Equity and Inclusion Guide, First Edition, April 2010 
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The FTI Secretariat worked with the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task team (IATT) on Education, the Global Task Force on Child Labor and Education, the EFA Flagship on the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities (convened by UNESCO), and civil society partners including World Vision to create a Guide on Equity and Inclusion in Education. This Guide supports education sector plan preparation, revision, and appraisal and was designed primarily for Ministries of Education as they prepare and revise their education sector plans; for coordinating agencies and Local Education Groups as they provide support to governments in plan preparation; and for donors as they review plans for FTI endorsement in conjunction with the FTI Indicative Framework and Appraisal Guidelines.
In 2009, the guide was piloted in Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, and Malawi. The results are presented in the report “EFA FTI Equity and Inclusion Tool. Report of the Piloting Process.” This first edition is based on the feedback from these countries and aims at guiding more FTI partner or FTI-eligible countries to prepare, revise, and appraise more equitable education sector plans.
EFA FTI will solicit feedback from April through to September 2010 until December 2010 from users in government, development agencies, and CSOs. This first edition will be reviewed and revised in the light of the findings. The FTI Secretariat is also exploring ways for resources to be directed toward Local Education Groups who are interested in using this guide and/or other FTI knowledge products.
Halting Child Labor Needs Progress on Basic Education
In June 1999, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The newly released ILO report on child labor states that the global number of child laborers had declined from 222 million to 215 million over the period 2004 to 2008. The report emphasizes the importance of education in the fight against child labor: “Perhaps the most important step forward in recent years has been the overwhelming global consensus in support of Education for All. Indeed, beyond the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015, there is increasing and convergent understanding that the aim must be, at least, basic education for all – primary plus two or three years of secondary education. […] Education is not the sole solution, but when it is free, full time, compulsory and of quality, it is the most important part of the sum. […] we will not eliminate child labour without universal education and, conversely, we will not ensure every child is in school unless we bring an end to child labour, in particular its worst forms.”
EFA FTI is looking for new partnerships and new approaches to respond to social exclusion, including working with the ILO at the global level and in FTI-supported low-income countries. Bob Prouty, Head of the EFA FTI Secretariat presented at the The Hague Global Child Labour Conference on May 10-11, 2010 on the topic “Policy Integration and Education”:
During the conference more than 450 delegates from 80 countries have agreed on a Roadmap aimed at substantially increasing global efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2016.
Other FTI-produced presentation:
Inclusive Education
The Education for All movement is a worldwide effort to ensure that all children have access to a good quality education. This is also reflected by the Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3. There has been real progress—for example, the number of out-of-school children has been reduced from 100 million in 2000 to 72 million in 2007.
Two of the biggest factors of exclusion are crisis and conflict situations and a lack of responses to the needs of children with disabilities. More than half of the children without access to primary education live in countries affected by conflict, and one-third are children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are by far the single group most likely not to be in school.
The FTI Secretariat has been making efforts to be more responsive into getting more out-of-school children into school. In 2009, the FTI Secretariat commissioned a study, “Reaching Out to Out-of-School Children: Putting Inclusive Education on the Fast Track” to explore how the EFA FTI Partnership could develop a targeted outreach program. Overall approaches to use in “targeting” out-of-school populations should: (a) tailor the approach to specific marginalized groups, (b) reduce obstacles for children to go to school, (c) use an inclusive lens, and (d) use multi-sectoral approaches.
HIV/AIDS
Evidence shows that education has a critical role to play in multi-sectoral responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic at the country level. Well-implemented, high quality HIV and AIDS education has been found to increase knowledge; develop skills (i.e. self-efficacy to refuse sex and obtain condoms) and positive attitudes required to change risk behaviors (such as values about sex and pressuring someone to have sex); and to reduce sexual risk behaviors among the sexually active.
The FTI Secretariat has been active with the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education as an observer. In January 2010, it became a full member. Through our work with the IATT, the FTI Secretariat is supporting a greater focus on HIV and AIDS within the EFA FTI Partnership. The overall aim of this working group is to support the mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS into EFA FTI processes, procedures and plans at the country level. Mainstreaming ensures that addressing HIV and AIDS is not an add-on or a separate activity but rather an integral part of the sector’s operations and activities.
For more information about the Task Team please contact info-iatt@unesco.org or visit the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education Web site.
For more information, please contact Koli Banik
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