Global Laser Talk September 2012

Asking Another Advocate to Write About the World Bank’s Broken Promise on Global Education

Engage: There are still 61 million children around the world with no access to a quality education. Despite this, the World Bank has reneged on a pledge to improve basic education and make it more accessible.

Problem: Under pressure to do more on global education, the World Bank made a promise in 2010 to increase funding for basic education by $750 million over five years. But instead of adding the $750 million increase to the 2010 funding level, the Bank claims that the increase should be added to an 11-year funding average. The result of this imaginative math is actually a 9% decrease in education funding.

Inform: World Bank funding is critical to our 2015 Millennium Development Goal of getting kids in school around the globe. The Bank must keep its pledge to increase funding by $750 million over five years, starting with 2010 funding as the baseline.

Call to Action: The world needs to know about this. Would you join me in co-writing an op-ed for our local paper, or submitting your own letter to the editor, about the World Bank’s broken promise? I’m going to write, and I’d be happy to share the materials I’m using so you could easily write, too.