VOICES RISING

YEAR III - VOL 3. Nº152

September 9 , 2005

content
1.- 58th ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE
2.- GROUPS SAY BUSH ADMINSTRATION CONTINUES TO BLOCK PROGRESS AT UNITED NATIONS WORLD SUMMIT
3.- 60 YEARS OF EDUCATION
4.- INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS ON ADULT LITERACY
5.- 3RD WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONGRESS


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1.- 58th ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE

United Nations, NY, September 7-9, 2005

Alejandra Scampini
REPEM-DAWN
GCAP Feminist Task Force

“We need a UN that works. It’s that simple, that essential!”-
Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affaire and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Today was the opening of the 58th Annual Conference of the UN Department of Public Information, under the leitmotif “Our Challenge: Voices for Peace, Partnership and Renewal”.

As REPEM, we were invited to participate in this conference and present a contribution in the workshop on UN and Civil Society “A Dialogue: The Future of the United Nations”, on September 9th.

Today, at 10 am, opened the conference in the large room of the General Assembly, about which we know little and we attend only few times. But this year things are different. Many organizations have come, because this space opens the opportunity to be there, to participate, hear, share, lobby and get information before the Millennium Summit. A space in which we will be present only through the voices of Gina Vargas and Guy Rider, as representatives of the civil society and the social movements.

In the opening words of Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations, UN announces that over 3500 representatives of the civil society are present in this space. Personally, I see few Latin American faces, as well as from other regions, but the absence of our region comes as a surprise, above all if we think on the Interactive Hearings’ scenario of just a few months ago, for which we worked so hard and of which we are so pride, as the outcome document included most of our demands.

This conference is not very well-known by us, but today the scenario and the political context make it very interesting. But unfortunately, we are few. Tomorrow we will have a Feminist Strategic Session and we will see how many of us there are here, the opportunities for lobby, for approaching the missions, for visibilizing our demands and for utilizing the media from within and outside the GCAP

The opening words of the Conference reminded once and again that this conference was framed by a very important scenario: the upcoming Millennium Summit. We should acknowledge this fact, and the conjuncture of what is currently happening in New Orleans has also contributed to giving this space a different meaning.

The issue of “our tsunami”, as many Americans say, has awakened many colleagues in this country, who, up to that moment, seemed to be unaware of the gender, class and race discrimination existing in their country. In the long queue for obtaining my NGO registration I heard all kinds of remarks about the “racism and classism phenomenon”. “It is not necessary to go to Africa or Latin America to see examples of racism and classism”, a woman said. One just needed to cross the street to see some examples of this fact, but of course, these are subtler things that do not blow up in the media.”

Each address of the opening ceremony did not fail to mention Katrina, but reminding us there are other tsunamis, all the time, in the whole world, from Chad to Colombia. We heard voices demanding “the fight against the causes of disaster and armed conflicts. No country is an island, isolated from the threats of the 21st Century, such as extreme poverty, terrorist threats, violent conflicts, inequalities and the threats of nature.”

The President of the General Assembly, Mr. Ping, from Gabon, about whom so much was spoken during the Hearings and these previous weeks of negotiations around the draft outcome document of the World Summit, was the second person in welcoming the participants. We had high expectations about what he would say about the Summit, the previous Hearings, the process, the importance of the Commitments, of the times and challenges. However, unfortunately, he said nothing at all.

He did remind us that this conference has the mandate of being more related with the UN in its intergovernmental processes. The Cardozo Report so recommends, for the DPI to be more connected with the issues of the General Assembly and the governmental processes. He went on reminding us that we, the civil society, are the guardians of the UN Refor, and called on us to use our voice and our expertise to assess and ask for more when necessary. He said that civil society has to make sure there are no empty promises, and make governments fulfill their commitments.
This is a huge responsibility, and yes, Mr. Ping! the civil society is well-prepared and qualified to assume it! But we will not be there because there was neither political will, nor enough UN power to ensure the massive presence of civil society, like today. Finally, he took his leave, reminding us that next week the biggest meeting in Humankind’s history will take place, and left the session.

After this lean and empty welcome, we heard the words of Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affaire and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He spoke about the challenge of the DPI Conference, which has a special impact on account of the upcoming Summit that, we assume, will have as mission to asses the UN conferences, including the implementation of the MDGs that emerged from the 2000 Summit. He mentioned that the upcoming summit is crucial for the future of the United Nations and the global governance. He reminded us that the meeting on the 14th is the continuation of the Hearings of June 23-24, but he did not commented about the fact that civil society will not be there because it was not convoked.

He reiterated, as we’ve heard many times, on the actual fact that NGOs, civil society and of course the private sectors are essential components; that their actions complement in many senses the action of the state and the international organisms, participating in the collective development of the countries, human rights, and so forth.
But he did not mention we will not be able to be present at the summit. However, the people here present will be observant, and awaiting every opportunity to make the voices of the South be heard.

What is said over and over again is that the UN has to undergo a reform. Like in the Hearings, this is a crucial issue. We need a dynamic civil society sector, and we need a revitalized, reformed UN, to meet these challenges. Egeland strongly affirmed: “We need an effective and accountable UN that can tackle the global challenges that affect every single one of us.  On behalf of our ideals as well as our self-interest, we need a UN that works. It’s that simple, and that essential.” The questions that came into my mind were: a Un that works for whom? Essential, according who?

Finally he expressed that “we need an upgrade of the global humanitarian system….Predictable funding is essential.  We need funds available for UN aid agencies to use in the very first days of an emergency, when most lives are at stake. With the proposed Central Emergency Response Fund, aid agencies can immediately jumpstart operations in major, breaking crises. They can also give more predictable support to the many forgotten emergencies, especially in Africa, that fall outside the media spotlight. As agencies and NGOs, we need the ability to respond  always and everywhere - with the tools, people and resources needed. Our response now is too uneven. We need to be predictable in providing aid, from improved water and sanitation to more effective assistance and protection of IDPs, and ensure there are no gaps in relief assistance. Finally, we need more predictable access to victims, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation. Humanitarians provide aid based on needs alone. We have a right - and an obligation - to help. And vulnerable people have a right to receive our assistance.
To provide that assistance, we need unrestricted access to all those in need.” 

But the best of the Opening Session was the presence of Wahu Kaara, Ecumenical Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals, All Africa Conference of Churches & Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

With the power and strength that characterize the women of her region, with deep eyes and loud and clear voice, she said: “I stand before you today as an African woman. Somebody who experiences on a daily basis the pain and indignity of hunger, disease and illiteracy. For one who works at the grassroots level, it is a rare honour for me to be even given such an opportunity and I thank the organizers and all of you for this.”

She quoted Gordon Brown, the British Finance Minister: “In 2005 we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver a modern Marshall Plan for the developing world.”

She raised her hand, showing the white band, and invited everyone to join the Call and pay attention to its political demands, as in the G8 meeting. She affirmed “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals, which virtually every African Government signed onto five years ago, has to be top priority. We will not tolerate corruption and inefficiency from our leaders anymore.”

Wahu, in a very intelligent way, took this opportunity to put on the table the issues of debt cancellation, the control of the financial markets, the possibility for poor countries to have policy autonomy in order to define their own development agenda. She spoke strongly about food sovereignty, distribution of trade, consumption, and the need for another type of global governance in order to plan, regulate and redistribute. She made a call for the Official Assistance to Development to be untied from any kind of conditionality and for the elimination of all agricultural subsidies, not only for the poorest countries, but for all poor countries. She denounced the fact that the current economic system has created poverty, and that is why, today, there is an obligation to generate wealth for all.

Finally, raising visibly her hand with her white band, she expressed: “ we shall no longer die, but live for Africa.”

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2.- GROUPS SAY BUSH ADMINSTRATION CONTINUES TO BLOCK PROGRESS AT UNITED NATIONS WORLD SUMMIT


CONTACT:  Riptide Communications, Inc. (212) 260-5000


New York, NY September 8, 2005 - Contrary to their assertions, the Bush Administration has not made significant concessions in the negotiations for the World Summit.  Rather, in the disingenuous style that has marked the Bolton approach to reaching global consensus, the US is now removing road blocks that it itself created. “The Bush Administration is wasting the time of governments and the UN itself by creating problems and then offering its own solutions to these same problems,” said Françoise Girard, of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and a spokeswoman for the Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit (GMG), an alliance of women’s organizations focused on ensuring that voices of women are heard in the forthcoming meeting of world leaders at the United Nations September 14-16.  Also working with the GMG is the United Methodist Church.

The Bush Administration’s so-called “concessions” include agreeing to references to the fact that other countries have signed on to the Kyoto Protocol (the environmental treaty) and the 0.7% of GNP target for official development assistance, and recognizing that the Millennium Development Goals constitute the development framework that is currently mobilizing governments and civil society worldwide. These “concessions” show the utter lack of seriousness of the Bush Administration’s own objections.

“We need to see a lot more than these ‘concessions’ from the US if they are serious about wanting to ensure the success of the Summit,” said Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and the Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit. “Contrary to their claims, they are not negotiating with urgency and in a spirit of compromise. Women’s organizations call on the US to stop wasting time of governments and the UN,” she added.

By tabling hundreds of amendments and asking for line-by-line negotiations on the entire document, the Bush Administration knowingly opened the door for a handful of “spoiler governments” to add and delete text at will, throwing the whole process in chaos and threatening a successful outcome for the Summit.

Below are specific examples of how the U.SUS. continues to undermine the summit process:

Environment:

Even in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the US still opposed references to the significance of the Kyoto Protocol, the environmental treaty.  Now Ambassador Bolton is willing to note that Kyoto is important for many other countries. Yet the US still won’t join the treaty. Why not?

Women’s organizations wonder what else needs to happen before the US gets serious about making a commitment to addressing global warming and protection of the environment. June Zeitlin of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit asked: “What other catastrophic events need to happen, how many more thousands of people must die before the US gets serious about showing political will to address the links between environment and poverty in the US and around the world?”

Financial Assistance to Poor Countries for Development:

The Bush Administration overtly states that “we have made clear that we do not accept the overseas development assistance target of 0.7% of donor gross national product.”  The Bush Administration will now agree to note that other countries do accept the target.  But why doesn’t the US commit to 0.7% of GNP? It can afford to.

This week-end, during negotiations at the UN, the US actually called developing countries “greedy” when they asked for more money for health and HIV. DAWN’s Girard wondered: “Is it “greedy” for less developed states to seek financial assistance from wealthier states so they can better provide health care to their citizens? Is it greedy for poor people displaced by a hurricane, some of whom lost everything but the shirts on their backs, to seek financial assistance for food and health care?”

Millennium Development Goals:

After objecting strenuously to any mention of the Millennium Development Goals, the US will now let other countries refer explicitly to the MDGs. Yet, the question remains: why is the US not embracing the MDGs and championing them, when the rest of the world, from Europe to Africa, has already done so?

Disarmament

Meanwhile, the US continues to block any progress in the negotiations on disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, by refusing to honor disarmament commitments of the last 30 years.

 

“If they do not reach a meaningful outcome at this Summit, governments will lose the best opportunity since the creation of the UN to move forward on combating poverty, promoting human rights of all people, and taking measures to promote peace and ensure security,”  said Zeitlin.   Added Bunch: “This is an extremely important time for the UN – yet the US and a handful of spoilers are playing a “smoke and mirrors” game by putting forward false concessions and blocking progress. In doing so, they show how little they care about the world’s worst problems.”

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The Gender Monitoring Group of the World Summit is the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO); GMG is working with the United Methodist Office of the UN.  www.beijingandbeyond.org

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3.- 60 YEARS OF EDUCATION

UNESCO will celebrate its 60th anniversary during 60 weeks, from 5 September 2005 - 4 November 2006. Each week is devoted to a theme. Among the 60 themes identified, 16 are dedicated to education.


http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41781&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

EDUCATION FOR ALL (5-9 SEPTEMBER 2005)

Since its creation in 1945, UNESCO has worked to improve education worldwide. The first week of the 60th anniversary is dedicated to an overriding priority in education, the 6 goals of Education for All


Ten things you need to know about Education for All - EFA

1.                  EFA is a right. Back in 1945 – 60 years ago! – the countries that founded UNESCO signed up to a constitution expressing a belief “in full and equal opportunities for education for all.” Since that time it has been part of UNESCO’s mandate to work hard to make those opportunities a reality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also states that “everyone has the right to education” (Article 26). All those years ago the aim was the same as it is now: to give everyone the chance to learn and profit from basic education – not as an accident of circumstance, nor as a privilege, but as a RIGHT.

2. EFA is a means to an end. Getting an education must lead to wider options for individuals and communities. As a UNESCO report put it in 1996, education enables us to know, to do, to live together, and to be, in other words to reach our full potential as human beings. This includes learning to live in society and work together towards sustainable human development, respecting the diversity of human experience and circumstance, as well as the stake that future generations have in our planet. A world of peace, dignity, justice and equality depends on many factors – education is central among them.

3. EFA is everyone’s concern. Under the leadership of UNESCO and four other UN agencies, the world came together in 1990 in Jomtien in Thailand to adopt a new vision of basic education. They did so again in 2000, this time in Dakar in Senegal, and adopted six goals, three of which had timed targets attached: to see every child completing a quality education, to increase literacy levels by fifty percent, and to get equal numbers of girls and boys into school – all by 2015. This meant that governments, aid agencies, civil society and non-governmental organisations, communities, teachers and parents needed to work harder and better and make education a priority. Basic education is an indispensable condition for meeting other development targets, such as the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.

4. EFA really is FOR ALL. Girls and women have not had equal opportunities to receive basic education. Today over 60% of children out of school are girls, and fully two-thirds of adults without access to literacy are women. Special efforts – from recruiting female teachers to supporting poor families to making schools more girl-friendly – are needed to redress the balance. Other groups have also been neglected: indigenous populations and remote rural groups, street children, migrants and nomads, the disabled, linguistic and cultural minorities – to name but a few. New approaches must be tailor-made for such groups – we cannot expect to reach them just by increasing opportunities for standard schooling.

5. EFA is for all ages

. The six EFA goals lay special stress on enabling everyone to benefit from basic education – from young children at home and in pre-school programmes, through primary education, to adolescents, young people and adults. No- one is too young to start learning and no-one is too old to acquire basic skills, for instance of literacy and numeracy. In fact, basic education for all ages strengthens what families and communities can undertake and prepares the way for greater options in the next generation.

6. EFA means quality learning. Motivation to learn, and to send your child to school, only comes when education is seen to be worthwhile – and this depends on its quality. Going to school or attending a non-formal adult learning course should result in knowledge, skills and values that the learner can put to good use, with a sense of being able to achieve goals that were unattainable before. A quality education depends, crucially, on the teaching/learning process, as well as on the relevance of the curriculum, the availability of materials and the conditions of the learning environment.

7. EFA is making progress. Over 60 years there has been huge progress in enabling children and adults to benefit from basic education. Even in the last 15 years, and with rising population levels, the gross enrolment in primary education in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 77.5% to 84.9% - almost 10 million more children in school. Adult literacy rates rose from 49.2% in 1990 in sub-Saharan Africa to 62% in 2001, while they rose from 47.5% to 58.3% in South and West Asia in the same period. There has also been steady progress in gender parity. Other goals are harder to measure, but it is clear that efforts are bearing fruit.

8. EFA is far from finished. Progress towards the EFA goals is not currently fast enough to meet them. There are still an estimated 100 million children not enrolled in school and almost 800 million adults who have not yet had the opportunity to learn to read and write. In 2002 it was estimated that 26 countries were at risk of not achieving the primary education goal, and 79 countries at risk of not achieving the adult literacy goal. Opportunities for adolescents and out-of-school youth remain low in many developing countries. Increasing the number and quality of teachers, improving school and education system management, reaching disadvantaged and marginalised groups, tackling the impact of HIV and AIDS – all this will require more intensive, more innovative ways of delivering learning opportunities.

9. EFA needs support from everyone. Meeting the EFA goals requires money, people, technical know-how, functioning institutions and, above all, political will. UNESCO works to sustain international momentum through an EFA Working Group and a High-Level Group and coordinates international efforts. Aid agencies and the development banks, such as the World Bank, are now putting increasing resources into education, although there is still a long way to go to meet the estimated need for achieving the primary education goal – US$5.6 billion per year in external aid – let alone for reaching the other five goals. Civil society is a key partner, both in lobbying for increased funding and in offering alternative learning opportunities for neglected populations. Cooperation and coordination must increase so that joint efforts are effective and resources are used as efficiently as possible.

10. EFA is worthwhile. In the end the success of EFA is seen in the lives of individuals and communities as they become more effective in initiating, managing and sustaining positive change in their lives.

Two adolescent girls in rural Mongolia had dropped out of school owing to poverty and family difficulties; a non-formal education facilitator encouraged them to get back into learning through a distance education programme sponsored by UNESCO. When they succeeded in this, they were able to re-enter the formal school system at an appropriate level – life suddenly seemed to offer possibilities again!


With UNESCO support, a number of NGOs in Bangladesh have set up non-formal learning centres for girls who dropped out of school or who never went to school. Based around literacy, lifeskills and practical competencies, this alternative education not only prepares the girls for productive livelihoods, but also raises their confidence to be full participants in the life of their communities. As they enter adulthood, they will no longer be content to play second fiddle to men or to accept second-rate treatment. Education is changing society!

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4.- INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS ON ADULT LITERACY

The Global Campaign for Education and ActionAid were commissioned by Unesco / EFA Global Monitoring Report to undertake a consultative process to establish international benchmarks on adult literacy. In November 2004 about 100 key informants from government, donors, NGOs and academia identified good quality adult literacy programmes around the world. These named programmes were then asked to complete a detailed survey to give us insight into the approaches they used and the challenges they faced. We received responses from 67 adult literacy programmes across 35 countries, between them reaching over 4 million learners. A group of 10 experts then analysed the outcomes and drew up a list of proposed benchmarks. These benchmarks were then circulated to all respondents for verification and comment. Final revisions were then made to the benchmarks based on the feedback from 142 respondents in 47 countries. The result of this extensive process are the twelve benchmarks outlined below. The full report on this process has been submitted to Unesco / EFA GMR but it is important to emphasise that the benchmarks do not have any formal status at this stage and the benchmarks have not been endorsed by Unesco / EFA GMR. We share these now to encourage continuing discussion and reflection. A full final report on this work will be published by the Global Campaign for Education later this year.

These benchmarks are designed to help governments and other organisations who are committed to developing adult literacy programmes. They do not themselves aim to convert or convince sceptics.  Rather, they aim to provide a framework for policy debate. They touch concisely on critical issues and might serve as a checklist against which a government or donor might ask questions about an existing or new programme. We do not expect these benchmarks to be used as a set of conditions to be imposed on programmes. They should not be used to constrain or limit programmes. There may be many contextual factors that justify deviation from these benchmarks.

 The BENCHMARKS

  1. Literacy is about the acquisition and use of reading, writing and numeracy skills, and thereby the development of active citizenship, improved health and livelihoods, and gender equality. The goals of literacy programmes should reflect this understanding.
  2.  Literacy should be seen as a continuous process that requires sustained learning and application. There are no magic lines to cross from illiteracy into literacy. All policies and programmes should be defined to encourage sustained participation and celebrate progressive achievement rather than focusing on one-off provision with a single end point.
  3. Governments have the lead responsibility in meeting the right to adult literacy and in providing leadership, policy frameworks, an enabling environment and resources. They should:

-         ensure cooperation across all relevant ministries and linkages to all relevant development programmes,
-         work in systematic collaboration with experienced civil society organisations,
-         ensure linkages between all these agencies, especially at the local level, and
-         ensure relevance to the issues in learners lives by promoting the decentralisation of budgets and of decision-making over curriculum, methods and materials.
1. It is important to invest in ongoing feedback and evaluation mechanisms, data systematization and strategic research. The focus of evaluations should be on the practical application of what has been learnt and the impact on active citizenship, improved health and livelihoods, and gender equality.

  1. To retain facilitators it is important that they should be paid at least the equivalent of the minimum wage of a primary school teacher for all hours worked (including time for training, preparation and follow-up).
  2. Facilitators should be local people who receive substantial initial training and regular refresher training, as well as having ongoing opportunities for exchanges with other facilitators. Governments should put in place a framework for the professional development of the adult literacy sector, including for trainers / supervisors - with full opportunities for facilitators across the country to access this (eg through distance education).
  3. There should be a ratio of at least one facilitator to 30 learners and at least one trainer/ supervisor to 15 learner groups (1 to 10 in remote areas), ensuring a minimum of one support visit per month. Programmes should have timetables that flexibly respond to the daily lives of learners but which provide for regular and sustained contact (eg twice a week for at least two years).
  4. In multi-lingual contexts it is important at all stages that learners should be given an active choice about the language in which they learn. Active efforts should be made to encourage and sustain bilingual learning.
  5. A wide range of participatory methods should be used in the learning process to ensure active engagement of learners and relevance to their lives. These same participatory methods and processes should be used at all levels of training of trainers and facilitators.
  6. Governments should take responsibility to stimulate the market for production and distribution of a wide variety of materials suitable for new readers, for example working with publishers / newspaper producers. They should balance this with funding for local production of materials, especially by learners, facilitators and trainers.
  7. A good quality literacy programme that respects all these benchmarks is likely to cost between US$50 and US$100 per learner per year for at least three years (two years initial learning + ensuring further learning opportunities are available for all)
  8. Governments should dedicate at least 3% of their national education sector budgets to adult literacy programmes as conceived in these benchmarks. Where governments deliver on this international donors should fill any remaining resource gaps (e.g. through including adult literacy in the Fast Track Initiative)

 Please send comments / reflections on these benchmarks to: david.archer@actionaid.org


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5.- 3RD WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONGRESS


The program of the 3rd World Environmental Education Congress has been defined


Press - 3WEEC
press@3weec.org
 

There are even 12 parallel thematic sessions in which the works of the 3rd World Environmental Education Congress "Educational Paths towards Sustainability" will be divided into. The Congress will take place in Torino (Italy) from the 2nd to the 6th October 2005.

The thematic sessions are scheduled on the 4th and the 5th of October.

The big numbers of people attending the Congress from small and big Countries all over the world and the hundreds of papers submitted have compelled the organizers to occupy more conference rooms than it was expected inside the famous Lingotto Congress Centre.

Among the adhesions and the participants, we find many United Nations Agencies, Universities, public administrations, international organisations, NGO, schools, parks, environmental education centres, mass media, enterprises and trade unions.
 
Among the connected events we remember the international workshop on TV and environment, promoted by the Italian Non Profit Forum (Third Sector Permanent Forum) with the Social Secretariat of the RAI, the Italian television of public service.

The Congress program is available on the web site www.3weec.org