After briefly describing the emergence and evolution of the global movement toward Education for All (EFA), the Introduction discusses the difficulties of employing target goals to bring about significant policy change and educational transformation. The article then presents a comprehensive overview of the uneven progress towards EFA since 2000, both across regions and within countries, but also across the six goals themselves. The final section outlines the priority steps to be taken by international agencies, national governments, civil society and donors to support EFA in the years to come.