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Preface1ForewordiiiHow close are countries to achieving the six EFA goals agreed to in the WorldEducation Forum in Dakar, Senegal? With only a decade left to the 2015 target, whatmore can be done to ensure countries meet these goals?UNESCO Bangkok, UNICEF and the Regional Thematic Working Group on EFA areworking jointly to assist countries to conduct an assessment of progress and gapstowards the EFA goals and a mid-term review of education policies and reforms aimedat expanding the provision of education across various strata and groups in society.The assessment will also give special focus on unreached groups and on how toensure they are not left out of the education system.As part of preparations for the mid-decade assessment, UNESCO Bangkok’s AIMSUnit, which is the Office of the UIS Regional Advisor for Asia-Pacific, and it’s APPEALUnit, in cooperation with UNESCO Headquarters and the UNICEF Regional Office,organized a regional planning meeting in October 2005. The meeting brought togetherrepresentatives from 21 countries from South, South-East and East Asia.The planning meeting was an opportunity for participants to learn more about thenational and regional EFA mid-decade assessment and give their inputs andendorsement on the format, modality, timeline and output of assessment reports. Themeeting also enabled participants to plan ahead for the assessment and discussguidelines and a framework on developing national action plans for capacity-buildingtowards the national assessments.This meeting report contains a summary of the recommendations agreed to byparticipants during the planning meeting. It contains their suggestions on specificissues related to each EFA goal that should be studied as part of the assessment andrecommendations on how to make the process participatory, relevant and effective.Thus this meeting report is useful for countries in planning for the national mid-decadeassessment.A series of meetings, capacity-building activities, and national and sub-regionallaunches of national assessments will be held in the next two years as part of the EFAmid-decade assessment. This report is the start of a series of reports aimed atassisting countries conduct national assessments that will feed into a regionalsynthesis report.Sheldon ShaefferDirectorUNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for EducationEducation for All: Reaching the Unreached