When Aissata started attending primary school in Mali at age 5, there were more boys than girls in her classes. The gap grew in the following years, as many girls dropped out, either because their families could no longer afford school fees, or family circumstances forced them to work.

But Aissata persevered, finished school and went on to university. Now 21, she recalls that she walked hungry for more than an hour to and from school every day to reach a classroom crammed with more than 100 students. At university, her classrooms were poorly equipped, teachers were frequently absent and lectures were packed with as many as 1,000 students.

Today, Aissata studies International Public Law, is a former member of the Children’s Parliament of Mali and works with several child and youth organizations. Her education and leadership skills will allow her to help her country and other girls like her achieve something that would not have been possible without a basic education.

Unfinished business to reach the most marginalized children

In the nearly five years since I’ve been the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education, I’ve met and been inspired by countless children in GPE partner countries, who brim with the same fierce determination to go to school that kept Aissata on her learning path. (For similar stories, see our Education Shapes Futures feature.)

The most marginalized children in the world’s poorest countries especially deserve our strongest help. They know learning is a lifeline of progress for themselves and everyone around them.

Aissata and many others like her vividly illustrate what will be at stake when leaders from around the world gather on February 1 and 2 in Dakar, Senegal, at the Global Partnership for Education Financing Conference: to shine a light on and address the all-too-quiet crisis of global education.

More than 264 million children and youth are at risk of leading lives of marginalization, ill health and poverty because they do not have access to school. So are millions more – 6 out of every 10 children – who are in school, but one of such poor quality that they are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and math. These are not insurmountable problems.

The Global Partnership for Education – stronger than ever

Let’s not forget that there has been very good progress in global education since 2000 with hundreds of millions more children in school and learning. We know what works and how to address the remaining challenges, particularly for the most marginalized children. In fact, the Global Partnership for Education was created in 2002 to help developing countries build strong education systems – and has shown that an effective partnership approach works and brings results.

In GPE partner countries alone, there are 72 million more children in school than in 2002.

And, with education, millions more are now healthier, earning more, gaining access to the dynamic global economy and helping their families and countries become more prosperous, stable and secure.

The Financing Conference – an opportunity to #FundEducation

We’re going to Dakar to continue the progress we’ve seen since the start of this millennium. We will rally world leaders who have pledged to reach the Sustainable Development Goal of educating all the world’s children by 2030. And we’ll urge them to turn that commitment into financial support for countries working hard to make their education systems strong, accessible and inclusive for all their children.

We expect about 1,000 powerful and dedicated leaders and education advocates, including a number of heads of state, donor government ministers, more than 50 education ministers from around the world, the heads of UNICEF, UNESCO, UNAIDS, The World Bank and other development banks, heads of partner civil society organizations, youth advocates and private sector CEOs.

Their presence will send a strong signal to the world that we have come together to fully address the education crisis.

We are especially grateful for the leadership of President Macky Sall of Senegal and President Emmanuel Macron of France, who will co-host the Financing Conference.

We will open the conference on February 1 with a partnership day allowing our civil society partners to showcase their work and discuss the most pressing challenges that need to be addressed to get all children in school and learning. It will be a dynamic day – as diverse as the partnership that makes up GPE.

On February 2, our focus will be on financing. GPE is also the global fund for education and seeks to grow to a US$2 billion a year fund by 2020 – up from approximately US$500 million currently - to address the global education challenge. That will require our donor partners to significantly increase their financing and philanthropic foundations and private sector donors to step up as well.

And because the lion’s share of education financing needs comes from developing countries themselves, we are asking our developing country partners to increase their domestic education spending to at least 20% of their overall budget.

February 1-2 in Dakar will be the pivotal moment when political commitment meets financing commitments and when the international community reverses the decline in financing for global education we have seen over the past years. We promised such support to these children in 2000 and again in 2015. We cannot afford to miss this visible moment to deliver.