Education Above All Announces Plenary and Sessions Schedule

Education Above All Foundation (EAA) will open its third edition of the EAA Village at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) on 4th November 2015 at the Qatar National Convention Centre. EAA will host a plenary session on the second day of the Summit. Lead by EAA’s Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC), the session (“Education Violence and Conflict – from Daunting Challenge to Effective Response”) will discuss the impact of armed conflict and insecurity on education and the need for real-time information that can lead to effective response measures. Speakers will include: Graça Machel, former Minister for Education in Mozambique; Dr. Kevin Watkins, Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute, Thomas Gass, UN Assistant Secretary General, Policy Coordinator and Inter-Agency Affairs and Elizabeth Decrey Warner, Executive President, Geneva Call.

‘One in 11 children worldwide is out of school. Despite the efforts of the global community, conflicts and disasters are putting pressure on education access. This upward trend shows no signs of receding without more concerted action from all sectors,” commented Marcio Barbosa, CEO, Education Above All Foundation. ‘We hope that our EAA sessions at WISE this year will serve as a forum for members of the global community to engage in pragmatic solution-finding needed to address this growing crisis. We must identify new and innovative ways of providing access to education under all circumstances—those who are prevented from realising their right to an education by war,poverty and other barriers.’

Addtionally, EAA will lead three technical sessions, which will address key issues in education and development: poverty, quality and conflict. EAA will bring to WISE more than 20 speakers from international organisations and governments to present at its sessions. The EAA Village, located in WISE’s ‘Majlis’ space will highlight the issues and programmes that are brought together under the EAA banner – Educate A Child, Al Fakhoora, and PEIC

To preview EAA’s programme at WISE 2015, senior representatives will address the media on the 3rd of November. The briefing will tie together the different strands of the Plenary and the technical sessions, as well as reflect on the importance of keeping the promise to the 59 million out of school children worldwide.

On the first day of the 2015 WISE Summit (4 November), EAA’s Educate A Child programme will host a technical session addressing poverty, during which the current education financing mechanisms and challenges will be discussed. Speakers include Julia Gillard, Chair of the Board, Global Partnership from Education (GPE); Ichiro Miyazawa, UNESCO, Nadia Bernasconi, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC); and Louis Falcy, International Rescue Committee (IRC).

On the same day (4 November), EAA’s Al Fakhoora programme will host a session on quality. This interactive mind-mapping session will include audience participation, and will address a variety of topics including measurement indicators and the need for real time strategies in conflict affected areas. Speakers for this session include Dr. Abla Amawi, UNDP, Dr. Rebecca Polestico, UNESCO, and Michael Schroll, Head of the Office of Independent Evaluation, Caribbean Development Bank.

Following the plenary session on the second day of WISE (5 November), EAA’s PEIC programme will host a session which will address the importance data collection during attacks on education. The session will discuss the need for a global data service to collect reliable data and identify significant trends that might lead to appropriate response measures. Speakers during this session will include Dr. Maryam Qasim, Former Minister of Human Development and Public Service, Somalia, and Dr. Kevin Watkins from Overseas Development Institute.

The 2015 WISE Summit is the first international education event to take place following adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN member states in September 2015.