New RESULTS Series Reviews the U.S. Pledge to the Global Partnership for Education

With the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) scheduled to meet November 18-19, RESULTS has released a new discussion paper chronicling the U.S. financial commitment to the GPE Fund. The paper is the first in a series reviewing the 2011 U.S. pledge to GPE and looking ahead at the role of the United States in GPE’s upcoming replenishment campaign.

In November 2011, the United States made a pledge to the Global Partnership for Education, the world’s only multilateral institution exclusively devoted to ensuring that all children everywhere receive a quality basic education. In addition to pledging to contribute $20 million to the GPE Fund in 2012, the United States reaffirmed earlier commitments to improve the reading skills of 100 million children, increase equitable access to education in crisis and conflict environments for 15 million learners, and improve aid effectiveness.

A year later, RESULTS conducted country visits to Liberia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia to explore the status of the U.S. pledge. Now, in the first of three discussion papers under the series title Towards Collaborative Support to Global Education: A Review of the U.S. Pledge to the Global Partnership for Education, RESULTS examines the role of the United States in GPE mechanisms on the ground as well as the fulfillment of the United States’ financial commitment to the GPE Fund.

Download Discussion Paper 1 of 3: The U.S. Commitment to the GPE Fund

Download Annex: Country Profiles

Driven by analysis and insights from a range of development actors consulted throughout the course of RESULTS’ country visits, the paper concludes that a greater, multi-year U.S. commitment at GPE’s June 2014 pledging conference would:

• Meet the call from Congress, which has been requesting that the Administration do more in the area of basic education and contribute more to GPE specifically.
• Achieve objectives that U.S. bilateral assistance cannot meet alone, as GPE’s country-led systems approach to education development builds the government and civil society landscapes needed by USAID to achieve its goals in sustainable development.
• More accurately reflect the United States’ high level of partnership with GPE, as the United States is very active in GPE structures at the country level yet has provided relatively little support to the GPE Fund.
• Bridge the gap to meet increasing demand, as anticipated requests from developing countries for GPE support currently outweigh existing donor commitments.

Other aspects of the 2011 U.S. pledge to GPE will be deliberated in the forthcoming “Discussion Paper 2 of 3: The USAID Education Strategy” and “Discussion Paper 3 of 3: USAID Forward.”