Race Against Time

Stephen Lewis' experience in Africa tells him of the great power and the great necessity of education. He illustrates it with story after story. Stephen is a doer and so studies after a certain while seem to him a sort of plague. He endures them in the never-ending hope that they will produce action.

He tells us how school fees prevent universal education. It is apparent to all the international players that families with sparse income can ill manage half of it for the education of their children. Education needs to be free. Everyone has said so. Everyone has agreed on it.

UNICEF in 2000 under Carol Bellamy said they would commence such an initiative. "no child should be barred entry". This tied in with the General Assembly's establishment of the Millenium Development Goals. The MDGs included the goal of universal access to primary education. All of this re-affirmed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The excluded children number 120 million in the world and 44 million in Africa.

Everyone agrees and yet things do not change. Why he asks? It is the system. The conventions, the leaders, the speakers can only achieve their purpose through various agencies and civil service organizations. We are incredibly stymied by things as they are in trying to make things as they should be.

Children have universally a yearning for school. In country after country, from one troubled war-torn place to another, the children all make it clear that what they most want is to attend school.

It's like so much of internationalism: no one pays attention, the media are uncritical, the commitments and obligations are expendable, the organizations, expected to perform, don't perform and yet emerge unscathed. They're almost never called to account."

In regarding those few who do manage to achieve much, he notes the difference to be the setting of goals and targets and then being accountable to them. Jim Grant, while Director of UNICEF was such a person. He set his sights on the erasure of the principle childhood diseases and saved 25 million children.

Lewis himself became increasingly outspoken within the UN organization - for he understands now the need to hold them to accountable for their goals.

He illustrates the beaurocratic process by tracking the development of an idea - that Nelson Mendala and Graca Machel be asked to give leadership to a UNICEF initiative called Global Movement for Children. It would to focus on education, HIV/ AIDS, and armed conflict. The request was through Lewis in 1999 and though the principals immediately agreed, nothing happened until Lewis himself 3 years later in 2002 was Special Envoy and was able to intervene to make it happen. It came to fruition with a huge and successful international convention in Sept 2002. Charged with making the final address of the convention, he focused again on school fees.

But so many meetings, so many reports, so many words, not to mention "throbbing intellectual rumination", gives the illusion of progress, but nothing "discernible in the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children on the ground."

Some few African countries have made some progress despite all the international interference. And as fees are eliminated, enrolment soars. Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho, Tanzania,Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, Kenya, Benin, Cameroon and Ghana are named.

For action to result, the right idea must be expressed at the right time to the right people. He recounts how strong an election issue this is becoming as Africa is becoming more democratic. Planning is happening as countries like Uganda and Malawi scramble to accomodate more children in their schools. One of the emerging good news bits is that as education rises, HIV infection falls.

It is becoming evident that not only school fees have been an impediment, but the costs of school uniforms, books and supplies, the building of schools, the hiring of teachers, community and parent support of the schools, are also critical elements to success of schooling. World Bank 2005 data says 76 of 92 developing countries have user fees as deterrents to school. They fear 88 countries will not meet the 2015 goal of universal primary education. Yet it is World Bank that included school fees as a usual condition in their loan schemes. Often the bankers express at conferences and in meetings with local governements what Lewis idenifies as at best a colonial, and at worst a slanderous attitude.

The World Bank is apparently trying to reverse it's traditional cost recovery rules. Lewis is very skeptical about the new framework. The new scheme is called FTI or Fast Track Initiative where donor counties in 2002 promised $4 billion a year for baisc education. Naturally, it's under-subscribed at only $300 million in 2005. The plan also requires the receiving countries to have both poverty reduction and education plans. These are essentially a reincarnation of the earlier oppresive controls. And reports Lewis, they do not have the involvement of Civil Society (the new phrase for the NGOs and private sector).

The basic FTI steps are these: A country's education plan is evaluated against FTI guidelines. Then the donor rep onsite in the country evaluates it. The plan is then reviewed by a Washington steering committee which OKs it for funding. The committee doesn't include people from the very country the plan is for. It is offensive says Lewis that the people who promise the money and don't actually deliver the money have total control over the education plan.

At this writing, World Bank says 28 developing countries have had their plans for education approved. They have a great deal of documentation including the guidelines online. LINK. If you feel Lewis may be too critical of the banks, do take a look at the World Bank site and consider their side of what composes due diligence in a culture of corruption and crisis.

It should be scrapped says Lewis and UNESCO resume its responsibility for education.

Dissent views have been raised by the UNDP and the UK. They are also identifying the need to cease the conditions of loans. It is a great tradegy that the World Bank continues in unawareness that its need to monitor and control aid money impedes the very goals the money was intended to achieve.

Lewis concludes the subject by considering the next part. How can Africa make its way in the world until it is providing secondary education for its children? And that is a long way down the road, when the most basic part of education is refused to Africa's children.

Media Selections. The UNICEF short is MP4 requiring Quicktime. The Force for Good speech by Lewis is audio only. The others are youtube presentations with the details all looked after.

The Millenium Development Goals Anthem - 5 Minute Video from the Phillipines. Winner of UNPD Award. Celebrating the common cause of working to the MDGs.

Education, the World's Greatest Force for Good. Lewis spoke to the British Columbia School Superintendants at their fall 2005 convention. He is in top form here. The two part (45 minutes each) talks are very much worth the listen.

I have Confidence - Feseka High School, Guguletu, South Africa. A 10 minute film. An moving presentation that illustrates Lewis' concern as to the necessary need also for secondary school. And what that might look like as partnerships like this one are created between Africa and Canada. Film and project of the Canadian NGO Education Without Borders.

UNICEF at Oxford. Rebecca Winthrop of the International Rescue Committee & Chair of Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. Rebecca in a short illustrated talk tells us why education is so important even in the presence of strife and conflict. "Education is life-saving, life-sustaining, and lays the foundation for lasting peace and development."

Discussion - Education: Discuss those times, from your own experience when education#(perhaps a learning moment) made a big difference in your life.

Examples of learning experiences and times of personal growth were given.

Not all learning occurs in schools. I remember special growth experiences #as#a young person in 4H clubs back in Saskatchewan. This was very important in my growing years.

Inspirational figures, mentors, influence our lives considerably. More thanwe might think.

I was given the gift of coming to believe in myself. I began to take responsibility as a role model to others. I started to have a sense of purpose and accomplishment in my life.

Nursing, school, family learning challenges. Experiential and formal education. Life can become an incremental learning process. We do not #learn#it all at once, but over an entire lifetime.

As time went on, I began to be selective in the kinds of learning#opportunities I wanted.

In some ways, I am still waiting for the "big learning breakthrough" to happen.

Ended evening with the the video "Tayo Tayo Rin - The Millenium Development Goals Anthem". Commissioned by the UNDP and accomplished by a host of international artists. Here is the youtube link. And although the english is sub-titled it's hard to read so below is the lyric. Considering it's urgent message the song is very upbeat. The young people make you believe they'll do this.

There's no one else but us
who can sow the seeds of change
the harvest will be plenty
one good deed is all it takes

There's no one else but us
who can set each other free
if we just come together
what a world this would be

When there's too much to bear
see the child on the street
earning a living
before he learns to read

When life isn't fair
step into her shoes
often told she's just a woman
and of little use.

Though the darkness is all around us
it only takes a spark within
to let some light in all our sorrows
and tomorrow will come shining

There's no one else but us - v 1& 2

When you're in despair
feel for the mother
with no means to care for
her child within

When hope isn't there
remember the sick
who long for the promise
of better days

Though the darkness is all around us ...

There's no one else but us - v 1& 2

Let's come together
Act while there's still time
to make a difference
we must move as one ... as one

The Millennium Development Goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
by year 2015

There's no one else but us - v 1& 2

Tayo Tayo Rim
Millenium Development Goals Anthem
c UNDP Phillipines

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