Breaking the Poverty Cycle for Children Ministry of Education, Uganda Ugandan National Commission for UNESCO Poverty Eradication through Education Breaking the Poverty Cycle for Children Ministry of Education, Uganda Ugandan National Commission for UNESCO Poverty Eradication through Education

Foreword 5 A B J E C t poverty is evidence of the failure of modern societies to adopt social and economic strategies that benefit all people. It deprives individuals of their dignity, and denies them the opportunity to be participating citizens, with a sense of self-respect and a feeling of well-being. By 1995, it was estimated that 1.3 billion people were living on less than one dollar per day, and the situation was being aggravated by wars, civil unrest, and the loss of employment through economic restructuring and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. As a worldwide endeavour to eradicate abject poverty, the United Nations declared the years 1997 to 2006 to be the decade for poverty eradication. Many international and national initiatives followed this declaration, and they identified education as a key to poverty eradication. The UNDP carried out research on the poor in 30 countries, while The World Bank developed a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), that would serve as an operational framework for directing resources to the poorest. UNESCO, in order to launch its programme, organized an interagency meeting, and produced a document 'Education and Poverty Eradication – Cooperation for Action.' This document recognized that the role of education in poverty eradication must go beyond literacy skills and school enrolment, to empowering people to take charge of their lives, and be active participants in social and economic development. Since then UNESCO has made poverty eradication an important part of its programme. The organization demonstrated by its participation in The World Summit on Sustainable Development, held from 26 August to 4 September 2002, in Johannesburg. South Africa, that it will spare no effort to ensure that education and poverty eradication remain on the global agenda. In April 2000, education specialists met in Dakar, Senegal, to renew their commitment to education for all for another fifteen years. Aware that poverty and social exclusion are a huge barrier to education for all, the Forum participants pledged themselves to 'promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well integrated sector framework, clearly linked to poverty elimination and development strategies.' Important inputs to poverty eradication will be made through efforts to achieve the goals of EFA – early childhood education, good quality primary education for all children, meeting the learning needs of youth and adults, improving adult literacy, the elimination of gender disparities, and improving all aspects of the quality of education. Many families have …