Education & Development

The roots of social and economic development lie within the fertile soils of education. World leaders have said they are committed to the goal of providing universal primary education to all children globally by 2015, affirming all children with the right to a quality education service.

Investing in education

Such ambitious goals require pursuing a number of solutions, proven to be effective at boosting educational enrolment. These include the elimination of school and uniform fees, the creation of improved food/health programs and increasing the role of advocacy groups and non-government organisations in system debates.

The above form part of the objectives of the United Nations Millenium Project Task Force on Education & Gender Equality, which has invested considerable time and effort analysing education initiatives around the world, with the understanding that better education is fundamental to improving economic and social conditions in poor countries.

Current donor support, which looks to ensure that every child is enrolled in a quality primary school, has been estimated at $1.2 billion annually, significantly less than the projected cost of $7-17 billion per year from 2005-2015.

Recommendations

A series of recommendations have been made to aid education within developing countries:

• Educating women: specific literacy programs targeted at improving standards among young females
• Getting hard-to-reach children into school: calls for greater intervention, removing fees, instigating feeding programs and improving security for girls
• Post-primary education: devising and implementing strategies to improve access and gain greater equality among students
• Greater accountability: implementing mechanisms for local control, enabling parents and citizens to hold schools and teachers to account on standards
• Increased transparency: making more information available, with data and program evaluation held at the national level
• Adopting international standards: these should be used to test where children are deficient
• Civil society organisations: creating an environment where societies are able to partake in educational debate

The role of donors

In order to aid the improvement of education across the developing world, the following objectives have been identified for improving the role of international donors:

• A strong financial commitment from all donors
• Allocating global funds in a new committed way
• Greater transparency in recording commitments from donors, holding them to accounts on both plans and achievements
• The evaluation and assessment of intervention projects

The role of the HDP

The Humanitarian Development Program will also focus on the commercial and technological education required to aid equitable development. This includes the need for greater technology transfer from the international community.

The HDP has secured the involvement of the leading international foundations, all of which are keen to support the improvement of access to primary school literacy skills as well as reducing barriers to females in education.

The summit host the biggest global technology companies, all of whom will look to contribute to education in the developing world, offering the know-how and access to technology needed to allow local communities to develop their own sustainable strategies.