Statements of the Heads of the WEF 2015 Convening Agencies

T his Declaration is a huge step forward. It reflects our determination to ensure that all children, young people and adults gain the knowledge and skills they need to live in dignity, to fulfil their potential and contribute to their societies as responsible global citizens. It encourages governments to provide learning opportunities through life, so that people can continue to grow and be on the right side of change. It affirms that education, a fundamental human

right, is the key to global peace and sustainable development.

Irina Bokova

Director-General of UNESCO

Education is the key to a better life for every child and the foundation of every strong society – but far too many children are still being left behind. To realize all our development goals, we need every child in school and learning.

Anthony Lake

Executive Director, UNICEF

T o end poverty, boost shared prosperity, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must use development financing and technical expertise to effect radical change. We must work together to ensure that all children have access to quality education and learning opportunities throughout their lives, regardless of where they are born, their

gender, or their family’s income.

Jim Yong Kim

President of the World Bank Group

T ogether we must promote and protect every person’s right to education, and ensure that quality education reaches all, and instils values of peace, justice, human rights and gender equality. We are proud to have been a co-convener

of the World Education Forum and pledge to take forward the new action agenda on education for all by 2030.

Babatunde Osotimehin

UNFPA Executive Director

In our world, knowledge is power, and education empowers. It is an indispensable part of the development equation. It has intrinsic value – extending far beyond the economic – to empower people to determine their own destiny. That

is why the opportunity to be educated is central to advancing human development.

Helen Clark

UNDP Administrator

T he Incheon Declaration rightly commits us to non-discriminatory education that recognizes the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment for sustainable development. This is a crucial opportunity for us to work together, across sectors, towards the fulfilment of the Education for All promise of peaceful, just and equal

societies. A world where people are equal can only be achieved if our education also universally teaches this.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

UN Women Executive Director and

UN Under-Secretary-General

W e have a collective responsibility to ensure education plans take into account the needs of some the most vulnerable children and youth in the world – refugees, internally displaced children, stateless children and children whose right to education has been compromised by war and insecurity. These children are the keys to a

secure and sustainable future, and their education matters for us all.

António Guterres

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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