The Seychelles National Commission for UNESCO based at the Ministry of Education, organized national consultations to provide feedback on the outcome document entitled Draft Fortaleza Declaration in preparation for the 2024 Global Education Meeting (GEM) scheduled from 31st October to 1st November 2024 in Brazil. This consultation was conducted at the recommendation of UNESCO High Level Steering Committee on SDG4 to have member states contribute to the Draft Fortaleza Declaration. The first meeting took place on Friday 9th August 2024 to inform delegates of objective of these national consultations and initiate the brainstorming sessions in the three groups. The second meeting took place on Wednesday 14th August 2024 where participants provided feedback from their group discussions. 17 participants from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and the Citizens Engagement attended these consultation meetings. Delegates had to provide their feedback on the preamble of the Draft Fortaleza Declaration as well as comment on the three questions given. The first question asked for priority actions to bring about transformation in education on topics like climate and environment, peace and human rights, science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, gender equality and health and nutrition. The second question was about transformative actions that need to take place to ensure inclusion, equity, gender equality, lifelong learning and skills development, teaching and teaching profession and governance and leadership. The third question related to education financing and touched on initiatives like tax justice and reforms, aid effectiveness, innovative financing, efficiency and equity in investment and cross sectoral resource mobilization for education. The report of the national consultations was then sent to UNESCO Regional Officer for Eastern Africa and shared with the Executive Officials from the Ministry of Education.
