Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that the Kingdom of Norway had increased assistance to Ukraine by seven times since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

“We were able to discuss the whole range of issues that we had planned for today’s conversation, having started with the bilateral agenda, particularly regarding the assistance from Norway,” Klimkin said at a joint news conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“And this is really a unique aid because I always remember that Norway is the only country that has increased its assistance by seven times since the beginning of the Russian aggression,” he said.

(unian)

For the first time in history we can succeed in providing education for all children and young people. If we put education first, we will gain multiple benefits in terms of development and prosperity.

Political will is paramount, and must be backed by the right policies, additional funds and innovative partnerships that include all interested parties.

As prime minister of Norway and co-chair of the UN sustainable development goals advocacy group, I am doing my best to ensure this will become a reality. This week, the international commission on financing global education opportunity gathers in Oslo for its last meeting before making recommendations to the UN secretary general in September.

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education,” John F Kennedy once stated in a message to the US Congress. That statement, made 55 years ago, remains just as true today, and applies to all countries regardless of their social and economic development. We all face the challenges of adapting to a rapidly changing global economy. Knowledge and innovation are probably more essential than ever before. Few – if any – investments are likely to pay higher returns over time. There is a business case for education in every corner of the world.

Take job creation and innovation.

Worldwide, there is a huge need for more and better jobs, especially with youth unemployment rising. The International Labour Organisation estimates that 600 million new jobs will be needed by 2020 in order to address global unemployment and keep up with demographic developments. Countries are dealing with this challenge in different ways, but the starting point for all of us is our education system. Well-functioning schools with qualified and motivated teachers are a prerequisite for success. Moreover, innovation and use of new technology are necessary to deliver the qualifications required by a knowledge-based labour market in constant flux.

Take gender equality and health.

If young girls are able to access and complete primary and secondary education, the number of child marriages and early pregnancies will go down, while the opportunity for women to participate in society and contribute directly to the economy will increase. Education and health are directly linked in this regard: for example, in many low- and middle income countries, increased access to education for girls has led to a significant reduction in infant mortality.

Last year, world leaders adopted the sustainable development goals. SDG 4, aiming at quality education for all by 2030, is central precisely because of its impact on health and a range of other goals and targets.

Our common task is to provide and protect quality education for the 124m children and adolescents who remain out of school, and to ensure improved learning outcomes for those who are in school. According to the UN, an estimated 125 million children are not learning basic skills even though they have spent at least four years in school.

SDG 4 may seem overwhelmingly ambitious. Yet the number of children and young people not attending school has almost halved since the turn of the century and, thanks in part to the millennium development goals, in most countries there are now as many girls as boys in primary school.

When my government took office almost three years ago, we decided to put education at the forefront of Norway’s development policy. We are in the process of doubling development aid for education, emphasising in particular girls’ education, quality and learning outcomes, vocational training and education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Although we have increased humanitarian aid for education to 8%, four times the global average, the fact remains that 37 million children and adolescents are out of school due to crises and conflict. So far, the international community has done far too little in this field. We need to find better ways of bridging humanitarian and development aid, devising more initiatives such as the education cannot wait fund (pdf) – a scheme that makes provision for education in emergencies – launched at May’s world humanitarian summit in Istanbul.

Finance is a major barrier to reaching the education SDG. The total annual gap between available domestic resources and the amount necessary to reach the new education targets has been projected to average $39bn (£28bn) between 2015 and 2030.

Mobilising domestic resources is key. While the main responsibility for education rests with national governments, development aid continues to play a role, especially in the least developed countries, in fragile situations, and for marginalised groups. The downward trend in development aid for education over the past year must be reversed to ensure that no one is left behind. More of the same is, however, not sufficient. We must promote innovation and try out new approaches, such as results-based financing. The private sector should be actively involved, alongside governments, NGOs, international organisations and other stakeholders, not least when it comes to vocational training.

We need to develop a renewed and compelling investment case for education, and a financial pathway leading to universal access to quality education. That is why the international commission on financing global education, chaired by Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for global education, was established last summer at the Oslo summit on education for development. The UN secretary general has made it clear that he will act upon the commission’s recommendations. So should we all.

Reaching all children and young people with quality education may be a daunting challenge, but we can make significant progress if decision-makers step up to the plate, together with teacher unions, international organisations, the private sector, civil society and others.

Investing in education means investing in society at large. If we put education first, our global society will reap significant gains in terms of development and prosperity.

(theguardian)

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Norway’s ratification of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention will strengthen our cooperation with other states when parental conflicts and child welfare cases arise that involve more than one country. The Convention will enter into force on 1 July 2016.

‘The child welfare services will now have a framework and various tools that will make it easier to deal with child welfare cases involving more than one country. This means that we will be able to solve more cases in accordance with the best interests of the child. The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs will be Norway’s central authority, and will be able to assist the municipal child welfare services in their dialogue with foreign authorities,’ said Minister of Children and Equality Solveig Horne.

The 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children enters into force on 1 July. The Convention facilitates cooperation and the exchange of information on individual cases between contracting states. It has over 40 contracting states, including all the EU member states. Each contracting state designates a central authority, which plays a key role in cooperation on individual cases that fall under the Convention. Norway’s central authority will be the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir).

‘I welcome the entry into force of this Convention. In the future, it will be easier to cooperate with the authorities of other countries on difficult child welfare cases, disputes over parental responsibility and access rights, and efforts to prevent international child abduction. The Convention gives us a framework for finding good solutions, across national borders, for children and families in crisis,’ said Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende.

Minister of Children and Equality Solveig Horne also welcomed the entry into force of the Convention, which will improve the protection of children by helping to prevent and resolve parental disputes and child welfare cases involving more than one country. For example, it will be possible to transfer a child welfare case from Norway to another contracting state, if this is in the interests of the child.

‘The Convention facilitates continued rights of access and contact between parent and child, even if the child moves to another state with one of the parents. The Convention also helps to prevent international child abduction, by providing a framework for resolving disputes about parental responsibility, the child’s place of residence or rights of access, thus making it easier to find more stable and long-term care arrangements for the children involved,’ said Ms Horne.

Amendments to the Children Act will also take effect on 1 July. These are intended to counter international child abduction and prevent children being left behind in another country. There will also be a new requirement that children over the age of 12 must give their consent to moving out of the country, staying outside the country, or travelling abroad when a trip of this kind is to be taken without the parent who has parental responsibility.