Education for All|United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (EFA - UNESCO)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation programme 'Education for All' is a global campaign, born in 1990 at the World Conference on Education for all in Jomtien in Thailand. It has six goals, three of which are based around inclusive basic and primary education. These are (i) improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children (ii) ensuring all children have access to quality primary education by 2015, including girls and ethnic minorities, (iii) eliminating gender disparities in primary education by 2015. An evaluation undertaken in 1998 showed that these goals were only partially being met, with the worst performers in the South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa regions. A new conference took place in Dakar, Senegal to reinvigorate committment to the Education For All programme. In the 1990s education was recognised as a right, and the important role it plays in social and economic development gave new momentum to NGOs and and civil society working in this area. Against this background, there is renewed optimism in achieving the aims of this campaign