UNICEF

UNICEF stands for United Nation Children’s Fund. Its major concern all over the world is protection of the rights of women and children. Although the name suggests that its main concern is with children, it does not lose sight of the direct relationship that exists between the well being of a mother and that of the child. Hence UNCEF in the effort to ensure that women and children are protected and given opportunity to develop and participate in society addresses the following key areas:

i. Education;
ii. Health and Nutrition
iii. Protection
iv. Planning & Communication

Partnership of FCT with UNICEF in Education dates back to the 90s when UNICEF supported Education through capacity development and supplies of relevant schools’ materials and equipment that enhance teaching and learning.

UNICEF strategies of operation and areas of focus have always aligned with Nigeria’s priority policies, programmes and projects. Very outstanding UNICEF interventions in Education in the FCT are: Community Action for Project Participation (CAPP); Child Friendly Schools and Child Friendly schooling Initiatives; School Based Management Committees; School Health Policy; Integrated Early Childhood Care and Education; WASH Programme in schools; Emergency Preparedness and Response in Education; Integration of Koranic Schools. Recently, UNICEF has concentrated in supporting the development of capacity of the upstream sector of government instructions. It in 2010/2011 UNICEF supported 16 states and FCT in the development of their Education Sector Strategic and Operational Plans.

Primarily, UNICEF seeks to encourage access, retention, completion and achievement for children at the Basic education level and has supported FCT Universal Basic Education Board with the following educational facilities:

• Through its Focus Schools/Focus Community Development Programme UNICEF has been able to support provision of classrooms, furniture, Teacher traings, Sporting facilities, safe water supply, some toilet facilities, instructional materials and access to health facilities.
• Through its child friendly school initiative (CFSI) 4 pilot schools were supported: nuku, Ushafa, Kuje and Dobi. The schools are mostly located in the rural areas; and later 4 Focus Schools/Communities were later supported viz: Gidan Mangoro, Pilot Science Karshi, Pilot Science Yaba and LEA Primary school Agyana. Science Primary School, Kuje received a boost in a partnership between UNICEF and British Airways with FCT UBEB.

UNICEF supports UBEB side by side with Adult and Non-formal Education which is managed by Agency for Mass Education.

DFID

DFID partnered with Agency for Mass Education in the reforming of Vocational and Technical (VTC) Education. It has intervened in 3 Vocational and Technical Centers (VTCs) namely; VTC Kuje, VTC Bwari and VTC Abaji., it has also supplied instructional materials and equipment (machines /tools and computers) infrastructural development (classrooms and workshop). It also supported curriculum review, capacity building of facilitators as well as Institutional capacity development of Agency for mass Education.

DFID had in the past supported FCT Education Secretariat in 2006/2007 through States and Local government Project (SLGP) to develop its first FCT Education Sector Plan.

UNESCO

UNESCO is another United Nations Organization just as UNICEF. It is an acronym for United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which supports activities that promote peace and well being in developing countries like those in Africa. Its priority areas of focus are: Gender Equity, Education for All (EFA), Sustainable Development, Ethics, Cultural Diversity, Inter-cultural dialogue, Knowledge Societies etc.

Achievement of Education for All Goals (EFA) is the major concern of UNESCO in Education, as well as promotion of Science Education. The EFA is a commitment by global leaders to provide quality basic education to all children, youths and adults. At the Dakar Forum in 2000, 164 countries of the world agreed that the six EFA Goals will be met by year 2015. Since the signing of the agreement UNESCO had pursed with vigor activities that bring governments, development partners, civil society groups and the private sector to work together in order to ensure that these goals are reached at the designated time.

The six internationally agreed education goals that aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015 are stated as follows:

1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children
2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes
4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults
5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality
6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. (Taken from UNESCO web site)

At the Dakar Framework for Action, UNESCO was mandated to coordinate other partners in the pursuit of realization of these goals. However, on the part of UNESCO it focuses on Policy Dialogue, advocacy, Capacity Development, Monitoring and Mobilization of funding for investment in EFA activities.

In Nigeria, UNESCO supports Basic Education, especially at the Federal Ministry of Education level. But the Federal Capital Territory has also gotten very reasonable amount of support from UNESCO especially in the areas of capacity development through participation in policy dialogues and round table talks; sponsoring of study tours to Egypt for best practice in Early Childcare and to Ethiopia for best practices is Education Management Information system (EMIS) and training of DD EPMIS and 3 EPMIS staff on Education Indicators. Furthermore, it has also supported FCT in the publishing of 2010/2011 School Census Data.

In 2005 UNESCO Nigeria adopted a community based Early Childcare Centre at Gidan Ajia in Orozo and re-modeled it into a child friendly centre that became an entry point for further developmental projects started in that small community by FCT Universal Basic Education Board, FCT MDG Project support Unit, Municipal Area Council etc.

Millennium Development Goals

MDGs is an acronym for Millennium Development Goals. These are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.

The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. They derive from earlier international development targets, and were officially established following the Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world leaders present adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

The following are the Millennium Development Goals:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

MDG activities in the FCT began with the access to the 2007 Conditional Grants Scheme formulated by the Federal Government of Nigeria which was designed as the vehicle through which savings made from the Debit Relief will be expended on projects that support Nigeria’s quest for the actualization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).

Under the 2007 scheme, the projects are narrowed down to focus on health care related projects, Rural water electrification projects, Sanitation, health clinics, schools, encouragement of public private partnership. In the FCT the MDG’s is coordinated by the Project support unit which has supported different projects related to sectors listed above

Under Education the Project support unit through the conditional grant has provided the following:

• Construction of 585 Classrooms for both Primary/JSS to accommodate 23,400 pupils in 2007 - 2009
• 21 Classrooms were rehabilitated
• 598 sets of classroom furniture were provided to both Primary and Junior Secondary Schools
• 1,680 classmate personal computers called classmate PCs were supplied to 14 Junior Secondary Schools

Federal Ministry of Education

Korea International Cooperation Agency

The World Bank