With billions of rural people caught in a vicious circle of being unable to access services and opportunities that might take them out of poverty, United Nations agencies and their partners Wednesday pledged greater cooperation to improve access to basic education for what they called the worlds biggest neglected majority.
– Basic education is a fundamental human right in itself and an essential prerequisite for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically the first two goals which focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and achieving universal primary education, Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), John Monyo, told a three-day meeting in Rome.
– The gap between urban and rural illiteracy is widening and, in several countries, rural illiteracy is two or three times higher than in urban areas, Mr. Monyo said, pointing out that worldwide the great majority of the 2,8 billion people who survive on less than two dollar a day (10-11 DKR) live in rural areas.
Representatives from more than 100 non-governmental and civil society organizations, senior officials from the Italian Development Cooperation programme and experts from FAO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took part in the meeting.
A partnership project will raise public awareness in Europe on the importance of education for rural people in poor countries and the urgent need to target rural areas where over 70 per cent of the worlds poor live.
As an example of the problems, Mr. Monyo cited the village of Wikihi in the rural Niassa Lake region in Mozambique, where schoolchildren and their teacher have no books. They write down in the sand what the teacher writes on an old wooden board using dried cassava.
– In Wikihi, as in so many other African, Asian, and Latin American villages, what is needed is an efficient, inclusive and widespread education system, which addresses the basic learning needs of rural people, he said.
FAO expert Lavinia Gasperini noted that with illiteracy on the increase in the developing world, more and more farmers will be unable to read instructions on a bag of fertilizer or warnings on a box of pesticide. – Without basic education, rural people cannot increase their productivity, adopt enhanced technologies and improve their livelihoods, she said.
She underlined that the problem of poverty is first of all a problem of rural poverty and food security. – This has prompted FAO to accept the challenge of leading the partnership project on education for rural people and food security, she said.
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