It's not about me changing the world, it's about the inspired young people changing the world. But what I hope to provide is some insight into how some of this can be done.
First then, looking at education and development, let's see where we are and how you can help. It used to be that many years ago when many of us were studying there was a field—and probably still is a field—of comparative education where you have to look at different education systems, what they're doing and how they're doing. I would submit that since the Millennium Development Goals of 2000 and—in fact going back to 1990—there has been a coming together in the world. Instead of disparately looking at different systems we've all been galvanized into concerted action in trying to make change in education. These goals, if nothing else, have focused our attention on how the world as a whole can achieve certain goals, rather than studying different systems.
The reality is that the very first of these goals—which was due in 2005—that of gender parity in primary and secondary education, has already been missed by quite a number of countries and many regions. And the reality, if we look at the statistics and analyze this is, that the world is also likely to miss quite a few of the goals that were set for 2015 unless something really special is done. This is not to say a lot has not been achieved, particularly if you track back from the 1980s.
So two of the most ambitious goals look at education currently—the Millennium Development Goal and the second one, which is about achieving universal primary education—particularly ensuring that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling—and, I might add, a full course of quality primary schooling.
At UNICEF we are also interested in the third Millennium Development Goal about promoting gender equality and empowering women. The target is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and at all levels no later than 2015. The critical thing about the gender goal is to see that it goes well beyond parity. It's not about the number of girls in school, it's about how the power of education can actually empower women so that the status of women in society can be transformed in many of these societies.
As head of education for UNICEF everywhere I go I say this, that our focus on education is not because we're an education agency because we're a children's agency primarily concerned with children's rights, with facilitating those rights and safeguarding those rights—with the well-being of children everywhere.
I think we're at a major crossroads. For those of us who have spent a lifetime in this field of development, or specifically education and development, we feel this might be a century like no other. There is increasingly everywhere you turn in developing countries tremendous political will to make things happen. Whether the political leaders themselves have it and their populations are pushing for that, there's been a great amount of participation from communities in developing poverty reduction strategy papers or proposals and in developing sector plans for education. There have been increased national investments in the education sectors. In many, many countries external assistance is really a very small fraction of the total funding for education. And it's been allowed to distort things in the past but increasingly they are realizing most of the funding for education comes from national resources.
Countries are willing to make tough policies and take bold initiatives. There's also, as I said earlier, been consistent and increased external aid to sector budget support. More donors are committed to meeting the targets that are set for official development of systems and there is more long-term funding that's now replacing the limited project funding.
But most importantly and most excitingly, it's about the increased knowledge we have of what works. We feel now that we can do almost anything, if only we bring together the willpower and the resources. The strategies are not the issue. We think we know what to do. Best practices have been widely documented, visible intervention models have been developed and we have learned very important lessons from targeted interventions as well as from reform in education systems. And it's in that light we want to think that this, for many of our young graduates and graduate students, is an exciting time in which you can actually change the world with education.
Dr. Wright is the Chief of Education at UNICEF and has worked there since 2002. Dr. Wright has worked on education and development projects in over 30 countries with a number of agencies, including United Nations agencies, the World Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
From 1980 to 1989 Dr. Wright served as director of the Center for Research in the Education of Secondary Teachers at Milton Margi Teachers College in Sierra Leone. There he designed teacher education programs, developed research proposals for international funding and spearheaded a network of school-based action research projects. His work led to the establishment of a strong technical network in the region, the Education Research Network of West and Central Africa.
From 1989 to 1997 Dr. Wright was managing director of REDI, an international consulting firm based in Africa. He managed a wide range of technical assignments in areas such as policy analysis, research studies, community development, curricular design, project design and program supervision and management.
From 1997 to 2002 Dr. Wright served as a special advisor and head of education at the Commonwealth Secretariat, an intergovernmental organization aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals set by the U.N. There, he oversaw the education and development work of the organization and the services provided to its 54 member countries.
Dr. Wright holds a PhD in education in developing countries and a master's degree in educational planning and development from the University of London Institute of Education.
