Promotion and advocacy in favour of girls’ education in Côte d’IvoireStatement by Mr. Youssouf Oomar, Resident Representative Abidjan, 05 July 2007 • Honourable Minister of Education, I am particularly happy to salute you on behalf of the Agencies of the United Nations System, which are accompanying the national effort to ensure the respect of the right of all children to quality basic education in Côte d’Ivoire. The issue of education for all is a challenge that the international community is committed to take up. That is why it is considered as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2). However, the achievement of this objective will not alone make it possible to attain the poverty reduction objective in 2015. Special efforts should therefore be deployed to ensure that girls who constitute one of the most vulnerable groups, have access to education and take their rightful place in society (MDG3). At this juncture, Honourable Minister, I wish to salute your commitment to pursue the efforts initiated to ensure that all children, girls and boys, living in Côte d’Ivoire have access to quality education. Permit me to recall, in this regard, that the results of the 2006 Multiple Indicators Survey (MICS) show that, although some efforts have been made, a lot remains to be done. Indeed, 45% of children in this country have no access to education and girls represent more than half of these children deprived of their right to education. As in many other countries, the disparity between girls and boys in Côte d’Ivoire challenges all actors in the educational sector: political and administrative authorities, communities, international and bilateral partners, and the private sector. Indeed, the participation of girls is traditionally below that of boys by 10 points. According to recent studies, only 24% of girls of primary school age are enrolled in schools. The analysis of the results and lessons learnt in Côte d’Ivoire, and within and/or outside the region points to the need to develop a strong partnership as wide as possible, in order to create a major alliance around the thematic of girls’ education. That is why I am particularly happy to observe that such an assembly takes time today to stop for a while and show interest in girls’ education in Côte d’Ivoire. I am, therefore, inviting each partner present here, who is still hesitating to ensure that each one, according to his area of intervention, his competence and capacities, invests and strives to ensure that no child in Côte d’Ivoire is ever refused access to education because he is of a specific sex. It is in view of this reality that the former UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, rightly launched a global forum on education, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) held in Dakar in April 2000. This initiative, widely adopted by the States, mainly aims at ensuring that girls and boys have equal access to education by 2015. I am pleased that, despite its crisis situation, Côte d’Ivoire has embarked on this path and that the National Network for Girls’ Education in Côte d’Ivoire has brought us together today to invite us to intensify this partnership. Today’s meeting aims at: - Presenting the tools developed to facilitate ownership by all partners; For, meeting the challenge of girls’ education requires the contribution of all, without exception. Much as, at the institutional level, we salute the Government’s action to provide our country with the necessary piloting tools, we should also be persuaded that the plan of action for girls’ education cannot be fully implemented without the involvement, and even making the private sector aware of its responsibilities, in its different components. This is the occasion to acknowledge the action of several of you, who are already involved in the fight. Allow me to salute the action of the European Union, the United States of America, Japan, Canada, Norway and actors of the private sector: the OCIT Foundation, Librairie de France and many others, who I know are joining us. Without your constant action, your encouragements, your advocacy, it would have been difficult for us to support the Government in its efforts to help children to continue going to school during the difficult times Côte d’Ivoire has just experienced. Dear partners of multi and bilateral cooperation, the private and semi-public sector, dear colleagues of the United Nations System, our presence here in number and quality no doubt testifies to the sustained attention the national society accords to the issue of girls’ education. Your commitment is necessary, and even indispensable, so that the respect of the right of all children to education, and particularly that of girls could be included in national development priorities. Honourable Minister, I cannot conclude my statement without saluting once again the good initiative your department took in providing Côte d’Ivoire with a National Girls’ Education Plan. Thank you.
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