The Prime Minister will call on world leaders today [Thursday] to
invest in children’s education and avoid a ‘legacy of wasted
talent’ due to the pandemic, as the UK and Kenya host the Global
Education Summit in London.
The Summit will raise funds for the Global Partnership for
Education (GPE), which is aiming to secure at least $5 billion
over the next five years to get 175 million more children into
learning around the world. The UK already pledged £430 million to
GPE at the G7 Summit in June, the largest commitment of any
government to date.
The pandemic has devasted children’s education around the world,
with girls particularly at risk of never returning to school once
they have left – even before this crisis 132 million girls were
out of school globally.
The UK is leading international efforts to 40 million more girls
into school, and 20 million more reading by age 10, over the next
five years. We will spend £400 million in UK aid this year
supporting girls education, in addition to our pledge to GPE, as
one of our priority areas for international development funding.
Speaking ahead of the Summit, Prime Minister said:
“We have a fight on our hands to ensure Covid-19 does not scupper
the life chances of millions of children, leaving a lasting
legacy of wasted talent.
“Too many children around the world – girls in particular – were
already out of school before the pandemic. Enabling them to learn
and reach their full potential is the single greatest thing we
can do to recover from this crisis and build better, greener and
fairer societies.
“Today I am urging governments, businesses and philanthropists to
invest in the future by fully funding the transformative work of
the Global Partnership for Education.
In addition to raising funds for GPE, the Summit will ask leaders
to sign up to a landmark political declaration on education
financing led by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, with
governments committing to spend at least 20 percent of their
national budgets on education.
The Global Education Summit will be opened on Thursday by the
Foreign Secretary, alongside Raychelle Omamo, Kenyan Cabinet
Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Alice Albright, CEO of GPE.
World leaders, businesses, UN agencies, charities and youth
leaders will join virtually and in person to pledge funds and
commit to actions to support girls’ education – a full programme
can be found here.
It will be closed by the Prime Minister , President Uhuru Kenyatta and Julia Gillard, Chair of
GPE.
Notes to Editors:
- Established in 2002, GPE is a funding platform that aims to
strengthen education systems in developing countries in order to
dramatically increase the number of children who are in school
and learning. between 2015 and 2019 GPE supported the education
of 24.8 million children.
- For more information on the Global Partnership for Education
Summit, including a full programme, please visit Global Education
Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025 | Global Partnership for
Education
- The Summit will be livestreamed here and a high-quality
broadcast feed is available – please contactsummittechsupport@wtvglobal.com
for more details.
