FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Kelleher
mkelleher1@globalpartnership.org

Attendees make commitments to urgently deliver real results
to help 61 million out-of-school children attend school and learn

Washington, DC — GPE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alice Albright announced that GPE will work with the conveners of this week’s unprecedented Learning for All Ministerial to help the eight low-income nations at the event – who have nearly half of the world’s 61 million out-of-school children – to act urgently to get those children in school and learning before the end of 2015.

The Learning for All Ministerial was 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, who along with GPE and many other partners focused on the millions of out-of-school children living in just eight countries: Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti , India, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. The initiative will be carried out under the umbrella of the U.N.’s Global Education First Initiative.

Those nations’ ministers of education and finance met yesterday with Albright, GPE Board Chair Carol Bellamy, as well as representatives from donor countries, private foundations, multilateral organizations, civil society organizations/NGOs, teachers organizations, and the private sector to declare and renew tangible commitments to get these children in school and learning by the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals at the end of 2015.

“This is a critical week for the education of the world’s poorest children,” Albright said. “We have outlined concrete steps to urgently deliver real results for the 61 million children shut out of primary school often because they are poor, are girls, or live in rural areas. We will work with all our partners to ensure that every child has access to a good education so they can be healthier, have higher incomes, and have an opportunity to change their lives for the better.”

Albright said GPE will:

• facilitate country-level follow-up to the Ministerial meetings so that commitments are immediately translated to reality on the ground;
• advocate for and mobilize greater external financing that is aligned with these countries’ needs and priorities highlighted at the Ministerial; and,
• help convene global-level follow-up meetings to drive for progress and bring additional countries into this process.

GPE’s recent work in these countries includes:

Bangladesh, should it choose to join the GPE, already has a $100 million expected allocation (“indicative allocation”) for implementing education activities. GPE could potentially support the country’s efforts to reach marginalized groups and raise the quality of the education system.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was granted $100 million by GPE’s Board in November, 2012 to support their efforts to make primary education free to all children, possibly increasing the number of children in school by 2 million by 2015. In addition, 60 percent of the grant is dedicated to improving the quality of education for children in the DRC.

Ethiopia has already been granted $168 million, a significant proportion of which was devoted to improving education quality. Another $100 million is in the pipeline as an expected allocation. GPE congratulated Ethiopia on its strong commitment to education, allocating over 20 percent of the government budget to education over the past several years, in some years up to 27 percent.

Haiti has already received a $22 million GPE grant which was adjusted after the earthquake of January 2010. GPE is currently supporting Haiti’s efforts to prepare a new request for an additional GPE grant in the amount of $24.1 million.

Nigeria joined GPE in November, 2012. GPE is supporting the government and local partners in their efforts to develop education sector plans in five Nigerian states as well as prepare an application in the amount of $100 million for these states.

South Sudan was granted $36.1 million by GPE’s Board in November, 2012 to improve learning outcomes through school management and teacher training as well as increase access to education through low-cost school construction, new teaching materials and development of non-formal education for out-of-school children.

Yemen has been involved with GPE since 2002, to date receiving grants of $40 million, which have contributed to the enormous increase in access for both boys and girls. An application to support Yemen’s Education Sector Plan implementation in the amount of $82.6 million for the period 2013 to 2016 was this week recommended for approval and will be considered by the GPE Board in May. Of this amount, $10 million will be used to support emergency and early recovery activities for those schools affected by the recent crisis.

How GPE Works for Children

GPE is the only multilateral partnership solely devoted to getting all children in school for a good quality education. Its partners include developing countries, multilateral organizations, donors, the private sector, teachers, civil society/NGOs, and private foundations. GPE’s approach is different because it convenes and builds consensus on education issues – at the global and country levels – to help its 58 developing country partners develop effective education sector plans, and promote aid that is coordinated and aligned with these plans.

In the past decade GPE’s partners have achieved impressive results, including:

• helping to put an additional 25 million children in school;
• increasing primary school completion rates and literacy rates, especially among young girls;
• allocating by the end of this year an expected amount of nearly $4 billion to 55 countries;
• spurring developing country partner governments to increase their financing for education by about $3 billion per year.

“This week GPE is reviewing almost $450 million in new commitments to our developing country partners for recommendations to our Board meeting in May. This is a sizeable increase in our outflow over last year, even though we’re not even halfway through the year,” GPE Board Chair Carol Bellamy said. “Clearly more needs to be done, but the GPE model helps countries increase their capacity to improve education for their own citizens so they can contribute to the development of their communities and nation,” she said.

Education cuts across development sectors and provides broad benefits as a global public good, yet is often undervalued in its importance and impact. Education delivers:

• Reductions in poverty. If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty. This is equal to a 12 percent cut in global poverty.
• Better health. Over the past four decades, the global increase in women’s education has prevented more than 4 million child deaths. A child whose mother can read is 50 percent more likely to live past age 5.
• Gender Equality. One additional school year can increase a woman’s earnings by 10 to 20 percent.
• Economic growth. Each additional year of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.37 percent.

“As GPE’s CEO, I commit to bringing GPE resources, knowledge and partners to work with all of the organizations at the Ministerial to help these nations – and more in the coming months – to get their children in school and learning,” Albright said. “This won’t be done this week in Washington, it has to be done in our 58 partner countries in the developing world, and will require a disciplined and sustained effort over many years, tying together our partners in the private sector, international organizations, donors, and civil society/NGOs efforts until every child is in school and learning,” she said.