New Commitments to the Global Partnership for Education Announced

Over the past few days, we’ve seen impressive momentum towards ensuring every child receives a quality education, including two exciting commitments to the Global Partnership for Education. Here's a round-up of what's been going on:

Canada doubles investment in the Global Partnership for Education

This past Thursday, April 16, at the World Bank Spring Meetings, Canadian Minister for International Development and La Francophonie Christian Paradis announced a pledge of 120 million Canadian dollars to the Global Partnership over the next four years (2015-2018). At the Global Partnership's pledging conference last June, Canada expressed support and pledged to pledge later on. We are extremely excited to see Canada follow up and renew their commitment to education for all during this ongoing replenishment period. In fact, this pledge represents a doubling of the government of Canada's previous contributions to the Global Partnership for Education on an annual basis.

In their press release, Amy Bartlett, Executive Director of RESULTS Canada stated “RESULTS Canada and citizen advocates across the country are proud of their role in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to attend school and gain a quality education…The Canadian Government’s pledge to GPE is a good first step but there’s lots of work left to do.”

Minister Paradis also announced an additional commitment of 10 million Canadian dollars to UNICEF to support education and child protection in humanitarian settings, where over a third of out-of-school children live around the world.

I was lucky enough to join staff from RESULTS Canada at the press conference announcing the pledge with Minister Paradis, UNICEF Executive Director Tony Lake, Global Partnership for Education CEO Alice Albright, and UN Special Envoy on Global Education Gordon Brown (photo at left). At the event, Minister Paradis said, “Canada's contribution will help girls and boys in developing countries access high quality education and move out of poverty to build secure and prosperous futures.” I couldn't agree more.

Belgium pledges €36 million

This past Saturday, at the Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day festival on the National Mall here in Washington, DC, Belgium announced its pledge of €36 million for the Global Partnership for Education over the next four years. This pledge means Belgium will maintain their funding levels for the Global Partnership throughout this replenishment period. Vice-prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation, Digitization, Telecommunications and Postal Services Alexander de Croo also called on governments to commit 50% of ODA to the world’s least developed countries to ensure aid is reaching those most in need.

Denmark increases its commitment

The Minister for Trade and Development of Denmark, Morgans Jensen, joined the Belium Minister at the Global Citizen festival in announcing an increased comitment from Denmark to the Global Partnership for Education. Denmark will contribute an $60 million in 2015, which represents an increase of more than 30 percent.

Members of Congress call for increased U.S. support to the Global Partnership for Education

Also at the Global Citizen festival, several members of Congress sent a powerful video message calling on their colleagues to support U.S. leadership on global education and a strong U.S. contribution to the Global Partnership for Education in fiscal year 2016. Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY), Judy Chu (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) all joined in the call. Representative Lieu even tweeted his support for our request of $125 million in FY16, writing, “Proud to support @GPforEducation and #GlobalCitizenEarthDay. Let's increase funding to $125m in 2016!” (We’ll link to the video as soon as we have it!)