UNICEF calls on donors to "forgive" debt

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy on Thursday called on donor countries to "immediately" forgive the debts of poor countries that have viable plans for achieving the goal of education for all. She told the World Education Forum in Dakar that universal education would remain a dream until the deep poverty that keeps children out of school was addressed. "It is a global scandal that vast majority of the more than 110 million school-age children not in school are girls," she noted, stressing that education is the right of all children and the obligation of all governments. UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, told the conference the goal of education for all was "morally and economically urgent". "The single most important question for economic success is: How smart are your people?" he said. "Older measures of competitiveness such as labour costs, resource endowments and infrastructure are being superceded by human capital."