Global Education First Initiative takes centre stage at MIPTV

The Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) takes centre stage at today’s MIPTV event in Cannes, France. The United Nations has chosen MIPTV’s 50th anniversary to highlight GEFI and utilize the power of the television industry to raise the profile of education.

In an interview with MIPTV, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown said, “The launch of Ban Ki-moon’s Global Education First Initiative has done more than anything else in recent years to move education up the global agenda.”

On Wednesday 10 April, the high-profile panel discussion will feature a video message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and is presented by Mr. Brown. Guest speakers include Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl and advocate for girls’ right to education who was shot by the Taliban for attending school. Earlier this week, Mr. Ban spoke with Ms. Yousafzai via Skype.

The event aims to communicate global education priorities to a broad audience and show how television and the entertainment industry can drive positive social change and galvanize support for the cause of education.
 
The MIPTV session will be followed by a 1000 day countdown to 2015, or the number of days remaining until the Millennium Development Goals target date. Online and offline events are planned in the 1000 days remaining to accelerate efforts on a variety of issues, including access to education and gender equality.

Next week, there will be a series of events in Washington, D.C. that will bring together ministers of finance and education from eight countries that are home to about one-half of the world’s out-of-school children. The events will identify challenges and concrete actions to achieving global education targets by 2015.

At MIPTV, the United Nations is joining forces with the European Union. The partnership aims is to promote citizenship, peace, and human rights around the world and combines content and news with the television industry’s creativity.

Source: UN Global Education First Initiative