IPNEd backs Global Partnership for Education replenishment

IPNEd Global Executive Committee raise their hands for the Global Partnership for Education #RaiseYourHand

The Global Partnership for Education’s replenishment campaign is a test of the international community’s commitment to the promise of quality education for all according to Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, Executive Director of the International Parliamentary Network for Education.

The impact of the COVD-19 pandemic on the world’s economy has caused a “crisis like no other” leaving education budgets facing a triple shock.

Slow or negative growth and the shifting of resources to other sectors such as health and the economy, together with shrinking household budgets and remittances risk creating massive holes in education budgets.

However, while education is clearly a victim of the pandemic, it is also the solution to the longer-term recovery. Education is the key to addressing the economic, health, environmental, and social crises we face—and is fundamental to our ability to build back better.

A three-point plan to close the education funding gap

An education-led recovery will require a massive mobilisation of political will backed by financial resources.

At the start of this year, the International Parliamentary Network for Education launched a simple three-point plan to focus minds on what is required. We called for:

1. Strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation and increasing the share of expenditure for education

2. Protecting and increasing official development assistance (ODA) for education

3. Strengthening international coordination to address the debt crisis.

Increasing national spending on education is critical and IPNEd is committed to supporting our member parliamentarians to protect education funding in national budgets. At the same time aid to education is vital in helping to close the financing gap, especially in the poorest countries. 

Despite this, in 2018, prior to the pandemic, education received just over 7% of total official development assistance - despite the recommendation that donor governments invest at least 15% of their aid in education.

Given slower than predicted economic growth and the pressure on public finances aid spending is expected to fall which risks robbing the world’s most marginalised children in the poorest countries the opportunity to go to school.

A critical test of the international commitment to education 

The Global Partnership for Education’s fourth financing campaign will be an early test of the international community’s commitment to education in general and to delivering our promise to prioritise the education of the furthest behind children in particular.

At the financing summit planned for July, GPE aims to raise at least US$5 billion. That money will support education systems in up to 90 countries, where 80% of the world’s out-of-school children live.

The ripple effects of this investment will contribute to building more sustainable, peaceful, and resilient societies adding an estimated $164 billion to partner country economies, lifting 18 million people out of poverty, saving 3 million lives, and preventing early marriage for 2 million girls.

In contrast, without an education the next generation faces the threat of child labour, poor health, early marriage, and intergenerational poverty.

GPE’s replenishment target is a small portion of the funding required to deliver the promise of quality education for all, but if the target isn’t achieved the prospects of securing the necessary funding in other ways will be even less likely. 

With just 10 years left to achieve quality education for all, this support has never been so urgent.

Progress on global education is at a crossroads and has never been at more risk. We must take every opportunity to prevent the erosion of hard-won gains and continue to give more children the opportunity to learn.

Over the coming weeks, in advance of GPE’s financing Summit in July IPNEd will be working with our members to amplify their calls for a fully funded Global Partnership for Education.

In meetings with our members in donor country parliaments, we will be encouraging parliamentarians to call on their government to:

1. Increase its financial support to the Global Partnership for Education; and

2. Achieve the globally agreed target of spending at least 15% of their aid budget on education, including by investing ambitiously in the Global Partnership for Education.

We will also be sharing what our members are already doing, including issuing cross-party calls supporting GPE, tabling parliamentary motions, and securing sessions of Committees on Foreign Affairs and Development on education aid in general and support for GPE in particular.

A fully funded GPE will lay the foundation for further success

A successful outcome in July will reap huge benefits, not least delivering vital funding to the countries who need it most. A fully funded GPE will also serve to bolster the international community’s commitment to education, lay the foundation to grow national education budgets, ensure education benefits from international stimulus packages, and ensuring that savings from debt relief support education.

Education is a strategic investment with phenomenal returns, a proven solution that improves health, economic and environmental outcomes. Now more than ever we need to invest in those things and we have an opportunity to do exactly that by fully funding the Global Partnership for Education.