New York, Feb 20 (IANS) The Unicef and Gulf charity Dubai Cares have announced a new partnership to provide access to education for nearly one million children around the world, WAM news agency reported Wednesday. The move is part of a campaign by Dubai Cares to help in achieving the universal primary education target by 2015 of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Gulf charity will work closely with the Unicef to support education programmes in countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched Dubai Cares in September 2007.

“Education provides vital opportunities for the children and helps communities break the poverty cycle,” said Unicef Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.

According to Unicef’s latest statistics, 93 million children of primary-school age worldwide do not attend school.

Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa (more than 41 million), South Asia (31.5 million), and the Middle East and North Africa (6.9 million).

Mohammed Al Gergawi, chairman of executive office, said: “For Dubai Cares, Unicef is a natural partner as the UN organization has an incredible track record of more than 60 years in implementing projects to ensure children’s rights.”

“It also has effective access to resources and expertise for coordinating large scale initiatives in a number of countries.”

“Through its partnership with Unicef, Dubai Cares will help build and finance a variety of programmes related to the value chain of primary education in developing countries,” he added.

Unicef is the world’s largest provider of vaccines, child health and nutrition, quality basic education for children in developing countries.