The Education for Rural People (ERP) Partnership is one of the Partnerships of the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development. ERP was launched in 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development together with UNESCO and is one the nine flagships initiatives of the EFA programme led by UNESCO.

ERP is a network of about 370 partners including governments, international agencies, civil society, the media and the private sector.

ERP is a worldwide call to action to foster rural peoples’ capacity to be food secure and to manage natural resources in a sustainable way through increased access to quality education and skills training for all rural children, youth and adults. ERP is a research-based policy approach promoting multisectoral alliances between ministries of education and agriculture and related stakeholders.

The ERP partnership aims to contribute to removing barriers such as the urban-rural knowledge and education gap that prevent poor people from using their capacity.

ERP works through the identification of political, institutional, organizational and individual opportunities and constraints that poor people face in accessing education and training services at all levels of education in both formal and non-formal settings.

ERP seeks to empower the rural poor to become fully integrated actors of the development process by promoting collaboration among the education, agriculture and rural development sectors to ensure education and skills training to all rural people. The strategy addresses research, knowledge generation and sharing, advocacy, policy work and capacity development, as well as normative and field work.