The EFA Global Monitoring Report, developed by an independent team and published by UNESCO, assesses every year the progress with regard to the commitments towards Education for All.

The launch of the 2005 EFA Global Monitoring Report in Germany took place on 28 January 2005 in the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development in Berlin. An expert meeting organised by InWEnt and hosted by the Ministry provided the organisational setting for the launching. On the invitation of the German National Commission for UNESCO about 40 participants from agencies, universities and governmental departments debated the topic of the Global Monitoring Report: "The Quality Imperative". After a presentation of the GMR by Steve Packer from the GMR Team and a discussion of its overall scope and focus opened by Prof. Christoph Wulf, chairperson of the education commission of the National Commission for UNESCO, the thematic debate focused on "Contributions of quantitative and qualitative educational research for the analysis of quality basic education in developing countries". It was accompanied by a lecture on quantitative approaches by Katja Michaelowa, an economist from the Hamburg World Economy Archive (HWWA) and another on qualitative aspects by Arnd-Michael Nohl, Professor for Intercultural Education from the Free University of Berlin. In the final panel on "Consequences for development policy with regard to educational policy and with regard to the German development co-operation", representatives from the Federal Ministry for Development Co-operation, the GTZ, InWEnt and the KfW (the federal "Bank for Reconstruction") discussed the perspectives offered by the GMR with respect to German development cooperation. All in all, the expert meeting provided a broad perspective on quality issues in educational development cooperation without, however, addressing questions concerning educational quality to the German educational system (which would have certainly resulted, as a participant said, in another inspiring debate). Contact: Werner Mauch (w.mauch@unesco.org )

Source: UIE Nexus