ISLAMABAD, 17 May (UNHCR) - The UN Refugee Agency and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization signed a two-year agreement on Wednesday to work closely on streamlining education for Afghans in Pakistan.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, signed at UNHCR's Pakistan headquarters in Islamabad and in effect until 2008, the UN Refugee Agency and UNESCO will further strengthen their working relationship with other UN and donor agencies to attract funds and support for their joint programmes.

The MoU facilitates cooperation between the two agencies to help repatriating Afghan children to integrate in to the Afghan educational system, for example through proper recognition of their school certificates. In Pakistan, it aims at developing a strategy to streamline temporary staying Afghan children’s education services.

The signing parties agreed to do this through sharing of technical advice and mutual assistance to the identification of interlocutors with in the Government of Pakistan, the NGO community and through consultations with the Afghan Government.

“The agreement will help realize the millennium development goal of education being a right to every child among the Afghan community present in Pakistan”, Guenet Guebre-Christos, representative of UNHCR in Pakistan, said in signing the agreement. “Afghan children going to schools in Pakistan and those continuing their education inside Afghanistan, after their voluntary repatriation, are the main beneficiaries of this deal.”

UNHCR is currently supporting primary education for Afghans in refugee camps across Pakistan under its global mandate. This agreement is in line with UNESCO’s mandate that views education holistically and supports primary, secondary and tertiary education.

The MoU allows UNHCR and UNESCO to continue efforts in the field of basic education for Afghan children and related teacher support, training and capacity building as well as adult literacy and non-formal training opportunities.

The agreement will also help in looking after areas like planning, statistics and promoting awareness on HIV/AIDS.

"Education is a crucial tool for protecting the future of refugee children and gives them and their parents hope for the future, through this MoU, UNESCO and UNHCR have joined forces in this endeavour", said Jorge Sequeira, Representative of UNESCO in Pakistan. "This MoU is a strategic step forward in line with UN's integrated approach towards addressing issues, including those related to Afghan refugees."

Pakistan is still home to some 2.6 million Afghans. More than 2.7 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan under a UNHCR assisted voluntary repatriation programme after the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.



Media Contacts:

Babar Baloch +92-300-5017939 - UNHCR
Mehreen Saeed +92-300-535-8225-UNESCO