Workshop for the promotion and advocacy of girls’ education among local elected officialsYour Excellency, Minister of Education, It is always a pleasure for UNICEF to work side by side with the Ministry of Education in implementing actions which promote respect of the rights of the child to basic, quality education. I wish to welcome you on behalf of the United Nations System Agencies who support the national effort to promote and enforce the right of all children to basic, quality education in Côte d’Ivoire. The issue of primary education for all is a challenge the international community has committed itself to answer. This is why it is inscribed as one of the main Millennium Development Goals (MDG2). Your Excellency, Mr. Minister, Yesterday, we met with the Mayors. Today, we are meeting the General Councilors, and I should again like to take the occasion to applaud your engagement to pursue the efforts undertaken to ensure that all children, boys and girls living in Côte d’Ivoire, have access to quality education, the current context, with which we are all familiar, not withstanding. We must therefore have the courage to acknowledge that due to the perverse effects of this crisis, Côte d’Ivoire has continued to lose ground on its way to achieving the global objective of education for all (MDG2). The results of the 2006 multiple indicator survey (MICS) show that 45% of the country’s children do not have access to education and that girls represent more than half of the children deprived of their right to an education. Girls are more than 10 points behind boys in school enrolment. Recent studies show that at primary school age only 24% of girls are enrolled and that only 15% of 11-year-old girls complete the primary education cycle. This recurring picture seen around the world and particularly in developing countries has captured the attention of the international community and has made gender equality and self-reliance of women the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG3). For this is indeed a development issue. In view of these facts, in April 2000 the Secretary General of the United Nations appealed to the World Forum on Education in Dakar to support the Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and to adopt an action plan to achieve equality of access and participation in the educational process by the Horizon of 2015. The Côte d’Ivoire action plan, developed in line with this initiative in 2006, gives precedence to an operational partnership around the issue of girls’ education. The National Network for Girls’ Education in Côte d’Ivoire, which is the driving force behind this workshop, was created in September 2006. At this point, allow me to express my thanks to all of you, regardless of whether you work for government agencies, NGOs or local organizations, who have fought for the creation of this Network and have assisted in developing the 2007–2011 strategic plan with the goal of meeting the challenge of girls’ education. A results analysis of the implementation of this action plan raises many questions for all of us, but in particular for you the elected local officials, representatives of the local communities, you who work together with the population on a daily basis, who are at once the communities’ ears and voice, you whose participation in the network is essential in reaching our goals. Your Excellency, Mr. Minister, No one can state this better than you: the General Councilors, who relay your action towards the beneficiaries, are an essential link in any out-reach communication strategy for behavior change among the population they work hand in hand with. This is why today’s meeting has the ultimate goal of fully integrating the General Councilors in the network. Your commitment is essential if we are to achieve results. To meet the challenge of girls’ education, we need everyone to contribute, without any exceptions. While we certainly welcome the government’s actions at the institutional level to provide the country with the necessary pilot tools, we are equally sure that the implementation of the action plan for girls’ education cannot be fully realized without the commitment and even more the engagement of responsibility on the part of decentralized institutions, namely the General Councils. Dear partners in multi- and bilateral cooperation, in the private and para-public sectors, dear colleagues from the United Nations System Agencies, the extent and quality of your presence here once more confirms the seriousness of the attention this country’s society pays to the issue of girls’ education. Your commitment is required, indeed it is essential for the respect of all children’s right to education and in particular of girls’ rights, which must become a priority of national development. Your Excellency, Mr. Minister, Before closing, I must once more congratulate you for your Ministry’s excellent initiative of equipping Côte d’Ivoire with a National Action Plan for Girls’ Education. You have engaged in a sustainable human development project. I can assure you that the United Nations System will spare no effort in supporting this initiative through an operational partnership focused on the rights and interests of children, and namely of young girls. I should like to close by inviting all of you to reflect on this statement we owe to a young Nigerian girl, which translates roughly as: “The future of every country lies with its youth and the future of this youth depends on how decision-makers manage its education.” Thank you for your attention.
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