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

PRIE Website

www.prie.oas.org

Regional Education Indicators Project

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