MPs urged to prioritize education at inaugural CPA lecture
The Emilia Monjowa Lifaka Lecture hosted by IPNEd at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference, Ghana, October 2023.
IPNEd were delighted to co-sponsor the inaugural Emilia Monjowa Lifaka Lecture, in memory of the late Chairperson of the CPA International Executive Committee and Deputy Speaker of Cameroon, at the 66th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Accra.
The lecture given by CEO of the Commonwealth Education Trust, Betty Abeng, highlighted the Honourable Lifaka’s life of service, in particular her focus on education. Betty recounted how the Honourable Lifaka understood the transformative effect of investing in children, championing the cause within parliament, facilitating civic engagement and ultimately being a lifelong advocate.
“Significant progress has been made in education globally and within the Commonwealth, in particular on school attendance. However, too many children are attending school and not learning, with 70% of 10 years globally unable to read and write a simple sentence by age 10”, said Betty Abeng at the lecture.
Betty also reinforced the fact that insufficient support for education globally goes beyond endangering achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4 but also threatens the achievement of multiple other sustainable development goals. Reaching them is reliant on today’s children having the conditions they need to learn and thrive. These messages were reinforced in the response by Dr Leslie Casey-Hayford, a Ghana-based international education development expert.
Ghanaian MP and IPNEd member Peter Nortsu-Kotoe gave the vote of thanks to the lecture promoting IPNEd’s mission, current priorities and attendance at the conference.
Peter highlighted the benefits of IPNEd being able to attend international parliamentary conferences, such as the current Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference; which has given us the opportunity to engage with MPs from every continent, including regional and national parliamentarians, including Speakers of the House.
