Brussels, 02/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - There is still some way to go to achieve the Millennium Goal of access to primary education for all the children of the world by 2015, since, today, 77 million children still do not attend school. The Commission, EU member states, the World Bank, the other donors, governments of developing countries, civil society and all those who took part in the high level international meeting on education in Brussels on 2 May are fully aware of this fact. Convened by Commissioner Louis Michel, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, to accelerate progress towards the education Millennium Goal (EMG), the conference brought further promises of funding.
The European Commission undertook to provide €1.7 billion from the 10th European Development Fund (over the period 2007-2010) and the Community budget (as part of the thematic programme “Investing in Human Resources”, in addition to the €22 million committed through the “Fast Track” initiative. The United Kingdom, which, in 2006, promised to spend €11.2 billion (US $15 billion) announced that €740 million would go to two new recipient countries - Ethiopia and Tanzania - to support their education programmes over ten years. The World Bank announced that, in 2008, it would invest €1.12 billion (US $1.5 billion), the same amount as in 2007, for the world's 68 poorest countries, a 50% increase in the annual level of aid allocated over the last five years. Germany announced an additional €8 million as part of the “Fast track” initiative, most of the resources of which come from EU member states, and Japan €1.8.
“Education is not charity. It is a fundamental right,” said a representative of Global Campaign for Education, accompanied by four children from Africa (from Ghana, Kenya and Uganda) and Colombia, who were taken out of work to go to school, thanks to the help of donor countries (Germany, Japan, Italy). The funding map for the EMG, published by the above mentioned NGO, reveals that Austria, Greece and the United States are the countries which contribute least, in terms of the quality and size of their contribution, with the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark being the “champions”. Speaking on behalf of the Commission, Mr Michel called on donors to move. “The EU is determined to provide not only more, but more effective, aid,” he said, confirming that direct budgetary aid, that is more predictable, results-based and guaranteeing a minimum level of aid for education every year, would be put in place. Mr Wolfowitz spoke of the will of participants “to keep their promises and make progress in education”. “The World bank fully supports the aim of delivering more, better, faster, longer term, and therefore more predictable, aid for education,” he said. Responding to a journalist who had asked him if he was the right person for this role, Mr Wolfowitz kicked the ball into touch. It was a “collective effort,” he said, refusing to comment refusing to comment on the event surrounding him within his organisation. (an)