Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, presenting his action plan for the next five years to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. (Photo: Mark Garten/UN)

In his speech to the General Assembly this week, the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, presented his action agenda for the next five years. His speech highlighted many important priorities both in the final push to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and to promote sustainable development goals beyond 2015.

Education features in three important ways in his speech:

• As an area where progress has been made on the MDGs: “We have seen dramatic progress in a short time: More effective disease control. More children in primary education. Significant reductions in global poverty.”
• As one of priorities leading up to 2015: “We are also preparing to empower future generations by offering quality, relevant and universal education to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
• As an area that deserves attention beyond 2015: ‘We will deepen our youth focus and develop an action plan across the full range of UN programmes, including employment, entrepreneurship, political participation, human rights, education and reproductive health.”

The secretary-general’s speech called for forging a consensus on a new generation of sustainable development goals after 2015, building on the Millennium Development Goals. As I noted in my new year’s blog, education needs to maintain a central position in the global development architecture beyond 2015.  Equitable learning supports sustainable development in a variety of ways. It improves health and livelihoods, empowers women and other vulnerable groups, promotes democracy, boosts economic growth and reduces poverty, and helps to lock in these gains for generations to come. Evidence presented in future Global Monitoring Reports will need to support policymakers in making the case for education as agreement is sought over the coming two years on post-2015 development goals.

“The jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide – or an estimated 1.1 billion people – either unemployed or living in poverty,” said Juan Samovia, the ILO’s director-general.

The annual ILO publication highlights the fact that globally, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 per cent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-crisis level. Of those aged 15-24, 74.8 million were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007.

In the forthcoming 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, on youth, skills and work, we will explore a key element of youth unemployment: the mismatch between what education systems teach and the skills that employers want.

That “skills gap” features in at least three sessions this week at Davos: A workshop will look at how “revitalizing education and training” and “mobilizing skills and talent” can boost the economy. An interactive session will consider whether “fostering entrepreneurial education” and “reinventing curricula” can “address supply and demand gaps in dynamic talent markets.” And an “Ideas Lab” will discuss “new creative models for job and growth creation,” starting with “addressing skill shortages and the factors that delay hiring.”

The need to invest in skills – particularly for those who are marginalized – also features in the “Call to Action” issued this week by the Global Issues Group of the WEF, which is comprised of leaders of the world’s multilateral and regional institutions. “Boosting jobs and investing in human capital is the most promising way of tackling inequality,” the group says. “We support the work of the International Labour Organization and others in assisting governments to examine realistic policy options including cost-effective social policies to cushion the most vulnerable from adversity. Investment should target skills and education and thus equip people for the future.”

At the GMR, we’re pleased to see the emphasis at Davos on skills for young people, and we hope the participants come up with concrete proposals for tackling the global jobs crisis. Meanwhile, we’re also keeping an eye on The Guardian’s Global Development website, which is recording a podcast on Wednesday January 25 in which a panel of experts responds to readers’ questions and suggestions about how to tackle the global jobs crisis.

Demonstrations last month in front of the national constituent assembly in Bardo, Tunisia. (Photo: Amine Ghrabi/Flickr Creative Commons)

As well as sparking a wave of change across the Arab world, the Tunisian revolution exactly a year ago turned the spotlight on the widespread youth joblessness in the region. One key ingredient of the frustration and disappointment that helped drive the popular revolt was the failure of education systems to give young people the skills they need to get good jobs. Former GMR director Kevin Watkins argued in a post on this blog in February 2011 that those failures include:

• chronic misalignment between the education system and employment markets;

• underperformance of education systems in the Middle East and North Africa;

• the crisis facing low-income households who can’t afford primary education.

The 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, to be released in September, will focus on youth, skills and work, examining ways of helping young people across the world – especially those facing disadvantage – realize their ambitions for better livelihoods and better lives. Along with economic reforms that boost growth and jobs, overhauling education is one of the greatest challenges facing the new governments in the Arab world. In the 2012 GMR, we’ll examine ways of making sure that education reforms help young people obtain the skills that the labour market wants.

These issues are currently being debated on our Youth-Skills-Work blog.

Children laid roses on a memorial in Port-au-Prince on Thursday as the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti commemorated the second anniversary of the earthquake. (UN Photo/Logan Abassi)

The second anniversary of Haiti’s devastating earthquake has drawn attention this week to the needs of the country’s young people, and efforts to give them a future. But is this another case of too little, too late?

As our earlier blog post shows, there are reasons to be optimistic for Haiti’s reconstruction, with more children in school than before the earthquake. Even so, it is unacceptable that around one-half of children are still not in school. It is not enough to remember Haiti’s children only at anniversaries of the event. Efforts need to be ongoing and long-term.

Social media has been playing an important role this week in showcasing what different organizations have achieved, as a glance at the #Haiti2Year tag on Twitter reveals. PlanUK has ensured 31,000 children have returned to school, and CAREUSA has helped rebuild 20 schools. There are many other positive examples of NGOs giving children the opportunity to go back to school.

While such efforts are welcome, they are not building the education system that Haiti sorely needs. Recognizing the importance of education for the country’s reconstruction, a report by Oxfam mentions that President Michel Martelly’s new administration announced free primary education, but this is still a long way out of reach for many of Haiti’s children.

Clearly there were serious problems even before the earthquake, with the majority of children who were able to make it to school enrolled in private and NGO schools. But as some commentators noted soon after the earthquake, there was an opportunity to build a public education system that would benefit all children. This has yet to happen.

Sadly, the problems we highlighted in the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report have become a reality for Haiti. According to a report this week on The Guardian’s Datablog, only about half of the amount needed for Haiti’s reconstruction efforts has been delivered by donor agencies.

As the Right Honourable  Michaëlle Jean, UNESCO’s Special Representative for Haiti, said on the occasion of her return to Haiti for the anniversary of the earthquake, “Investing in education, training, research, higher education is fundamental for a new social pact, for the rebuilding of Haiti on solid and sustainable bases.” Let’s hope that the next two years see greater progress towards building an education system for a new social pact.

Follow Pauline Rose on Twitter: @Pauline_RoseGMR

Very few children in the Canaan tent city outside of Port-au-Prince will have a chance to go to school. The tent city has no school buildings of its own. (Photo: Paul Franz)

That achievement is testimony to the combined efforts of Haitians and aid agencies who realise that it is vital to make education a priority when catastrophe strikes – a fact we underlined in the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education.

But it is small comfort given the very low standards of education in Haiti before the quake. Only about half of children were enrolled in primary school – and of those, about three-quarters attended private schools that charge fees. Secondary school enrolment was only 4% and the country had only one state-funded university.

Many students, teachers and administrators were among the thousands who died in the quake. Much of what had existed was reduced to rubble, including an estimated 80% of schools in the quake zone and a huge swath of the country’s mostly private post-secondary sector.

Since the quake, many observers have emphasized the need to build a genuinely free, public education system that offers access to all. As Michaëlle Jean, UNESCO’s special representative for Haiti, said last year: “It is imperative to implement the National Pact for Education, which was developed by Haitian authorities in the world of education and endorsed by the President of the Republic. This plan lays the foundation for building an education system that is accessible, universal and offers quality instruction. “

Rebuilding has been hampered by the fact that Haiti’s basic social and economic infrastructure had long been broken, as Nigel Fisher emphasized at a UN press conference in November. The cholera outbreak that began in October 2012 has killed 7,000 Haitians.

The number of quake survivors living in makeshift refugee camps has sunk from 1.5 million to half a million, and Fisher said that 75% of children in the camps were enrolled in school. But families remaining in the camps face deteriorating conditions and a plague of sexual violence, as well as forced evictions, the International Organisation of Migration told Reuters AlertNet recently.

The other great danger facing the country is the waning of donor funding and interest, as the media and the humanitarian community move on to other emergency situations.

“Non-governmental organisations have had to pull out because of a lack of funding. Donor fatigue has set in. Conditions are really tough,” Leonard Doyle, IOM’s communications officer said.

The high risk of donor fatigue after catastrophes – whether they be natural disasters or violent conflicts – highlights another finding of the 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report: the need to move swiftly from short-term humanitarian assistance, which focuses on saving lives, to long-term development aid that can help countries and societies rebuild themselves.

Telling Haiti’s education stories

One of those determined to keep the spotlight on Haiti’s serious education needs is Paul Franz, a young U.S. journalist. Aided by a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Franz travelled to Haiti to make a series of multimedia documentaries that were subsequently featured online by Time magazine and others (see below).

As the 2015 deadline for the Education for All goals fast approaches – and the global economic crisis threatens to slow progress – here are the three things we most want to happen in 2012. They offer an agenda for the kind of change that is needed to give everyone in the world an opportunity for a decent education.

Give young people the skills they need to get good jobs

Upheavals around the world in 2011, notably in Arab countries but also in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, turned the spotlight on the disillusionment of young people. Soaring unemployment, fed by the economic crisis and political mismanagement, has left millions of youth without opportunities to fulfill their ambitions. The International Labour Organisation estimates that as many as 1 in 10 young people are not in work. The real number of young people without worthwhile jobs is likely to be much higher, as many of the most vulnerable are forced into low-paid, informal, insecure work. Young people who already face disadvantages – because of where they live, their gender, poverty or ethnicity – have been hit the worst, largely because they lack the skills needed to compete for available jobs.

In 2012, political leaders need to listen to the voices of young people, particularly those who suffer most from poor education and job opportunities, before it is too late. The 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, to be released in September, will examine how skills development programmes can improve young people’s opportunities for decent jobs and better lives. We hope that policymakers will act upon the messages in the Report. In 2011 the G20 paid insufficient attention to the vital role of education and skills in addressing barriers to employment and growth. When G20 leaders meet in Mexico in June, they need to speak out more loudly for education and skills.

Make aid count

Countries that have made the most remarkable progress towards Education for All, such as Ethiopia and Tanzania, have benefited from a combination of strong political will and sustained financial commitment, with aid donors backing nationally developed education plans. Yet funding for education remains grossly insufficient and fragile according to recent analysis by the GMR team. The Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011 highlighted the changing aid landscape, with new donors, such as Brazil, India and China, and the private sector playing a more prominent role in development financing. Despite replenishment commitments for the Global Partnership for Education in 2011, there is still a long way to go to fill the US$16 billion financing gap.

The Global Partnership for Education needs to reinforce its efforts in 2012 to mobilize additional financing, including from traditional donors as well as the “BRICs” (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the private sector, ensuring that this funding is used to reach those most in need.

Put education at the centre of global development beyond 2015

Policymakers need to step up their efforts for the 67 million children still denied a basic education and the 796 million young people and adults without basic literacy and numeracy skills. Much more can be done in three years left before the Education for All and Millennium Development Goal deadline. But there will still be huge tasks to accomplish after 2015. Despite progress in getting more children into school over the past decade, there are still wide gaps in education opportunities between boys and girls, and rich and poor. Many children drop out of school before they have learnt how to read or write. Inequalities in access and learning will need to be given greater attention after 2015.

As convening agency for Education for All, UNESCO needs to take the lead this year in guiding debates on education priorities to ensure education maintains its central position in the global development architecture beyond 2015. The United Nations General Assembly in September is one important venue for UNESCO to work together with other EFA partners to develop a consensus on education after 2015.

The Arab Spring, South Sudan’s long-awaited independence and the world’s 7 billionth baby featured in our top 10 blog posts for 2011, which highlighted key messages of the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, as well as crucial questions that we will explore in our 2012 Report on youth, skills and work.

Top of the list of most-read posts is an investigation by former GMR director Kevin Watkins of how a chronic mismatch between education systems and labour markets helped to fuel discontent among young people who took to the streets in Arab countries [1. Education failures fan the flames in the Arab world].

Young people have been in the spotlight right around the world in 2011. As unemployment has soared, their disaffection with political leaders’ failure to address their hopes and aspirations has led to protests globally. As we will be showing in our 2012 Report, there is an urgent need to pay attention to the skills that young people need to realise their potential [6. When we talk about youth, we need to talk about skills].

Other top 10 blogs highlight the hidden crisis in countries where education progress has been held back by conflict, including two of those most seriously off-track for achieving the Education for All goals [3. Pakistan declares ‘education emergency’; 4. Southern Sudanese pin their hopes on education].

South Sudan’s independence this year provides an opportunity for realising the hopes of its citizens through education, including for those returning after living in refugee camps for many years. Lessons might be learnt from the post-conflict experiences of Cambodia and Ethiopia, where a combination of political will and support from aid donors has helped to develop strong education systems [8. Education bounces back in Cambodia and Ethiopia].

Those displaced by conflict are often denied the chance of education because short-term humanitarian support fails to recognize the needs and desires of those living “emergency” situations that in fact go on for many years. With just 2% of humanitarian aid spent on education, it is time for aid agencies to recognize that education is a priority in these situations [2. Education doesn’t save lives, so why should we care?].

As I witnessed during a visit this year, this dire situation is all too evident in the sprawling camps in Dadaab, Kenya – the world’s biggest refugee complex – where only half of the children have access to a basic education [9. For refugees in Kenya, ‘education is the only thing that we can take home’]. If the world is to achieve peace and security, the rights of children in conflict zones need to be recognized. In the words of Queen Rania of Jordan, “education is our saving grace, our best chance, and our one shot to bring security and development to all humanity” [10. Education for security and development].

In 2011, the world’s seven billionth baby was born. As we said in our greeting card, it is vital to uphold the right to education of the coming generation [5. Letter to the 7 billionth human being]. This right is important not only for its own sake but also because it ensures other Millennium Development Goals, including reducing poverty, are achieved [7. How to reduce poverty’s impact on education]. It is crucial that we continue to work together in 2012 to ensure education’s rightful place at the centre of the global development agenda.

The GMR team is extremely grateful to all our readers for your engagement, comments and feedback. We look forward to continued collaboration in 2012 to make Education for All a reality. We wish you a very enjoyable festive season and happy New Year!

Like the OECD report on wage inequality that we noted earlier this month, the first annual review of Employment and Social Developments in Europe argues that skills are the key not only to the economic recovery but also to individuals’ prospects – especially those of the marginalized, who will be the special focus of the 2012 Global Monitoring Report.

“Understanding the skills requirements of new jobs is critical for improving the employability of the European labour force and identifying mismatches in the labour markets, as well as for lifting the low-skilled out of poverty,” according to the review.

Even before the economic crisis, the review says, jobs were becoming “concentrated in relatively high and low pay levels.” The recession has had the effect of intensifying this divide by destroying medium-paid jobs, while new jobs are increasingly demanding higher educational and skills qualifications, “thus compromising the chances of re-employment and access to well-paid jobs for lower-skilled people who lost their jobs during the recession.”

“Young people remain the hardest hit by the crisis and its aftermath,” the review adds.

A key solution, the review says, is “up- and re-skilling of the workforce at all levels.” Low-skilled jobs, the review predicts, “will continue to exist but they will require better literacy, numeracy and other basic skills.”

The 2012 GMR will go highlight how the mismatch between education systems and labour markets affects young people right across the world, including in countries in the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa that have experienced political and economic upheavals in recent times.

Educators and employers tackle Europe’s science problem

Developing the skills that employers need requires collaboration between employers and skills providers, a process that we will explore in the 2012 GMR. A post on the Wall Street Journal’s Brussels blog, which draws attention to the EU report, also notes one such partnership – a bid to meet Europe’s growing shortage of science graduates.

InGenious, a new European coordinating body for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, was launched on December 14 by European business leaders and education policy makers worried that a lack of scientists is threatening Europe’s economic recovery.

According to a report by the European Roundtable of Industrialists, which founded InGenious along with European SchoolNet, Asian countries are currently training twice as many scientists as European member states, and three times as many engineers.

InGenious brings together the European Commission, the 30 Ministries of Education involved in European Schoolnet, and major international companies including Volvo, Shell, Philips, BASF, Nokia, Microsoft and Intel.

Acabamos de lanzar  el blog denominado Jóvenes, Competencias y Trabajo donde los jóvenes pueden expresar sus ideas sobre las destrezas que se necesitan para tener un trabajo decente.  Jóvenes, Competencias y Trabajo es un espacio abierto para los jóvenes del mundo. Puedes presentar un ensayo, una foto, un dibujo,  un poema o simplemente  participar en la discusión  al comentar las contribuciones de otros.

Estamos recolectando las opiniones de jóvenes como parte de nuestro trabajo de investigación para el Informe de Seguimiento a la Educación para Todos 2012  que tratará sobre el desencuentro crónico que existe entre los sistemas de educación y el mercado laboral , hecho que se presenta en muchas partes del mundo.

Son  los jóvenes que nunca asistieron  a la escuela, o que no terminaron y se fueron sin adquirir las competencias necesarias para prosperar en una sociedad que sabe leer y escribir los que son más vulnerables.  El Informe  de Seguimiento a la Educación para Todos 2012 cuestionará el tipo de políticas públicas  que se requiere  para brindarles a todos los jóvenes – sin importar su lugar de origen, potencial económico, raíz étnica o sexo- la oportunidad de recibir entrenamiento para que puedan acceder a un trabajo e ingreso seguros .

¿Qué piensas de la necesidad de adquirir competencias y entrenamiento para el trabajo?  Comparte tus ideas, dudas, soluciones, preocupaciones  y experiencia en Youth, Skills & Work.

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