Capacity development for education for all (CapEFA): Translating theory into practice
24 November 2011
UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2011) suggests that national barriers to
Education for All (EFA) have been largely under-estimated and that, over the past decade,
insufficient attention has been paid to strategies for overcoming them. The recently launched
publication “Capacity Development for Education for All: Translating Theory into Practice” offers
an opportunity for UNESCO to reflect upon its capacity development approach while bringing together
some of the crucial achievements and lessons learned through the CapEFA programme.
The report aims to demonstrate clear examples on how specific capacity challenges to EFA are being addressed through nationally owned and driven capacity-development strategies, multistakeholder partnership arrangements and platforms for South-South cooperation.
The report was prepared by UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education for All (CapEFA) programme, which was initiated in 2003 with the aim of translating global advocacy on EFA into concrete action at country level. It is financed and supported by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, recently joined by Italy. The programme provides targeted capacity development in four thematic priority areas of strategic importance for EFA, namely: 1) sector-wide policy and planning, 2) literacy, 3) teachers, and 4) technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
Emphasizing support to Member States identified as Least Developed Countries, the CapEFA programme currently operates in 28 countries and oversees five regional initiatives. Working with national governments, technical partners, civil society and private sector actors, and employing an explicit capacity development approach, the programme begins with an assessment of existing education sector strengths to identify the country’s ‘capacity baseline’. From here, it strives to ensure effective country leadership in the design, implementation and monitoring of strategies for reinforcing key EFA task areas.
Search Terms education global policy research
