Lenore Yaffee Garcia, HeadEducation and Culture Division
Office of Education, Science and Technology
V Meeting of the Authorities and Executive Committee of the Inter-American Committee on EducationWashington, D.C., November 9-10, 2005
Report of the Technical Secretariat to the
Interamerican Committee on Education
Presentation Outline
• Overview of Meeting and Documents• Background: Summits, Ministerials,
CIE• Technical Secretariat (OEST)• Accomplishments and Challenges• Resources (2005 Education Subfund
Budget)
•Supports political dialogue and partnership for development activities
•Inform political dialogue with technical knowledge
•Help to translate the informed dialogue into concrete cooperation strategies
Summits of the Americas
Ministerial Meetings
Inter-American Committees
Horizontal Cooperation Mechanisms
Organization of American States
•Set hemispheric priorities for 34 member states
•Tools to engage in cooperation across governments and with int’l. organizations, civil society
Summit Goals
"... We (governments)…reiterate the commitment to assure, by 2010, universal access to and completion of a quality primary education for 100% of children, and access for at least 75% of young people to quality secondary education – with ever greater percentages of young people finishing secondary school --, and we assume responsibility for offering lifelong learning opportunities to the general population.“ --Santiago Summit Plan of Action
Interamerican Committee on Education: created at 2003 Mexico
City MinisterialWho: A representative of each Education
Ministry, designated by the MinisterPurpose: • Advance inter-American dialogue on education• Follow up on Summit mandates and ensure
that commitments of Education Ministers Meetings materialize into concrete actions
• Serve as breeding ground for ideas and proposals
• Prepare future Ministerial meetings• Define funding priorities • Serve as a voice for the education sector in
policy development and execution within OAS
Office of Education, Science and Technology (OEST)
• Promote continuous communication among Ministries through CIE representatives (translation to maximize exchange)
• Promote horizontal cooperation– In Person (Knowledge Sharing Seminars)– Virtually (Websites, Virtual Forums, On-line Surveys)
• Institutional memory and continuity• Link between CIE and political authorities; international and
civil society organizations• Technical assistance to projects• In sum: YOUR technical secretariat
The creation of this unique space within the OAS was developed as an alternative to the traditional vision that there is one best practice that works equally well for all circumstances. Instead, the OAS method reviews and jointly constructs experiences and models. Hence, all parties offer and receive experiences with the understanding that all countries have something to share and something to learn from the other member States.
CONARED: Sharing Knowledge in a horizontal manner
Communicating via the Web
OEST: http://www.oest.oas.org/
CIE: http://www.oas.org/udse/espanol/cpo_cie.html
PRIE Website
Knowledge Sharing in Citizenship Competencies
Workshop and Online Forum, Bogotá, Colombia (April 2005)
www.oest.oas.org/colombia
Ready to LearnKnowledge Sharing in Early Childhood
Development
Virtual Forums
• A space to get information and give feedback on a topic of common interest.
http://www.oas.org/udse/espanol/cpo_educ_foros.html
Opportunities
• Major attention to education in IV Summit• Significant momentum from IV Ministerial• Energy around:
– Social Charter– Possible new priorities (e.g., education for
democracy)
• Knowledge sharing tools• Resources from subfund and partners
Challenges
• Proliferation of mandates, priorities (How to choose?)
• How to obtain active country participation• Limited human and organizational
resources• Risk of duplicating efforts• How to demonstrate what works?• Financial resources
Thank You!
Office of Education, Science and Technology (OEST)
Executive Secretariat of Integral Development (SEDI)
http://www.oest.oas.org