Education ministers from the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week agreed to start a seed fund through the Asian Development Bank to begin implementation of UN-HABITAT’s Value-Based Water Education programme. The ministerial endorsement supports the Millennium Development Goals and the related target mandated to UN-HABITAT of halving the number of people in the region without access to safe water and adequate sanitation. The ministers attending the 39th Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Council Conference, declared their readiness to promote and support regional cooperation on value-based water education as a collaborative effort working towards the realisation of SEAMEO's vision of promoting a better quality of life for the people in the region. Signatories of the SEAMEO Declaration on Value-Based Water Education included Pehin Dato Hj Abdul Aziz Umar, Brunei's Minister of Education; Mr. Tol Lah, Cambodia's Minister of Education, Youth and Sports; Professor Abdul Malik Fadjar, Indonesia's Minister of National Education; Mr. Phimmasone Leuangkhamma, Laotian Minister of Education; Tan Sri Dato Musa Mohamad, Malaysia's Minister of Education; U Than Aung, Myanmar's Minister of Education; Dr. Edilberto C. de Jesus, the Philippine Secretary of Education; Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Minister or Education; Dr. Audis Bodhara-mik, Thailand's Minister of Education; and Professor Nguyen Minh Hein, Vietnam's Minister of Education and Training. |
