ActionAid national sites
About 75m children are missing primary education
55% of them are girls
1 billion people cannot read or write
Abuja Commitment
Challenging the negative impact of IMF policies on education
At the Abuja Finance Ministers Meeting in May 2006, the IMF was explicitly asked to explain how they will be changing their economic (excessively tight monetary and fiscal) policies in their loan programs to enable a ‘scaling up’ agenda for the MDGs generally, and HIV/AIDS and education in particular.
The Fund was asked to detail how policies would change and be more flexible by the annual IMF/World Bank meetings in September in Singapore. The Official Outcome Document prompted a detailed response from civil society organisations, including ActionAid.
Advocacy at the Commonwealth Education Ministers Mid-term Review Meeting
ActionAid Sierra Leone was able to influence the 2005 Commonwealth Education Ministers Meeting on behalf of civil society. The presentation challenged the negative impact of IMF policies on education.
The final declaration stated that Ministers must take concrete steps to mitigate the impact of both IMF and national government fiscal policies. In addition, civil society organizations, with support from the EFA coalition were mobilized to rally at the opening ceremony of the conference, challenging the IMF and governments to take action towards ensuring that African countries in particular achieve the Education MDG targets/goals. The event was covered by a twenty-four hour TV channel and reported on the BBC Africa service and local radio stations.
© Stuart Freedman / ActionAid