Regional conference on quality education for all : conference proceedings

Access to education is one of the highest priorities on the development agenda and high-profile international commitment to progress - such as the second millennium development goal of achieving universal primary education - has helped galvanize policy makers into action. To this end, the World Bank and the United Kingdom (UK) Department of International Development - India (DFID India) co-sponsored a South Asia regional conference on quality education for all in New Delhi, India, from October 24 to 26, 2007. The objective of the conference was to contribute to the knowledge base and dialogue on successful approaches to achieve high quality education, in particular for those hard-to-reach segments of the population. With more and more children now entering school throughout South Asia, the challenge is shifting towards providing access to quality education, with a specific focus on the hard-to-reach. The conference brought together policy makers and international experts on education policy to discuss and debate outcomes of various interventions designed to achieve quality education for all. The conference focused on presenting sound empirical evidence on what works to improve quality and increase access to those hard-to-reach populations.