UNESCO Dhaka

Education systems in many of the world's poorest countries are now experiencing the aftershock of the global economic downturn.

The 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, released on 19 January, argues that the crisis could create a lost generation of children whose life chances will have been irreparably damaged by a failure to protect their right to education.

The Report examines who these children are and why they are being left behind, and shows that the cost of providing Education for All is much higher than previously estimated.

The report looks at concrete solutions for making sure that no children are excluded from schooling.

Get the report and other relevant documents and data

Ministers and high level government officials representing eight South Asian countries agreed to step up their efforts to eliminate illiteracy from the region by 2015 when they met at the second ministerial meeting of South Asia Education for All (EFA) Forum in Dhaka on13-14 December 2009.

Participants from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan met to evaluate the state of education, especially the efforts to achieve the EFA goals, in their respective countries and plan the way forward to attain education for all in the region.

UNESCO supports creation of the first ever citizens' media forum in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh citizens are largely unexposed to the notion that they have a stake in the media. Newspaper readers or TV viewers are happy to play the passive consumers even as their counterparts in neighbouring India and Pakistan have started raising their voices on media issues. A strong relationship between the media and citizens based on mutual trust is crucial for developing and sustaining free and pluralistic media organisations and indeed for healthy democratic societies. But it's a process that has to be nurtured and built over time. There has been no serious attempt in this regard in Bangladesh, until recently.

UNESCO has initiated a project titled “Action plan for the Safeguarding of Baul song” to achieve the following objectives:
• To ensure that new generation of Bauls are properly trained in accurate  performance and transmission of Baul Songs
• To identify the Baul Communities of Bangladesh.
• To raise the awareness among the population of Bangladesh about the Baul Songs.