As the leaves change their color to every shade of red and yellow, and the air becomes cooler every day here Washington, DC we embrace and adapt to these natural changes. Fall is here, and as it progresses, the days will shorten, and the trees will soon shed the last of their leaves with winter soon arriving to take its place in this natural flow.

This period of fall, or golden autumn as we call it in my native Russia, reminds us that nature is going through a transition, shifting from one season to another. Transitions are often associated with changes and transformations.

In the past several months the Global Partnership for Education has also been going through a transition, which brought some very noticeable changes. One change, and perhaps the most visible one, is our new name. Just as nature took its course and changed its colors, we changed our name and introduced a new colorful logo.

Prior to that, in the midst of summer’s Washington heat, we added up our achievements from working to improve the lives of children in 46 low-income countries, and generated a solid case for investment in education. At the same time we embarked on a much needed replenishment campaign, presenting different scenarios for the Global Partnership for Education replenishment targets. And, two weeks ago, we hosted representatives from 52 countries around the world as they gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to inaugurate our replenishment campaign by committing resources to achieve quality education for all children.

These efforts, which have been introduced by announcing our new name, resulted in an commitment to jump-start the replenishment with an initial contribution of $1.5 billion for the Global Partnership for Education Fund. And this is just a start, the beginning of a new phase to show the new colors of the stronger partnership committed to educate the world’s children.

As all these changes have been taking place, we have begun the process of transformation and became a much stronger and robust Partnership. Although our name changed, our commitment remains to provide quality education for ALL children, with the case for investment in education paving a more solid path and lighting a lamp of hope for the millions of children excluded from education around the world.

All of last week I watched with anticipation as events in Copenhagen were taking place, and the news were being shared with the broader members of the Partnership. During the pledging conference the Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd summarized it for all of us:

“We cannot rest easy until every single one of the 67 million children in developing countries currently missing out on education can say with pride – I go to school!“.

His quote, contrasting such big number in the same sentence as referencing to an individual child, reminded me about our commitment, as a partnership, to bring to school, and to provide quality education to every single one of the 67 million children who are not in school, as well as those who are in school already. It also confirmed my belief in the strength and the importance of partnerships, especially when trying to work towards achieving a common goal.

I always took the meaning of an African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” seriously. It is the power and the influence of team work that makes mountains move, and it will take all of us working together, as a partnership, to bring the millions of excluded children to school, and to provide quality education to all children.

The changes that I have witnessed the Global Partnership for Education going through in the past several months leave me with the feeling of optimism and hope for our common goal. And as we help countries build schools, train teachers, print school books, and every day bring more and more children to school. We will not rest until every single child is in school, and it will take all of us, working together, to achieve this goal.

Please click on the following to read more about the Global Partnership for Education, the recent Pledging Conference, and the Replenishment Campaign.