Secretary-General Praises Educational Initiatives by Ibero-American Countries

 

Aimed at Sustained Development, Stronger Democracy, in Message to Summit

 

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, to the XX Ibero-American Summit in Mar de Plata, Argentina, 4 December:

I am pleased to convey greetings to the Heads of State and Government gathered for this twentieth Ibero-American Summit, hosted by the Government of Argentina.

Allow me to praise President Cristina Fernández, whose fortitude in the face of national and personal challenges are an inspiration to us all.

For many years now, this Summit has brought together Ibero-American nations with a common culture and a collective commitment to create a better world for future generations.  In the process, your countries have become key partners of the United Nations, working with us on critical regional challenges such as the peacekeeping, humanitarian and development operations in Haiti.

I commend your choice of education as the theme for this Summit.  By focusing on the kind of schooling that the Ibero-American community wants to offer the bicentennial generation, you are building on the significant progress your region has made towards the objectives of the World Declaration on Education for All and the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by the year 2015.  You are also going even further by adopting a more ambitious set of goals to be met by the year 2021.

I welcome your initiative to mark the bicentennial with meaningful measures aimed at creating the educational and other foundations for sustained development, stronger democracy and solidarity among the Ibero-American countries.  The United Nations fully supports this vision, and I am pleased that our Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean worked with the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture in preparing the Summit’s main report, Educational Goals for 2021: The Education We Want for the Bicentennial Generation.

Education has a crucial role to play in addressing the stark inequalities that still characterize so much of the Americas.  The agendas of previous Ibero-American Summits reflect efforts to strengthen social cohesion.  Many countries have introduced important policies, such as conditional cash transfers, that provide major benefits to society, including incentives to promote education.  I encourage you to do even more in this regard.

The United Nations will continue to work with the Ibero-American secretariat and your individual governments to address the pressing challenges facing the region -- and to share your successes with the rest of the world.

Muchas gracias.  Muito obrigado.  Thank you very much.

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For information media • not an official record