OSI National Foundations Education Meeting

The Education Support Program held the OSI National Foundations Education Meeting on February 29, 2008 - March 1, 2008 in Hammamet, Tunisia. Representatives of national foundations engaged in education activities and other network programs participated.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the OSI mission in education and the role of education in creating and sustaining open societies. ESP invited national foundation boards to contemplate the relevance of these considerations:

• education justice;
• the relevance of a rights framework for education;
• the potential for an EFA-plus campaign;
• policy advocacy and social advocacy;
• using global frameworks and the network of networks.

In ESP's view, the strategic considerations outlined above offer five practical ways in which foundations can utilize opportunities in international education development to strengthen their national efforts to achieve and sustain an open society.

The outcome of the meeting was the Tunisia Memorandum, which summarizes ESP's approach, and incorporates the opinions of the partcipants. The Tunisia Memorandum can be downloaded below.

The presentations and discussions of the meeting were reported by a professional journalist, Barbara Fry, whose notes are available below.