Meeting the challenge to educate every child around the world requires passion, partnerships and perseverance.
Last week, I accompanied Julia Gillard, the Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for meetings with governments, foundations, and partners to talk about education and explore ways to collaborate.
It was Ms. Gillard’s first visit to the Gulf region as Chair of the Global Partnership, and we had the pleasure to meet with organizations that are new to development, but have a deep understanding of the value of investing in education. Against the backdrop of a global decline of aid for education, Ms. Gillard was encouraged by the energetic commitment to get more children in school.
Strong partners in Qatar….
In Doha, Qatar, Ms. Gillard was delighted to meet with Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, with whom the Global Partnership enjoys a warm and supportive partnership. Ms. Gillard was honored to speak at the Educate a Child High-Level Ministerial Meeting, where she urged participants to remain steadfast in their efforts to achieve education results. She invited everyone to to champion the GPE Second Replenishment and help the Global Partnership for Education raise sufficient funds for the next four years. We aim to raise $3.5 billion to cover the annual school costs of 29 million children and improve the quality of their learning.
The Global Partnership for Education continues to work in cooperation with the Educate a Child Initiative to ensure an open dialogue about the education challenges that lay ahead and how best to address them. In particular, we have managed partnerships to increase access to quality education in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Yemen, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her Highness’ goal of getting an additional 10 million children in school by investing in innovative and catalytic programs challenges all of us not to lose sight of one major Millennium Development Goal : achieving universal primary education by 2015.
…and the United Arab Emirates.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ms. Gillard met with His Excellency Dr. Hazza Mohammed Falah Al Qahtani, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development. This is a new branch of the UAE government set up to coordinate the country’s foreign assistance. Last year, the UAE was a generous donor, investing 1.25 % of its gross national income (GNI) in foreign assistance. This is truly remarkable.
We were also glad to meet with Dubai Cares, a foundation with which the Global Partnership for Education works to leverage greater impact on investments in several of our developing country partners. In Vietnam, for example, Dubai Cares is funding an evaluation to measure the impact of a GPE program, which we hope will provide local partners with an additional tool to help make informed education policy decisions.
We were encouraged by the passion and the commitment to education expressed by everyone Ms. Gillard met in the region. As Board Chair of the Global Partnership, she welcomes new perspectives and insights into how we can grow the partnership and explore new ways to support the many children who deserve a quality education. Our Replenishment Pledging Conference on June 26, 2014 in Brussels will be a prime opportunity for all our partners – new and old— to show their support.