In 1986 in Dijon, IREDU hosted an international conference of economists of education.  In 2003, Jean-Claude Eicher, the founder of IREDU in 1970, passed away.  This new international conference will pay tribute to a colleague who devoted his professional life to an international approach to education issues, with the firm conviction that the economist's voice was worth being heard.  Twenty years after the first conference, this new meeting will provide the opportunity to gauge the progress made by economists,... and by education systems.