in Cannes, France.  Discussions at the summit understandably focused on the Eurozone crisis. Unless this crisis is sorted out, there are likely to be dire consequences globally. But the final communiqué of the summit, which called for a “global strategy for growth and jobs,” was missing a key ingredient:  serious attention to skills for employability.

The focus in Cannes on job creation reflects broader trends recognizing that the frustrations of young people in the Middle East and elsewhere are driven by a lack of jobs. The words of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, before the G20 summit, echo these sentiments: “Our efforts must be channelled towards finding innovative ways to create jobs in most economies in the world – particularly the need to give hope and opportunities for the unemployed youth.”

More money needed to get all children into school by 2015

A major event in Copenhagen next week could make a crucial difference for the 67 million children around the world who are still not enrolled at school. Representatives of developing country governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, civil society organizations and private foundations will gather at a pledging conference on November 8 to mobilize resources and political commitments for the newly branded Global Partnership for Education (formerly the Education for All Fast Track Initiative).

A major increase in funding for education is long overdue. Despite a recent rise in aid to basic education in 2009, of the US$5.6 billion available only US$3 billion is spent on the world’s poorest countries. This is vastly insufficient given that US$16 billion is needed to ensure all children in these countries are able to go to school, as we highlight in a new briefing paper by the EFA Global Monitoring Report team.

Just four countries benefited from over 80% of the increase in aid to basic education: India, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Viet Nam. Worryingly, anticipated future aid flows indicate that funding for education in countries most in need, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, are likely to fall significantly because major donors such as the Netherlands and the United States are shifting their priorities.

BRIEFLY: Secondary school, a bridge to the world of work

As many countries succeed in expanding access to primary schooling, demand for secondary school places is building. The latest edition of the Global Education Digest, published by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), highlights the number of children who are unable to enter secondary school. The problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where only around one-third of young people are able to enrol.

According to UNESCO’s Director General, expanding secondary schooling is “a minimum entitlement for equipping youth with the knowledge and skills they need to secure decent livelihoods in today’s globalized world.” Unless more secondary school places are made available, there is a real danger that education inequalities will widen further. This is likely to hold back progress towards other development goals, including improving child health. As we show in the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, about 1.8 million lives would have been saved in 2008 if child mortality rates for sub-Saharan Africa had fallen from the regional average to the level for children of mothers with at least some secondary education.

“In many ways, secondary education is a bridge for young people from the world of school to the world of work,” said Albert Motivans, Head of Education Indicators and Data Analysis at UIS. The 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report will look at the importance of extending access and improving the relevance of secondary schooling to ensure that all young people are equipped with the skills they need as they enter the workplace.

BRIÈVEMENT : L’école secondaire, une passerelle vers le monde du travail
Au fur et à mesure qu’un nombre grandissant de pays réussissent à développer l’accès à l’école primaire, la demande en enseignement secondaire progresse également. Publiée par l’Institut de statistique de l’UNESCO (ISU), la dernière édition du Recueil de données mondiales sur l’éducation met en lumière le nombre important d’enfants qui ne peuvent pas entrer à l’école secondaire. Le problème est particulièrement grave en Afrique subsaharienne, où seulement environ un tiers des enfants peuvent s’inscrire.

Selon la Directrice générale de l’UNESCO, un vaste développement de l’éducation secondaire « est la condition sine qua non pour doter les jeunes des connaissances et des compétences dont ils ont besoin pour s’assurer des moyens d’existence décents au sein du système mondialisé actuel. »  Si davantage de places ne sont pas mises à disposition dans les écoles secondaires, il existera un danger réel que les inégalités dans l’éducation continuent de s’aggraver. Une telle situation est susceptible d’entraver les progrès sur la voie des autres objectifs de développement, notamment en matière d’amélioration de la santé infantile. Comme nous le montrons dans le Rapport mondial de suivi sur l’Éducation pour tous 2011, environ 1,8 million de vies auraient pu être sauvées en 2008 si les taux de mortalité infantile en Afrique subsaharienne avaient pu passer de la moyenne régionale au niveau plus faible observé pour les enfants de mères ayant suivi des études secondaires.

« À de nombreux égards, l’éducation secondaire est une passerelle – pour les jeunes – entre l’école et le monde du travail, » a déclaré M. Albert Motivans, Chef, Indicateurs de l’éducation et analyse des données à l’ISU. Le Rapport mondial de suivi sur l’EPT 2012 s’intéressera à l’importance du développement de l’accès et de l’amélioration de la pertinence de l’éducation secondaire si l’on veut s’assurer que l’ensemble des jeunes soient dotés des compétences dont ils ont besoin pour s’insérer dans le monde du travail.

EN BREVE: La enseñanza secundaria, un puente hacia el mundo laboral
A medida que numerosos países amplían el acceso a la enseñanza primaria, aumenta la demanda de plazas en las escuelas secundarias. En la última edición del Compendio Mundial de la Educación, publicado por el Instituto de Estadística de la UNESCO (IEU), se hace hincapié en el número de niños que no logran ingresar en la enseñanza secundaria. El problema es particularmente grave en el África subsahariana, donde apenas un tercio de los jóvenes logran matricularse en ese nivel.

Según ha declarado la Directora General de la UNESCO, la ampliación de la enseñanza secundaria es “un derecho mínimo que dota a los jóvenes de los conocimientos y las competencias que necesitan para lograr medios de subsistencia decorosos en la sociedad mundializada de hoy en día”. Si no se aumenta la oferta de enseñanza secundaria, existe el peligro cierto de que las desigualdades educativas se amplíen aún más. Con toda probabilidad, esta situación retrasaría la consecución de otros objetivos de desarrollo, entre ellos el de mejorar la salud infantil. Como explicamos en el Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación para Todos en el Mundo de 2011, en 2008 hubieran podido salvarse unos 1,8 millones de niños en el África subsahariana, si las tasas de mortalidad de la región hubieran descendido a los niveles que prevalecían entre los niños cuyas madres habían recibido al menos los rudimentos de la instrucción de nivel secundario.

“En muchos aspectos, la enseñanza secundaria es un puente entre el ámbito escolar y el laboral”, afirmó Albert Motivans, Jefe de la Unidad de Indicadores y Análisis de Datos sobre Educación del IEU. El Informe de Seguimiento de la EPT en el Mundo de 2012 examinará la importancia de ampliar el acceso y mejorar la pertinencia de la enseñanza secundaria, a fin de velar por que todos los jóvenes puedan adquirir las competencias que necesitan para ingresar en el mercado laboral.

BRIEFLY: Young people voice need for job skills

Representatives of the 210 youth delegates who attended the UNESCO Youth Forum presented the forum’s report to the UNESCO General Conference last week. The report encourages member states to “expand the scope of education by including entrepreneurial skills and training opportunities, and intergenerational partnerships for youth aligned to rapidly changing labour market needs.” The 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report will focus on skills development for youth.

BRIÈVEMENT : Les jeunes expriment leurs besoins en compétences professionnelles
Les représentants des 210 délégués des jeunes qui ont participé au Forum des jeunes de l’UNESCO ont présenté le rapport du forum à la Conférence générale de l’UNESCO la semaine dernière. Le rapport encourage les États membres à « élargir le champ d’action de l’éducation en incluant les compétences entrepreneuriales et les opportunités de formation, ainsi que les partenariats intergénérationnels permettant aux jeunes de s’adapter aux évolutions rapides des besoins en main-d’œuvre. » Le Rapport mondial de suivi sur l’Éducation pour tous 2012 sera centré sur le développement de compétences adaptées aux jeunes.

EN BREVE: Los jóvenes exigen competencias laborales
Los representantes de los 210 delegados que participaron en el Foro de la Juventud de la UNESCO presentaron la semana pasada el informe final del Foro a la Conferencia General de la UNESCO. En el documento se exhorta a los Estados Miembros a “ampliar el espectro de la educación mediante la incorporación de las competencias empresariales, las oportunidades de capacitación y las iniciativas intergeneracionales para los jóvenes, ajustadas a las necesidades del mercado laboral, que cambian con rapidez”. El Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación para Todos en el Mundo de 2012 se centrará en la adquisición de competencias por parte de los jóvenes.

 

Letter to the 7 billionth human being

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Welcome!

It might be scary to know that you’re sharing the planet with so many people!  But it will be OK. You want to know what will make all the difference? Education. Here is an A-B-C to get you started.

You need to get an early start with health, food and love, right from the beginning. And don’t start school late. The better your start in life, the more likely you are to succeed when you grow up.

Focus on the basics first. Learn how to read and write, to count and multiply. These foundations will stay with you for your whole life. They will let you continue to learn and get the skills you need for a good job.

Everyone should be able to go to school, but unfortunately 67 million kids do not. Let’s hope you don’t become one of them. Education should be for all, no matter who they are and where they live.

6.999.999.999 + 1

You are one of many on this planet, but you’re important. You are born with fundamental human rights, including the right to education. You must demand that right, and make adults listen to your demand.

Best wishes