A Global Partnership to promote equity and accelerate progress towards MDGs

1. Education for Rural People(ERP) A Global Partnership to promote equity and accelerate progress towards MDGs Lavinia Gasperini Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO ) David Acker – IOWA State University March 2009 - BONN

2. A message to the Oslo EFA High Level Meeting Fight today’s main global inequity, address the Rural- Urban gap, and invest in Education for Rural People

3. What is EFA main challenge ? • EFA to reach the un reached • Reach the un rich • Reach the poor • Reach the rural ….promote an urgent “innovation“

4. What is EFA main challenge ? • EFA to promote an urgent “innovation“ to stop reproducing inequity: prioritize investments in education for developing the capacities of rural: • Children (4 out of 5 of out of school children are rural) • ->Youth and Adults (4 out of 5 of out of illiterates are rural)

5. ERP Objectives • Promoting equity, sustainable development and democracy. • Increasing investments to promote access to quality basic education for rural people • Enhancing governance and national capacity to plan and implement education programs to address learning needs of rural people

6. History • The majority of the poor, food insecure, illiterate adults, out of school children, refugees, displaced, nomads, people in remote settings and affected by HIV/AIDS live in rural areas. • Addressing the educational needs of this "neglected majority" is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development • A strategic partnership to promote ESD (Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO)

7. ERP Inter sectoral History • 2002: ERP launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development, Johannesburg • 2000 World Education Forum, Dakar, (Senegal) & 1990 World Summit on Education for All Jomtien (Thailand) • 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights

8. Key ERP policy achievements EFA HLM Beijing 2005: ERP key policy priority Senior government representatives from MOE and MAG of 11 African countries reiterated the need to address the gross inequalities that marginalize rural people (Addis Ababa 2005; Rome 2007)

9. ERP and the food crisis World Food Summit (WFS) 1996 = 800 billion undernourished . Target: Reduce hunger by 50% by 2015 (->Year 2000 MDG 1 ) WFS Plan of Action, Commitment 2 " promoting access for all, especially the poor and members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups to basic education" …"strengthen their capacity for self-reliance"..."promote access and support for complete primary education" of "children in rural areas and to girls".

10. ERP and the food crisis Millennium Development Goals 1 : eradicate extreme poverty and reduce hunger by 50% by 2015 High-Level Conference on Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy 3-5 June 2008 : world food production must rise 50 % by 2030. This will require investments exceeding $ 15 billion to $ 20 billion a year in the farm economies of poor countries , including research into robust, high-yielding crops suited to poor regions like sub-Saharan Africa”… -> develop rural people capacity to utilize such investments and increase food production

11. History • Famine does not happen in democracies because educated people have the resilience to cope and adapt to changes, crises and shocks and in doing so they feed themselves, produce food for the market and income for themselves. • Investments in ERP and food security have a direct relation

12. ERP Contributes to MDGs: • ERP plays an important supporting role in the achievement of all MDGs • ERP is critical to the achievement of: • MDG 1: Eradicating extreme poverty & hunger • MDG 2: Achieving universal primary education • MDG 3: Promoting gender equity, empowering women • MDG 7: Ensuring environmental sustainability

13. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO

14. UNESCO Ministries of Education Ministries of Agriculture FAO

15. UNESCO Ministries of Education Ministries of Agriculture FAO Donors, ADEA and other I.O. Civil Society NGOs

16. 8 Challenges Presentation

17. 8 Challenges 8 Lessons Presentation

18. 8 Challenges 8 Lessons Presentation 8 Examples

19. Access to Education Challenge # 1 • Fees and other costs • Distance to schools and lack of boarding schools • Availability of adult education and skills training

20. Access to Education Lesson # 1 • School attendance in rural areas has improved primarily due to: • Removal or reduction of school fees • Free access to learning materials • School construction • But the percentage of rural people in secondary and higher education and skills training is still irrelevant.

21. Example # 1 Access to Education • Colombia Rural Education Programme, Adressing holistically all levels of the Education system, including teacher training

22. Quality depends on positive discrimination and extra investments for rural people Infrastructures and facilities teaching materials teachers training evaluation curriculum relevance links to community Quality of Education Challenge # 2

23. Quality and relevance are vital to increase the access, retention and effectiveness of education for rural people. Contextualized learning allows learners to study and solve real-life problems and to acquire life skills Quality of Education Lesson # 2

24. Example # 2 Quality of Education • School gardening programs contribute to relevance and quality and to school feeding programs • Community participation in determining combination of national and local curricular has proven successful

25. Accommodations must be made to attract and retain school-aged girls and adult women Gender Responsive Environments Challenge # 3

26. Gender Responsive Environments Lesson # 3 • Flexible timetables to accommodate peak labor demand for girls and adult women • Well-supervised boarding facilities to safeguard girls • Take-home rations for girls to compensate for labor lost when they attend school

27. Gender Responsive Environments Example # 3 • Half-day long farmer training short courses geared toward women that have responsibilities at home Photo: Wikipedia

28. Governance Efficiency Challenge # 4 • No single institution can provide all educational services for rural people

29. Governance Efficiency Example # 4 • Rural-based extension officers are a valuable resource : • presentations of their subject at schools • conducting adult education and skills training • organizing farmer field schools

30. Skills Training for Rural People Lesson # 6 • Skills for a more secure livelihood and greater resiliency during times of stress • Life skills • Food production skills • Self-employment skills FAO/UNESCO/IIEP, 2006

31. Redefining Agricultural Education Lesson # 7 • Agricultural education must reflect changes taking place in rural areas: • technology changes • global supply chains • natural resource challenges • on- and off-farm employment • global environmental changes • entrepreneurship and small enterprise development Crowder, Lindley, Bruening and Doron (1999)

32. Effective Pro-rural Policies Lesson # 8 National policies and financing strategies that effectively address ERP: • recognize the diversity of needs of rural people • ecological and geographic differences • socio-economic and cultural differences FAO/UNESCO/IIEP, 2006 • Produce data and disaggregate EMIS to enable governments and the International community to monitor ERP progress

33. What Will Success Look Like? • Increased proportion of central budget devoted to ERP • Expanded access and improved quality for all rural people • Rural people: • engaged in knowledge-based economies • prepared to learn to adapt and cope with globalization and market forces, climate change, food crises and other shocks

34. Strategies are in place that are: people-centered , rights-based , justice-oriented, sustainable, diversified according agro ecological, socio economic and cultural needs ERP baseline and benchmarks are established ERP complements programs in food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resources management ERP Action at the National Level

35. Action at the International Level ERP, a commitment of all: One UN, PRSPs, SWAPS, EFA, bilateral donors, NGOs, private sector and others

36. Action: Role of Donors • Support from regional and international granting and lending organizations for those countries committed to elevating the education of their rural citizens • UNESCO and the Fast Track Initiative providing technical assistance to ensure ERP becomes an integral part of EFA(ERP Ministerial Meeting Recommendations 2005-7)

37. ERP: Visit A Rich Resource Collection 33 books and conference proceedings 57 virtual publications 7 published articles 8 newsletters 3 theses 93 featured activities ERP Toolkits www.fao.org/sd/erp/