Lapus tries on the UNESCO armor of combating ignorance at the EB, Paris

PARIS, France – The official return of the Philippines to the UNESCO Executive Board (EB) took place this spring from April 1 to 17, 2008. DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, as the official delegate (with me as the alternate delegate), arrived the night before the first Plenary assembly of April 7 with a winter chill of 8 degrees Centigrade.

Sec. Lapus spoke at the Plenary to give his views regarding Director General Koichiro Matsuura’s report. Seated between the Portugal EB members Ambassador Duarte Ramalho Ortigão and Ms Shahnaz Wazir Ali of the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), Sec. Lapus had to leaf through a three-inch thick folder of UNESCO documents. The wooden circular table where the members sat in alphabetical order of their countries had the Director General sitting at the head table with the elected EB Chairman, an eloquent and humorous gentleman, Joseph Yai of Benin, Africa. Behind were all the Assistant Directors General of Education, Culture, Communication, Science, and Social and Human Sciences.

Why DepEd tops the performance ratings of government agencies

USec. Vilma Labrador assisted Sec. Lapus bringing with her the latest DepEd 2007 Performance Report.

During the past two years Secretary Lapus has been in office, he has negotiated the increase of the Basic Education budget from P109.52 billion (2004) to P137 billion (2007). Ninety-three private sector partners have been involved in upgrading public education from P300 million (2004) to P4 billion (2007). Combined public and private preschool enrollment steadily increased from 2003 to 2007 – 831,730 (SY 2003-2004) to 952,109 (SY 2006-2007). For SY 2006-2007, enrollment was 19.7 million for both elementary and secondary levels where 16.9 million are in public schools.

Upon assuming the governance of the Department of Education, Sec. Lapus calculated that since every minute four Filipino babies are born, he needs to provide one classroom every 10 minutes for 40 students. In 2004, about 445 barangay and municipalities had no elementary school, this was reduced to 267 in 2007.

For SY 2006-2007, there were 26,282 schools without principals. This was reduced to 22,803 schools this year. Meantime, a total of 42,572 teacher items were created in 2004-2007, as DepEd aimed at 1:50 teacher-student ratio. The 7,574 teacher items of 2004 jumped to 16,334 in 2007 – the highest number in years.

Joining the UNESCO General Debate of the Executive Board

Early in the year, the UNESCO Secretariat of Paris has sent to the 58 Executive Board members, the Provisional Agenda of the 179th Session of the Executive Board (#179 EX/1 Prov. Rev.). Items 1-3 provided the timetable of work, summary records of the 177th and 178th Sessions and the Rules of Procedures of the Executive Board. Ambassador to Paris Jose Zaide and Consul Igor Bailen attended to bureau concerns.

Director-General Koichiro Matsuura invited the Executive Board to the traditional General Debate focused on Item 4 (implementation of the Programme and Budget 33 C/5) and the results achieved in the previous biennium 2006-2007 (Draft 35 C/3), as well as Item 5 (UN system ‘Delivering as One’, Climate Management, Gender Balance at senior management level in UNESCO Secretariat, and the International Conference on Education (ICE).

Secretary Lapus spoke at the General Debate of the 179th Session in the afternoon of April 8:

“We welcome the Director-General’s report for the past biennium, highlighting Education For All (EFA) as UNESCO’s centerpiece flagship programme... We have intensified the pursuit of our EFA National Plan since my assumption of the Education Ministry two years ago. First, we revised the Basic Education curriculum to respond to global trends. Second, we augmented the share of Basic Education in the national budget by about US$400 million… ”

UNESCO’s Global Action Plan of EFA (GAP-EFA)

To strengthen the organization’s action on EFA, the Assistant Director General (ADG) for Education personally leads the EFA International Coordination Team with two Directors financed by the Norwegian government: one responsible for EFA country relations and the other for EFA donor relations.

The purpose of the EFA Global Action Plan (GAP) is to coordinate the multilateral support provided to countries for achieving the six Dakar goals, in close alignment with the five EFA convening partners (UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank). The GAP has been welcomed internationally and adopted as a reference point for joint action and United Nations inter-agency coordination at the country level.

UNESCO has developed the UNES CO National Education Support Strategy (UNESS) as a planning tool for aligning its support with national needs and priorities, strengthening country ownership. To date, UNESS documents are being finalized in more than 50 countries, including the Philippines. Dr. Anwar Alsaid, Education Programme Specialist of UNESCO Jakarta and Dr. Ibtisam Abu-Duhou, Senior Adviser of Educational Policy Reform of UNESCO Bangkok, are helping put together the UNESS Philippines.

The aim is to use UNESS more systematically to formulate common UN education strategies that include EFA in more countries and to have them accepted by Governments and UNCT (UN Country Team) partners.

The final HLG (High Level Group) communiqué proposed a series of concrete actions (ECE, youth and adult literacy) to address the three key issues identified in the 2008 Report, namely: equity and inclusion; quality of education; and financing of EFA. Both the EFA Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) International Advisory Panel (IAP) on EFA established by the Director General provide a structured year-round consultation and follow up process among representative EFA partners.

What is the ‘Take Home Value’ for the Philippines as EB member?

The Philippine team working with Secretary Lapus, USec Labrador and me was led by Deputy Permanent Delegate Atty. Igor Bailen, who keeps office at the Rue Miollis with Filipina assistants – Anne Magtoto and Political Science internist Isabel Chazal (a Filipino-French mestiza) – worked closely with Philippine Embassy Consul, Atty. Angela Ponce and Political Attache Maria Josefina Caballos. We took turns in sitting in the two major commission of the Executive Board: the PX (Programme and External Relations Commission) and the FA (Finance and Administration Commission).

Eager to know the financial management of this UN agency dealing, he conferred with the UNESCO Secretariat Finance Director of Budget, a petite Italian lady Madame Yolande Valle-Neff. Madame Yolande smiled when Secretary Lapus gave her very interesting and frank questions revealing his mathematical mind: “What is the take home value for the Philippines as an Executive Board member? Are we content with UNESCO’s involvement in the Philippines? Are there any pending business in addition to the Philippine bid to be the SEA CLLSD, the final approval of Batanes as a World Heritage Site, and the expansion of the Tubattaha Reef ocean perimeter…?

Madame Valle-Neff explained that two weeks before the EB meets in spring and autumn a panel of finance experts sit to deliberate on UNESCO support budget projected to cover programs that will be approved by the EB. She stated that the biggest funders (United States, Japan, England, and China) send their experts in this panel and invited Sec. Lapus to observe their proceedings just before the official start of the EB meeting in autumn.

We brought up the subject of the election of the new Director General since DG Matsuura will conclude his term this year. The Secretariat realized that replacing a Director General who works practically 24 hours a day and is a good fund broker while being fully financed by his country, Japan, is difficult.

Challenged by the weighty global responsibilities of UNESCO

Below are the interventions of Sec. Lapus:

“…In line with the UN system-wide coherence, the Philippines supports UNESCO’s reform efforts, which sharpens UNESCO’s message and programme delivery in its competences via intersectoral platforms. …We support the draft decision which upholds the principle of government ownership...”

“The Philippines would like to co-sponsor the draft decision sponsored by Germany on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). …Mr. Chairman, TVET is a priority for the Philippines. In 1994, we reorganized national TVET delivery by creating the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) as the single national authority that formulates strategic TVET policies and programs for both the formal and informal sectors…”

“The Philippines supports the draft decision and congratulates China on its Category 2 proposal to be the Asia Pacific Center for space technology to protect Heritage Sites… This will immensely contribute to capacity-building in the novel use of applied space technologies for the study and protection of World Heritage Sites and biosphere reserves…”

“Mr. Chairman, alarmed by the report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo created a Presidential Task Force on Climate Change to conduct a rapid-action oriented assessment on the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable areas like water, agriculture, coastal areas and terrestrial and marine ecosystems… Manila will also host in October this year, the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance with the theme ‘Gender and Climate Change’…”

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