MINEDAF VII and Other Initiatives

SADC Meeting of Experts (Lusaka, Zambia, 19-21 June 2000)

Overall cooperation with UNESCO

Overall cooperation with UNESCO

During formal and informal discussion, the Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Committee, MINEDAF VII, made reference to areas of possible cooperation agreed between the Secretariats of UNESCO and SADC (Ref.: consultation held in Pretoria on 18 May 2000). Senior Officials felt that such cooperation should be strengthened and consolidated by UNESCO and by SADC and its Member States. However, some response is awaited from the Education Sector on the way forward for some of the initiatives, especially from the Division of Higher Education and from Director, UNESCO Dakar Office, on the technical support from UNESCO on a situational analysis of higher education and training in selected countries of the SADC region, and on UNESCO’s involvement in the preparations for the SADC Conference on Higher Education and Training (scheduled early next year); and from the Division of Basic Education on Follow-up to the Dakar World Education Forum. 

The Executive Secretary also asked for the floor a number of times to intervene on relevant agenda points (e.g., on basic education, distance education, vocational education, special needs education, higher education, etc.). In most instances, the purpose of my intervention was to share information with the Senior Officials on what UNESCO (and also other organizations) are doing in the region in some of the particular areas under mention. There is a strong need for UNESCO to strengthen and bolster the sharing of information with SADC Member States on what the Education Sector is doing in the Africa Region in general and in the SADC sub-region and in individual Member States in particular. The MINEDAF Secretariat could help meet part of this need through a greater dissemination of information on Education Sector activities in the African countries, e.g., through this Web site of African Ministers sponsored by UNESCO and its associated MINEDAF Document Service, among other Education Sector information dissemination efforts coordinated by the UNESCO Dakar Office and other Field Offices in Africa. 

In basic education, SADC and its Technical Committee in this area, is keen to strengthen collaboration with UNESCO, especially as part of the UNESCO follow-up to the Dakar World Education Forum. The policy framework, and mechanisms, exist to facilitate this collaboration, including the SADC Protocol on Education and Training, the Memorandum of Understanding signed with UNESCO and SADC, and, of course, the SADC Technical Committee on Basic Education. 

• SADC Meeting of Experts (Lusaka, Zambia, 19-21 June 2000)
  • Overall cooperation with UNESCO
  • Proposed project on drug prevention
• Technical Meeting of the Secretariats (Pretoria, 18 May 2000)
• Consultative Conference with International Cooperating Partners (Lusaka, Zambia, 5-12 February 1999)
  • Working Group on Human Resources Development
  • Working Group on Infrastructure for IT Development