As the Director for Information Projects and Services at the International Association of Universities (IAU) and person in charge of the Higher Education for Education For All (HEEFA) Project, Isabelle Turmaine took on the task to advocate for the Arusha Declaration and higher education at the UNESCO World Education Forum. The forum took place 19–22 May 2015 in Incheon, Korea. It proved to be a challenge, but positive achievements were nonetheless made.
”It was difficult, but I think we did manage well in a group of over 300 NGOs at the NGO Forum, and then amongst some 1,500 participants where 120 countries were represented,” said Isabelle at the return from Korea.
“We distributed the Arusha statement to people we thought might support our views, and reference to it was included in IAU’s President statement that was sent to the drafting committee of the Incheon Declaration,” she continues.
Successful results included:
- In the NGO Forum Declaration: ‘We reaffirm the right to progressively free and public quality higher education and vocational training’
- In the Incheon Declaration (Ministerial): ‘We commit to promoting quality lifelong learning opportunities for all, in all settings and at all levels of education. This includes equitable and increased access to quality technical and vocational education and training and higher education and research, with due attention to quality assurance’
IAU is further more planning to organise a meeting in October 2015, to review the results of the efforts that have been made to include Higher Education among the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim is to provide a Higher Education response for consideration in the Framework of Action on the Education Target that UNESCO will adopt at its next General Conference in November 2015.
“We are nearly but not yet at the end of the long process that will set the educational priorities for the next 15 years, and I am convinced that the Arusha Declaration helped and will still be useful in getting higher education cited and involved in the international education agenda and its related programmes,” concludes Isabelle.