International attention turned towards the Caribbean region on the eve of a regional conference on education for rural people, which took place in Saint Lucia on 18 and 19 May 2006. Participants discussed a wide range of issues, including food, nutrition, HIV/AIDS and gender.

Representatives of ministries of agriculture, education and health, as well as international agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, attended the conference, which is part of a global partnership launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to eradicate poverty and hunger. A similar meeting for the African region took place in 2005 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A school for adults in a village at T. Kase Pandissou, Hinche, Haiti FAO PHOTO/G. BIZZARRI

"Education is essential for the rural poor, many of whom are women. It is also essential for rural children who lose their parents to AIDS. Field schools need to be developed to provide essential skills and knowledge to orphaned children. Educating the rural poor contributes to preventing the pandemic from expanding rapidly in rural areas", says Marcela Villarreal, head of the FAO Gender and Population Division. Worldwide, 100 million children are still being denied the opportunity to go to school and without urgent action they will remain in poverty and at far greater risk of HIV/AIDS infection, according to education experts.

"In the Caribbean region, the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS and educational deficits is acutely felt in the rural context", according to FAO. It deplores that significant percentages of the population of the Caribbean States are impacted by poverty and highlights the need to exert considerable efforts to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the region. In the Caribbean, as in Latin America, poverty rates are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In Jamaica, for example, the rate of rural poverty is three times higher than that of urban poverty, while in Guyana almost the entire rural population is poor. "The education system in the Caribbean evolved from a colonial historical legacy, which was predicated on privilege. Education served as a primary device for social selection and class stratification. With the attainment of independence and the growth of nationalism, mass education became a socio-political priority", the report states.

FAO and UNESCO are working hand in hand towards achieving the first three MDGS, which are eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, and the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. FAO has been assigned the responsibility of leading the education for rural people initiative.

The conference was organized by FAO and UNESCO with the Italian Development Cooperation office, the Government of Saint Lucia, the International Institute for Educational Planning, the World Bank, the Inter-America Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and other partners.