Education for All regions

For monitoring of progress towards the six Education for All (EFA) goals, the world has been divided into eight EFA regions:

• North America and Western Europe
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Central Asia
• East Asia and the Pacific
• South and West Asia
• Arab States
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Latin America and the Caribbean

These regions, shown in the map below, are used in publications like the EFA Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO or the Global Education Digest by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Regions for monitoring of Education for All goals


Combined, the eight EFA regions cover 204 countries and territories. Two EFA regions - East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean - are further divided into two sub-regions.

Composition of EFA regions

• North America and Western Europe (26 countries and territories)
  Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
• Central and Eastern Europe (21 countries)
  Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine.
• Central Asia (9 countries)
  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
• East Asia and the Pacific (33 countries and territories)
  East Asia (16 countries and territories)
  Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Macao (China), Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam.
  Pacific (17 countries and territories)
  Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
• South and West Asia (9 countries)
  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
• Arab States (20 countries and territories)
  Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
• Sub-Saharan Africa (45 countries)
  Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Latin America and the Caribbean (41 countries and territories)
  Latin America (19 countries)
  Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).
  Caribbean (22 countries and territories)
  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

References

• UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. Annex, p. 269. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2010. Global education digest 2010: Comparing education statistics across the world. Montreal: UIS. Annex, p. 274-275. (Download in PDF format, 8 MB)

Related articles

• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
• Global Education Digest 2010
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Children of primary and secondary school age out of school
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy

External links

• Education for All (EFA)
• EFA goals
• UNESCO education
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre

Friedrich Huebler, 26 March 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/03/efa.html

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2011 was released by UNESCO on 1 March 2011. This year's edition of this annual report has the title The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. The report documents the impact of violent conflict on education and the long-lasting negative effects on educational attainment and literacy.

Today, 28 million or over 40 percent of all children out of school (67 million worldwide) live in countries affected by conflict, although these countries are home to only 116 million or 18 percent of the global population of primary school age (653 million) (see Figure 1). (Only out-of-school children in low and lower-middle income conflict-affected countries were counted to arrive at the total of 28 million. In addition, for large countries like India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, only children living in conflict-affected areas were included in the 28 million children affected by conflict.) In conflict areas, the out-of-school rate is around 24 percent, compared to 7 percent in other parts of the world. Children affected by armed conflict are thus more than three times as likely to be out of school as other children.

Conflict-affected countries also have some of the lowest levels of literacy. In these countries, only 79 percent of youth between 15 and 24 years and 69 percent of adults are literate, compared to 93 percent of youth and 85 percent of adults in other countries.

War does not only destroy lives and schools, it also diverts resources from education to military spending. The Global Monitoring Report documents how lack of access to education or exposure to the wrong kind of education can contribute to persistent inequality, prejudice and renewed armed conflict, a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

Lastly, the Global Monitoring Report 2011 examines the role of development assistance in conflict-affected countries and argues for increased and more effective aid for the education sector.

Figure 1: Population of primary school age and children out of school in countries affected and not affected by armed conflict, 2008

Source: UNESCO 2011, pages 132, 308, 309; author's calculations.

Reference

• UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)

External links

• EFA Global Monitoring Report website
• Announcement of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011 on the World Education Blog by the EFA GMR team
• Announcement of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011 on the website of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Related articles

• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008
• Global Education Digest 2010

Friedrich Huebler, 6 March 2011 (edited 26 March 2011), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/03/gmr.html