The World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, April 2000) was the first and most important event in education at the dawn of the new century. By adopting the Dakar Framework for Action, which incorporated the six Regional Frameworks for Action, the Forum participants demonstrated a collective commitment to action to achieve the goals and targets of Education for All by 2015.
Source: ECLAC
Six years after the Jomtien Conference, the Mid-Decade Meeting of the International Consultative Forum on Education for All, in Amman, Jordan (16-19 June 1996) brought together some 250 decision-makers from 73 countries, including ministers of education, and multilateral, and bilateral agencies and non-governmental organizations. Their aim: to assess the advances made since the Jomtien Conference.
Source: ECLAC
In 1990, the International Literacy Year, about 1,500 delegates from 155 countries and representatives of some 150 governmental, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations met at the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand, and called upon all countries to universalize adequate basic education. The Conference participants adopted the World Declaration on Education for All and a Framework for Action: Meeting Basic Learning Needs. The Declaration begins by stating that Every person child, youth and adult shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs. In that sense, Education for All is an expanded vision encompassing programmes, activities and services in the public and private sectors aimed at meeting the basic needs of children, youth and adults both within and outside school.
The World Declaration on Education for All was a historic demonstration of the will and commitment of countries to establish in the area of child, adult and family education a new basis for overcoming inequality and generating new opportunities for eradicating poverty. Emphasis was placed not only on access to basic education, but also on the quality of education and actual learning outcomes.
The Education for All Programme was launched at the international level in 1990 with contributions from the five intergovernmental agencies promoting the Programme (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank), as well as various foundations, international and non-governmental organizations and the mass media. The International Consultative Forum on Education for All, with its secretariat located at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, was established as an interagency body to guide and monitor follow-up actions to the World Conference in Jomtien.
Source: ECLAC