Federal Executive Council resolutions for Wednesday 6th March, 2013.

[FMINigeria]

Briefing State House correspondents immediately after the Federal Executive Council Meeting, the Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, told reporters that the Minister of Education brought a note to apprise Council of the report of the Global Education for All Meeting (GEM) held between 21st and 23rd November, 2012 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France.

The Minister said the GEM is a new Education for All (EFA) coordination mechanism which was designed to offer a strategic platform to revitalize the EFA movement.  The initiative is meant to increase support for EFA by all stakeholders through increased knowledge sharing, consultation, advocacy, resource mobilization and more coordinated actions.

She said that Nigeria made a presentation on bottlenecks that are holding back EFA in the country as well as interventions put in place to address the situation.

The Education Minister also said that the key message from the meeting was a call to all member countries and partners to scale up efforts in a last "Big Push" to reach the EFA goals by 2015.

Maku also said that the Minister of Foreign Affairs brought a note to apprise council of the outcome of the 20th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 21st to 28th January, 2013.

The Minister said that political, economic and social issues were discussed at the session; and that Nigeria was re-elected as a member of the AU Peace and Security Council.

And that the President pledged the sum of USD 5million for the kitting and operations of AFISMA and the MDSF at the Donors' Conference held immediately after the Summit.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs on the margins of the Summit signed a Memorandum of Agreement between the AU Commission and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the hosting of the Pan African University Institute for Life and Earth Sciences domiciled at the University of Ibadan.

The Information Minister said that the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development through her memo apprised council of the official visit of Madam Michelle Bachelet, the Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the united Nation's Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) from 9th to 11th January, 2013, to Nigeria.

That her visit was also expected to promote Nigeria's image and provide visibility for women and gender concerns.

The visit was able to renew commitments from key stakeholders on actions to advance women and girls.  The UN Women Executive Director commended Nigeria for initiating positive women focused policies.  The council noted all the appraisals.

Maku said the Ministers of Labour and Productivity and that of Federal Capital Territory Administration, briefed the council on the progress and challenges of their Ministries in the year 2012.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria