By Amin Kef Sesay
Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School, Dr. David Sengeh held a review and reflection meeting in Paris, France with Ms. Amina Mohamed, Deputy UN Secretary-General, to set the core agenda items for the Transforming Education Summit (TES) to be held in June this year.
The TES Advisory Committee is established to provide strategic guidance on the substantive focus and preparations for the Summit. Its members represent States and a wide range of education partners. The meeting was attended by the UNESCO Assistant Secretary General of Education, Stefanie Giannini and Ambassador Samuel Tamba Musa, Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.
The Minister extended courtesies to the Deputy Secretary-General and commended her for the leadership in the field of education and for efforts undertaken to rally Member States and the international community more broadly behind the organization of the TES.
The two dignitaries reflected on the numerous information gathering meetings organized to define the key elements of the preparatory process, which play a central role in securing active engagement as well as in mobilizing support for the summit.
Minister Sengeh underscored his commitment to engage Member States and Key stakeholders throughout the preparatory process and beyond to ensure ownership and to draw on the expertise of all partners.
Both Minister David Sengeh and DSG Ms Amina Mohamed reiterated the importance of building on the partnerships forged in the education response to the COVID crisis and the “reset” of the global cooperation in education.
In this regard, they stressed in particular the importance of embedding the TES and its preparatory process within the framework of the Global Cooperation Mechanism to prevent parallel processes.
Further in the discussion, they emphasized the importance of making use of existing structures, platforms and initiatives, referring in particular to the GCM platforms-the Multilateral Education Platform (MEP), the Global Education Forum (GEF), the CCNGO and the SDG 4 Youth Network (SDG4Youth).
They also underlined the importance of using the first TES Advisory Committee meeting to foster strong support for the proposed action tracks among the Committee members, who will also play a pivotal role in rallying their respective constituency groups behind them.
The meeting was concluded on a note underscoring the importance they attach to ensuring that the TES Advisory Committee members have regular dialogue and consultation in their respective constituency groups to foster ownership. In this regard, Minister Dr David Sengeh gave his commitment to align his participation with the Deputy SG Ms Amina Mohamed in her capacity as both Co-chair of the TES Advisory Committee and the SDG 4-Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee.
