This page is background information, last updated in May 2002 and still available for reference. For the latest on the Special Session on Children, please go to the Special Session index.

ACHIEVING GENDER PARITY

With a view to promoting awareness on the importance of working towards the MDG and EFA 2005 gender parity goals, this supporting event brought together over 300 delegates, including children and young people, and representatives of civil society, to discuss effective strategies to close the gender gap in education.

Wednesday 8 May, 11.30am- 1.00pm in Conference Room 4.

Event Organizers: UNESCO and UNICEF
Moderator: John Daniel, (Assistant Director General, UNESCO)
Opening Remarks: Nane Annan
Speakers: Suzanne Mubarak (First Lady of Egypt)
Murli Manohar Joshi (Minister of Human Resource Development, India)
André Roberfroid (Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF)

Panelists: George McGovern (WFP Global Ambassador on Hunger)
Eveline Herfkens (Minister for International Development Cooperation, Netherlands)
Mamphela Ramphele (Managing Director, The World Bank)

Over 300 participants gathered to discuss the urgency of eliminating gender inequality in education. Mrs Nane Annan spoke of the importance of girls' education from a personal perspective, and stressed partnership and the UN Girls' Education Initiative as a force for change. "Without gender equality, education for all will remain an unfulfilled promise. And without education for all, global poverty and conflict will continue to ravage our world. We know what is needed and why. We know what to do - it remains for us all to go out and get on with it!", she said.

Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt and Head of the Egyptian Delegation, said: "The right to education is the right to choose, and in a globalizing world choice is a reality in everything we do. The commitment that we are expressing to girls' education stems from an overall commitment to human development, and a conviction that investments made to this purpose are highly rewarding"

She and Minister Murli Manohar Joshi (India) gave accounts of inspiring initiatives to close the gender gap in their countries. André Roberfroid of UNICEF spoke of four lessons learned in previous years: 1) that targeted actions for girls are necessary to eliminate gender disparities; 2) that girls' education is also good for boys; 3) that all education must be quality education, otherwise gains will never be sustained; and 4) that success will be elusive without expanded partnerships from the school to the global levels.

"Girls' education is also good for boys," he said. "The reverse is not necessarily true."

Speakers, panelists and child delegates challenged governments and the international community to: abolish school fees; meet recurring education costs; show how much countries are losing financially by not having gender equality in education; strengthen partnerships under the UN Girls' Education Initiative; introduce specific actions to benefit girls; never think in terms of access alone - always work for quality education; work to overcome cultural obstacles to girls' education; find a way to make sure that children themselves are reached in the global dialogue on education; and make sure that every child receives a nutritious school meal on a daily basis.

It was argued that the world has given itself too long to live up to the promises made and remade over time. As one pupil in the Netherlands was reported to have asked, "Why wait for 2015 to have Education for All? Why not now?"