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This page is background
information, last updated in May 2002 and still
available for reference. For the latest on the Special Session
on Children, please go to the Special
Session index.

ACHIEVING GENDER PARITY

With a view to promoting awareness on the importance of
working towards the MDG and EFA 2005 gender parity goals, this
supporting event brought together over 300 delegates,
including children and young people, and representatives of
civil society, to discuss effective strategies to close the
gender gap in education.

Wednesday 8 May, 11.30am- 1.00pm in Conference Room 4.

Event Organizers: UNESCO and UNICEF
Moderator: John
Daniel, (Assistant Director General, UNESCO)
Opening
Remarks: Nane Annan
Speakers: Suzanne Mubarak (First Lady
of Egypt)
Murli Manohar Joshi (Minister of Human Resource
Development, India)
André Roberfroid (Deputy Executive
Director, UNICEF)

Panelists: George McGovern (WFP Global Ambassador on
Hunger)
Eveline Herfkens (Minister for International
Development Cooperation, Netherlands)
Mamphela Ramphele
(Managing Director, The World Bank)

Over 300 participants gathered to discuss the urgency
of eliminating gender inequality in education. Mrs Nane Annan
spoke of the importance of girls' education from a personal
perspective, and stressed partnership and the UN Girls'
Education Initiative as a force for change. "Without gender
equality, education for all will remain an unfulfilled
promise. And without education for all, global poverty and
conflict will continue to ravage our world. We know what is
needed and why. We know what to do - it remains for us all to
go out and get on with it!", she said.

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt and Head of the
Egyptian Delegation, said: "The right to education is the
right to choose, and in a globalizing world choice is a
reality in everything we do. The commitment that we are
expressing to girls' education stems from an overall
commitment to human development, and a conviction that
investments made to this purpose are highly rewarding"

She and Minister Murli Manohar Joshi (India) gave accounts
of inspiring initiatives to close the gender gap in their
countries. André Roberfroid of UNICEF spoke of four lessons
learned in previous years: 1) that targeted actions for girls
are necessary to eliminate gender disparities; 2) that girls'
education is also good for boys; 3) that all education must be
quality education, otherwise gains will never be sustained;
and 4) that success will be elusive without expanded
partnerships from the school to the global levels.

"Girls' education is also good for boys," he said. "The
reverse is not necessarily true."

Speakers, panelists and child delegates challenged
governments and the international community to: abolish school
fees; meet recurring education costs; show how much countries
are losing financially by not having gender equality in
education; strengthen partnerships under the UN Girls'
Education Initiative; introduce specific actions to benefit
girls; never think in terms of access alone - always work for
quality education; work to overcome cultural obstacles to
girls' education; find a way to make sure that children
themselves are reached in the global dialogue on education;
and make sure that every child receives a nutritious school
meal on a daily basis.

It was argued that the world has given itself too long to
live up to the promises made and remade over time. As one
pupil in the Netherlands was reported to have asked, "Why wait
for 2015 to have Education for All? Why not now?"

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