[25/May/2009]

SANA'A , May 25(Saba) - The regional conference on activating the role of civil society in supporting Education for All Campaign in the Middle East started here on Monday.

The conference, which will last for three days, is organized by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), the Youth Leadership Development Foundation and the Dutch OXFAM Organization.

The conference aims at attracting the interest of media and governmental institutions to support the efforts of activating the Education for All Campaign in the countries which speak Arabic language .

Head of Youth Leadership Development Foundation Intilaq al-mutawakil made it clear that the conference will discuss main topics representing in forming alliances for the civil society organizations' campaigns to support the Education for All Campaign in addiction to dealing with the issues of policies and sources
related to achieving the Education for All goals in the Middle East.

Upon the opening, Undersecretary of Education Ministry for Girl Education Sector Fawziah Noman pointed to the Yemeni government's efforts in reducing the educational gap between males and females especially in the rural areas.

Noman noted that the government established Girl Education Sector in March 2005 to encourage enrollment of girls in education via coordinating councils in the governorates which include the executive offices, society organizations, and a number of donors as well as rewarding the enrolled girls' families.

She reviewed the problems faced by the girl education sector, considering the importance of civil society organizations' role in picking the society up from the backwardness and ignorance.

Noman indicated Yemen's support to the territorial and global confederation for supporting the countries with a big ratio of illiteracy.

For his part, President of GCE Kailash Satyarthi said that the world's states need $16 billion to achieve Dakar Conference's decisions including Education for All by 2015.

Satyarthi added that the number of children who are out of school has decreased from 127 million to 70 million ,and in child labor from 216 million to 116 million , whereas the aid raised from one billion to four billion ,but 95 per cent of the countries did not achieve education for all yet.

He reviewed the role of civil society organizations in cooperation with the government in improving the education reality and reducing illiteracy, affirming the significance of establishing a confederation body between the countries of Middle East region for education advancement.

The participating countries are Bahrain, Egypt, Algeria, Jordon, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE, Turkey, and Yemen.

The Global Campaign for Education GCE is a movement to end the worldwide crisis in education.

BA/AM