Give me a speech on today children receive a better world
Answers
Ladies and gentlemen,
Education is the passport to a better life. It benefits not just children, but families, communities and even whole countries. It is a basic human right and a powerful driver of progress towards the other Millennium Development Goals. This morning we heard ample evidence to support this. And we heard where we stand on the road to education for all.
Although there is progress, we heard that at least 75 countries will not achieve universal primary completion by 2015. With 2015 the target date for achieving the goals, time is clearly running out. Every child must be enrolled at school by 2009 if the target is to be achieved.
On several occasions we have committed ourselves to doing more and doing it better: the Education for All Conference in Dakar, the Millennium Summit, Monterrey and Gleneagles. But we are still far from the nine billion dollars’ external aid that is needed every year.
That money is needed not only to increase access to education. Education for All cannot be achieved without improving the quality of education. That requires more than building classrooms. Classrooms, after all, don’t teach. Good teachers do, but they need to be trained and to receive a decent salary. We also have to get girls into school. The same goes for children living in states affected by conflict. And we need to tackle the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on education.
So, we know what the challenges are. It is now time to deliver and to live up to our promises. If we are serious about achieving the MDGs, urgent action is needed. For their part, developing countries need to put sound sector policies in place that meet the aspirations of their people. And they need to ensure that every last penny is used effectively. We need to show that we are serious about meeting our own commitments to more and better aid. I am therefore pleased to see new players around this table who will hopefully bring financial and other resources with them. There is a new coalition of hope emerging and this afternoon we need to agree on specific follow-up.
The new Dutch government is giving centre stage to the MDGs. The Netherlands has always been a strong supporter of the Education for All agenda, with the full backing of both parliament and the general public. This year we will be spending 15 per cent of our total ODA on basic education alone. This translates into almost 700 million euros a year. We have doubled our efforts since 2004.
In the past few years we have substantially increased bilateral support to our 16 partner countries. Let me give you some examples. Our support to Mali, Zambia and Burkina Faso doubled between 2003 and 2006; to Bangladesh it tripled and to Mozambique it increased fourfold. In all of these countries we have entered into reliable, multi-year agreements.