The Dakar Framework for Action

The World Education Forum (26-28 April 2000, Dakar) adopted the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments. In doing so, its participants reaffirmed the vision of the World Declaration on Education for All adopted ten years earlier (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990), annexed to this document.

Welcoming the commitments made by the international community during the 1990s, and particularly the rights-based approach to education supported by the Universal Declaration of Human rights, they collectively committed the world community to achieving education for ‘every citizen in every society’. The Dakar Framework for Action is based on the most extensive evaluation of education ever undertaken, the Education for All (EFA) 2000 Assessment. Called for by the World Conference of Education for All, the Assessment produced a detailed analysis of the state of basic education around the world.

The Dakar Framework for Action states that the ‘heart of EFA lies at country level’. It also affirms that ‘no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resources’.

To complement the efforts of national governments, UNESCO, as the lead agency in education, will co-ordinate and mobilize all partners at national, regional and international levels: multilateral and bilateral funding agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector as well as broad-based civil society organizations.

States should strengthen or develop national plans by 2002 to achieve EFA goals and targets no later than 2015.

Particular emphasis will be given to areas of concern identified at Dakar, such as HIV/AIDS, early childhood education, school health, education of girls and women, adult literacy and education in situations of crisis and emergency.