Of course, there are bound always to be competing views, assessments and hence debate about strategies, objectives, approaches and timing. This is healthy and indeed necessary. An open debate can actually help further our common cause and should not be shunned. But we should be all clear about our respective responsibilities and mandates which determine our room for manoeuvre. Advocacy organizations like yours have a different framework of operations and concerns.
Education is one of our largest responsibilities.
As such, we are bound to pursue education as a prime task in each country, involving all actors of society at large. To achieve EFA, political will, backed by open democratic debate, will be crucial. This happened recently at the Working Group meeting on EFA which took place in Paris from 22 to 24 November. I sincerely hope that we can count on your cooperation and involvement and those of your sister NGOs and civil society organizations Contrary to your perception, the Paris Working Group meeting has indeed led to a number of concrete recommendations, notably the setting up of sub-committees to accelerate progress on specific issues. Its purpose is to design concrete strategies to ensure increased funding for Education for All, in a realistic way.