DRAFT Terms of Reference Asia and Pacific EFA MDA Sub-Regional Synthesis Reports

and the UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, organized a regional planning meeting for the assessment. The meeting brought together national EFA coordinators, education planners and statisticians and ECCE focal points from 21 countries from South, South-East and East Asia, together with subject specialists, including linguists, child development specialists, special-needs education specialists and special interest NGOs, to discuss the direction forward for national and regional assessment. Working in sub-regional groups, the participants identified the major issues to be assessed and drafted work plans for national assessment with regard to each of the six EFA goals. Similar sub-regional workshops and meetings were held in Central Asia and the Pacific Island States. The 2005 EFA High Level Meeting in Beijing gave opportunity for discussions on the Asia and Pacific plans and strategies for the EFA mid-decade assessment. It was agreed that UNESCO and UNICEF would join forces to assist and facilitate countries to carry out the assessment exercise and to encourage other agencies, both multilateral and bilateral, as well as NGOs to join. The Regional Thematic Working Group on EFA, consisting of UN partner agencies and relevant international NGOs and civil society organizations, agreed in early 2006 to provide coordinating an