15 November 2007
Dear Mr. Masahiko KOUMURA,
We are writing to request your urgent attention on the vital issue of Education For All, and topress for your attendance at the EFA High-Level Group meeting in Dakar this December. We
believe that the High-Level Group is a critical opportunity to outline a specific and actionable
plan to set the world back on track for achieving EFA by 2015. Time is running out for
millions of children and adults currently missing out on the life-saving benefits of education.
Around 72 million children are out of school today and many more – up to 200 million, will
not complete a primary cycle of schooling. 1 in 5 adults – the vast majority of them women –cannot read or write. In poor countries, secondary schooling and early childhood education
remain out of reach for most. Yet study after study has shown that the benefits flowing fromeducation are huge; improved family health and nutrition, reduced risk of HIV infection andhigher incomes are just a few of the proven gains for society and individuals. To ensure that
all can complete primary education by 2015, they must enter school by 2009 at the latest. Thisleaves a brief window of opportunity to redouble international efforts for this crucial, andattainable, development goal.
The GCE movement is encouraged by growing domestic investment in education, theelimination of user fees in increasing numbers of low-income countries, and rising primaryenrolments in some of the poorest-performing parts of the world. Yet poor countries can only
achieve so much with the limited resources available to them. The UN estimates that $9
billion in aid is needed each year to achieve universal primary education. We believe that asmuch as $16 billion may be required to achieve the full EFA agenda.
Aid to the sector has grown significantly since 2000, reaching a peak of $4.4 billion per yearin 2004. However GCE is alarmed that in 2005 the total fell to under $3 billion. Not only that,the global plan to match more and better quality aid to good country plans – the Education
For All Fast-Track Initiative (FTI) – remains drastically under-funded. In these circumstances,countries struggling to open the doors of learning to all will be discouraged from planningambitiously to get on track for 2015.
We remind you of the promise made by world leaders at the 2000 World Conference on
Education For All that ‘no country seriously committed to Education For All shall be thwarted
in this ambition for lack of resources’ – a promise reiterated in various forums over the last
seven years, but still not realised. GCE urges that 2007 must see this vision translate into afirm action plan with rich and poor countries together recommitting to a ‘global compact’. TheEFA High-Level Group, which returns symbolically to Dakar where the EFA Declaration of2000 was made, provides an ideal opportunity to rally the support of Southern leaders, donor
nations and international institutions behind such a plan. Your attendance will be an
important signal of Japan’s political will to rise to this challenge, and could be pivotal inensuring a positive outcome.
The time for warm words is over. The time for action is now. Please do your part to ensurethat future generations do not have to suffer the blight of ignorance and illiteracy in their lives.
Yours sincerely,

Nobuhiko Katayama
Representative
Japan NGO Network for Education (JNNE)