The present report has been prepared in response to Economic and Social Council resolution 1995/55 of 28 July 1995, in which the Council endorsed the terms of reference and the topic-oriented and prioritized multi-year work programme proposed by the Commission on Population and Development at its twenty-eighth session. According to the multi-year work programme, which was to serve as a framework for the assessment of the progress achieved in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, a series of annual reports on a special set of themes of the Programme of Action would be prepared. The Commission, in its decision 2000/1 of 30 March 2000,3 decided that the special theme for the year 2003 should be population, education and development, which is the topic of this report.