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Donor countries' absence at WEF forum triggers concerns
The absence of donor countriesâ education ministers at the World Education Forum (WEF) in Incheon, Korea, last week has drawn sharp criticisms, and triggered fears of a decline in a commitment to financially backing the global education agenda
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he absence of donor countries' education ministers at the World Education Forum (WEF) in Incheon, Korea, last week has drawn sharp criticisms, and triggered fears of a decline in a commitment to financially backing the global education agenda.
Global Campaign for Education (GCE) board member Helle Gudmandsen said the declaration and framework for action achieved in the forum was crucial for the future of global education.
'[...] the absence of ministers from donor countries could be seen as their commitment to resourcing the education agenda declining. This will have long-term negative consequences both in the developing as well as in the developed world,' she said in a statement over the weekend.
The World Education Forum is a follow-up to the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000. In Dakar, six education goals aimed at achieving'Education for All' were endorsed.
In Incheon, governments agreed to a 15-year education agenda meant to be compatible with the proposed Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on education signed in New York in September at UN headquarters.
'While education ministers from southern countries demonstrated their own commitment to doing everything in their power to meet these goals, rich countries showed their ambivalence about global education by failing to send their ministers,' Oxfam's essential services spokesperson, Deepak Xavier, said.
Burkina Faso Education Minister Samadou Coulibaly, who participated in the forum, said donors' commitment to initiatives like the Global Partnership for Education had been on the wane.
'I fear their absence maybe a signal that there will be lesser resources dedicated to addressing education inequality in the developing world,' Coulibaly said.
'Our region is witnessing a rise in religious fundamentalism. If this region doesn't get a sound support for education the entire African continent is going to suffer.' (ebf)
