A Successful Week in DC for Raising Awareness on Out-of-school Children
The Global Partnership for Education's CEO Alice Albright shares her thoughts from the Learning for All Ministerial Meeting, the biggest week in international education this year.
April 26, 2013 by Alice Albright, GPE Secretariat
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6 minutes read
Alice Albright during the Learning for All Ministerial Roundtable  © Simone D. McCourtie, World Bank

Hard Work Continues for Delivering Results

Last week was a critical week for the education of the world’s poorest children. At the Learning for All Ministerial Meeting–convened by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown–education for millions of out-of-school children was on top of the agenda. There were also numerous side events during the week, as well as a high-level dialogue at the White House, and a key meeting of GPE’s Financial Advisory Committee taking action for millions of children.

And GPE was in the middle of it all.  (See our press release here)

As CEO this was an exciting week, but the task before us is daunting yet doable. Our task this past week was to work with the education and finance ministers of eight developing countries (Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen) who have nearly half of the world’s 61 million out-of-school children, to outline concrete steps to urgently deliver real results for these children who are often shut out of primary school often because they are poor, are girls, or live in rural areas.

Working with the U.N. Special Envoy Gordon Brown and others, GPE will help convene a follow-on event which will include more countries, and will assess progress on our work with the first eight nations. This work will be carried out under the umbrella of the U.N.’s Global Education First Initiative with which GPE has been partnering since its launch in September, 2012.

The Brookings Institution hosted several events where I and my staff participated, on topics such as education access and learning quality, as well as helping children who are trapped in poverty, early marriage, or slavery, all which forestall or end their chances of getting a quality education. I also met with members of the Global Business Coalition to talk about our common goals to build strong education outcomes that can unlock the potential of every child.

All last week GPE’s Financial Advisory Committee reviewed almost $450 million in new commitments to our developing country partners for recommendations to our Board meeting in May. This indicates a sizeable increase in demand for GPE resources over last year, even though we’re not even halfway through the year.

Last, but not least, at the White House, President Obama’s senior staff and USAID–as well as one of the most important figures in Congress on international education–came out in force to show their commitment to basic education in developing countries. USAID highlighted its work in three countries which also attended the ministerial the previous day, including South Sudan, Nigeria and DRC Congo.  Those that attended included USAID Administrator Raj Shah; Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, National Security Council, Gayle Smith; Assistant to the President and Director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling; US Department of State, Secretary of State for International Organizations, Esther Brimmer; USAID Senior Advisor for International Education, Christie Vilsack; and Congresswoman Nita Lowey who is the champion of international education on Capitol Hill and the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. The senior U.S. showing was testament to President Obama’s commitment to international education, according to Gayle Smith.

At the event I urged a pragmatic approach in which all of us come together to figure out the best set of solutions to the huge challenges in education, in particular the 61 million primary school-age children who are out of school.

That’s what the week was really about–and that’s what GPE is engaged in each day. I am committed to taking maximum advantage of the biggest week in international education this year, and to continue working hard each day until every child has the opportunity to receive a good quality education.

By Alice Albright

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