AHG/Dec.136 (XXXV) Decision on the Report of the Secretary-General on the
Conference of African Ministers of Education (COMEDAF 1) and the Implementation of the Programme of Action of the Decade of Education in Africa
The Assembly:
TAKES NOTE of the report;
ENDORSES the recommendations of the Conference of African Ministers of Education (COMEDAF 1) meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 15 to 19 March, 1999;
TAKES NOTE of the Programme of Action of the Decade of Education in Africa and of the Mechanism for its implementation, as well as the components thereof, as approved by the Conference of Ministers of Education;
TAKES NOTE of the Kampala Declaration and Framework of Action on the Empowerment of Women through Functional Literacy and the Education of the Girl Child;
URGES Member States to put in place all the necessary national structures as recommended in the report for the effective implementation of the Decade and the Harare Programme of Action;
ALSO URGES Member States to continue to give priority to education, more particularly basic education, as pillar of development and generator of human resources, in all their National Development Plans;
INVITES Member States as well as technical and financial partners to leave no stone unturned in monitoring, particularly at the national level, the synergy of all the on- going initiatives on the continent, with a view to coordinating and harmonizing the variou s programmes;
FURTHER URGES the Regional Economic Communities to take the necessary steps to implement the relevant provisions of the Programme of Action in consultation with the OAU General Secretariat, the countries and the competent regional organizations;
CALLS ON the OAU Secretary-General to:
put in place the Decade Secretariat;
set up the Decade Steering Committee;
release as early as possible the necessary resources for the launching of the Decade coordination activities;
convene every two years the Conference of African Ministers of Education;
convene in 2002, on the occasion of the mid-term review of the Decade, a Summit on Education.
APPEALS to African and International Agencies and Institutions, as well as NGOs and donor countries, to lend their technical and financial support to the implementation of the Decade Programme of Action both at national and continental levels.