It’s been a busy week here in New York City, full of exciting meetings with colleagues we’ve been working with from afar and events to celebrate months of hard work for the one thing we care about most – providing a good quality education for all children. Lots of progress has been made this week and certainly we can say that the launch of the UN’s Education First Initiative was a major success! But it’s not over. Today will be historic for the Global Partnership for Education. As we explained on Monday, there are 61 million children worldwide not in primary school – and more than 40% or 28 million of these children live in countries scarred by war, poverty and conflict, and millions more are struck by humanitarian emergencies such as flooding, food shortages, earthquakes and other disasters. And of course, Queen Rania said it best on Wednesday: “We can’t afford NOT to have children in school.” This afternoon, Saturday September 26th, we’ll be making a major pledge of financial support to help these children attend primary school, particularly in areas of conflict and humanitarian emergencies. The pledge will be delivered onstage at the Global Citizen Festival by GPE board chair Carol Bellamy alongside actress Sophia Bush and Pencils of Promise CEO Adam Braun. The festival organizers planned the event purposely at the same time as the world’s leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly. The festival will gather 60,000 change makers together on the Great Lawn of Central Park to urge our leaders and fellow citizens to do more to help end extreme poverty. Featured top artists include Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Band of Horses and K’Naan. It will be co-hosted by Katie Couric, Jeffrey Sachs, Olivia Wilde, Minka Kelly, Sophia Bush, Selena Gomez, and Katharine McPhee. The organizers say it will also be the largest syndicated music charity webcast and broadcast in history. So tune into http://www.globalfestival.com to watch the free live webcast and listen closely for our exciting announcement just before the main act (spoiler alert: Neil Young will begin approx. 8 pm ET). Also follow us on Twitter @GPforEducation for live updates and pictures from the event.