News

-The Cochabamba Agreements: Regional Solidarity for Achieving SDG4-E2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean was approved at the II Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean, “Transforming Education: A Joint Response from Latin America and the Caribbean for Achieving SDG4-E2030.”

-Among other things, the document establishes the adoption of the Regional Roadmap for the Implementation of SDG4-E2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean, an instrument that will support the countries’ efforts to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which refers to lifelong quality, inclusive, equitable education.

Education ministers and high-ranking officials from Latin America and the Caribbean approved the Cochabamba Agreements and the Regional Roadmap for the Implementation of SDG4-E2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean on 26 July 2018. The latter establishes a regional mechanism for moving towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 –Education 2030 together.

The Roadmap is a frame of reference for the design and execution of regional actions in education and contains recommendations for the national implementation of public policy on this issue. It also supports coordinated and coherent progress on priority issues for the countries of the region such as the quality of education, equity and inclusion, teachers and education personnel and lifelong learning.

The document was prepared collectively during two technical meetings following the I Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean (Buenos Aires, January 2017). Representatives of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on the SDG-E2030 Global Steering Committee (Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia), one Caribbean nation selected by GRULAC, the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries in the United Nations (Granada), UNESCO and UNICEF, sub-regional and regional organizations (CARICOM, CECC-SICA, the OAS and OEI) and representatives of civil society (CLADE and Education International) also participated in these meetings.

A Commitment to Educational Integration

The Cochabamba Agreements were endorsed by the representatives of the countries that attended the regional meeting in Bolivia. They are based on the Buenos Aires Declaration (2017), the first milestone in the regionalization of SDG4-E2030 that allowed the countries to contextualize the global decisions adopted in the Incheon Declaration emanating from the World Education Forum in May 2015 from this continent. The Buenos Aires Declaration provided a shared vision of the 2030 Education Agenda from Latin America and the Caribbean and was aimed at generating strategies and programs that seek to achieve these targets at the national and regional levels for 2017-2030.

The countries agreed in Bolivia to create a mechanism for implementing the Roadmap. The executive secretariat will be the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago). This mechanism consists of a Regional Steering Committee with two representatives from South America, two from Central America and Mexico, and three from the Caribbean, all of whom will be elected by the member states. UNESCO and UNICEF will serve as the permanent coordinating agencies of the committee and will receive support from regional inter-governmental organizations and two civil society organizations.

The Regional Steering Committee shall establish four working groups that will drive specific actions in review, monitoring and reporting; policy and strategies; advocacy and communication; and finance and governance. The groups may seek the support of technical experts whenever necessary.

In the agreements, the authorities committed to strengthen intersectoral collaboration and to explore opportunities for the participation of young people and adults in regional coordination mechanisms. They also agreed to meet every two or three years and to entrust OREALC/UNESCO Santiago with organizing regional meetings in coordination with the Regional Steering Committee and the hosting country.

Roberto Aguilar, Minister of Education of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, thanked the people who made the event possible for their efforts. “It has been very important for us to give continuity to this shared effort, which has also allowed an historic participation of the Caribbean, resulting in complete integration of our region. I would like to thank you for your participation on behalf of the Bolivian people and our President, Evo Morales.”

Claudia Uribe, Director of the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago), highlighted the efforts made by regional authorities to build these collaborative mechanisms and said that, “As the executive secretariat, we are highly committed to further strengthening collaboration among countries so that the Roadmap effectively supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 - E2030 targets in our region.”

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The Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean is the second such event held following the approval of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which was agreed to in September 2015. The Roadmap responds to the mandate of the Buenos Aires Declaration (2017), which, among other things, states that education should contribute to the elimination of poverty, reduction of inequities and protection of the environment through inclusive quality education and lifelong learning.

In Buenos Aires, the regional authorities also agreed to create regional coordination mechanisms to achieve the education goals. They recognized the urgent need to increase the breadth of the changes, which means reexamining education, learning, teaching, policies and actions in Latin America and the Caribbean. The II Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean follows up on these mandates, which were established in 2017.

• Official website of the Cochabamba meeting

• Cochabamba Agreements

Press Contact:

Carolina Jerez Henríquez (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago)

c.jerez@uesco.org, WhatsApp (+569) 92890175

URL:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/education-2030/cochabamba-meeting-2018/press/press-release-4/