Leaders from across the world will convene in London this week, to fundraise for education and seek political commitment from governments to prioritise financing the sector from domestic resources despite pandemic pressures on public expenditure.
The Global Partnership for Education Summit (GPE) scheduled for July 28 and 29, in London, will be hosted by the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The summit seeks to raise at least $5 billion as a rolling target over the next five years to give at least 175 million children the opportunity to learn.
President Kenyatta, in a pre-summit statement, said he hopes the Heads of State will commit to protect domestic financing for education while urging international actors such as the G7 to extend the debt suspension servicing initiative, reallocation of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights to lower income countries as well as debt relief to give room for countries to raise the much needed resources.
The summit comes at a time when the Covid-19 debacle has increased the annual financing gap for education in low and middle-income countries from the estimated $148 billion to almost $200 billion, with many, especially girls likely to drop out of school.
The summit will also lobby governments to pay special attention to girl’s education because they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, dropping out of school due to early pregnancy and marriage.
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