Washington, D.C. – December 16, 2011 - Today the Global Partnership for Education's Board of Directors approved $168 million in grants to seven developing countries, providing critical funding and momentum toward quality education for all children. This new financing strongly reflects the Global Partnership's top priorities –increasing access to basic education in fragile states, improving the quality of education, generating measurable results and championing girls' education.

"In the current economic climate, leaders in developing countries face increasingly difficult funding decisions.  These grantees are choosing to invest in the future of their country by making a strong commitment to quality education for all children," said Carol Bellamy, Chair of the Global Partnership for Education.

The seven grants totaling US$168 million will help implement the national education plans developed by Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia and Timor Leste.

• Afghanistan will receive $55.7 million to improve access to education for girls in 40 isolated and impoverished districts. In a challenging post-conflict environment, this new financing will also increase the number of female teachers in areas with high gender disparities.
• Cote d'Ivoire's $41.4 million grant will support the national government's commitment to rehabilitate its education system after 10 years of political instability, including efforts to build and repair classrooms, provide textbooks and launch school feeding programs. The grant will also help the construction of small ‘girl-friendly' middle schools in rural areas to improve girls' enrollment in lower secondary education. This is Cote d'Ivoire's  first funding request to the Global Partnership.
• Guinea-Bissau was allocated $12 million to concentrate on school construction and equipment rehabilitation. The grant will also help more girls enroll in school.
• Mali will receive $41.7 million to reform its education system and transition to more decentralized education governance. As a part of the reforms, local school committees will assume greater responsibilities in order to expand basic education coverage and quality.
• Moldova will receive $4.4 million to expand its internationally-recognized pre-school and Early Childhood Development programs to include more children with special needs and help girls in rural areas gain more access to education.
• Mongolia's $10 million grant will further efforts to improve access to education for rural and vulnerable children in mostly nomadic areas and bolster its preschool programs, especially for girls in rural areas.
• Timor Leste was allocated $2.8 million to build on its previous achievements of enrolling more children in primary school, eliminating illiteracy and supporting girls' education.

Following its highly successful, first ever pledging conference in Copenhagen last month, the Global Partnership for Education is kicking off a three year effort to put 25 million children into classrooms for the first time, train 600,000 new teachers and significantly reduce illiteracy for primary school aged children.