Teopista Birungi Mayanja, a former member of Education International's Executive Board and founder of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, has been appointed to a new International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.
Together with more than twenty world leaders, including five former presidents and prime ministers and three Nobel Prize recipients, she has been appointed on 22 September to a new International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity to reverse the lack of financing for education around the world.
The Commission, supported by the Government of Norway and Prime Minister Erna Solberg, will review the future of global education which currently leaves 124 million young people out of school. It will explore how, over the next 15 to 20 years, education could lead to greater economic growth, better health outcomes, and improved global security.
Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, has been appointed Chair of the Commission. In this body, Birungi Mayanja will be joined by, among other leaders, Julia Gillard, Chair of Global Partnership for Education and Former Prime Minister, Australia, and Kailash Satyarthi, co-founder of the Global Campaign for Education and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The Commission is co-convened by the Norwegian Prime Minister alongside President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.
It will meet on 29 September during the United Nations General Assembly to start building the economic case to inspire and persuade world leaders to take action and mobilise the resources needed to achieve education for development set out for 2030 and beyond. In September 2016, the Commission will report to the co-conveners and the Secretary-General of United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.