The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has announced plans to raise billions of dollars as part of its replenishment campaign to help educate 57 million children who are currently not in school.
GPE Chief Executive Officer Alice Albright made the announcement on 28 September at the Global Poverty Project’s Global Citizen Concert in Central Park, New York, in front of a crowd of 60,000 people.
“Our goal is that no child be denied the right to go to school,” Albright said. “Girls are being killed for going to school. Kids are trying to learn how to read without a single book. There is unprecedented need for money - US$26 billion to get every child in school by 2015. But donor funding for education is in freefall. That is a betrayal of the world’s children.
“Today, the Global Partnership for Education is launching its second replenishment campaign aiming to mobilise billions of dollars for basic education in the world’s poorest countries. We are calling on world leaders to pledge billions of dollars to the Global Partnership of Education at our pledging conference in June 2014 so that every child can get a quality education. Join the movement to support full funding for education worldwide.”
World leaders, including the U.N Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, joined the call to end poverty.
More information about the Festival can be found at www.globalfestival.com.
EI: Education must stay at top of global agenda
“We will work with all our partners such as GPE to mobilise the necessary funds to ensure that students worldwide have access to a quality education, as well as an opportunity to change their lives and their societies for the better,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. “Governments are responsible and must be held accountable for providing free quality public education for all.”
He also highlighted that EI has just launched its one-year initiative, Unite for Quality Education, on 4 October, to ensure that properly trained teachers, a quality teaching and learning environment, and quality teaching and learning tools stay on top of the post-2015 global development agenda.