Ei-iE

The opportunities and challenges of financing the new education agenda, particularly in terms of addressing the needs of the most marginalised populations, will be the focus of a high-level panel during Global Action Week 2016.

UNESCO/GCE joint event

On 25 April, UNESCO and the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) will run this joint event focused on equity and financing, hosted at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

This event, entitled “Financing for SDG4-Education 2030: Leaving no one behind - what will it take to narrow inequity gaps?” will provide an opportunity to advocate for urgent action to increase the scale and efficiency of investment in the global education agenda and in reaching those most in need. Teopista Birungi, former Education International (EI) Executive Board member and current member of the International Commission on Financing global Education Opportunity, is scheduled to speak on the panel.

The key speakers will be:

• H.E. Ambassador Tarald Brautaset, Norwegian Government’s Special Envoy for Education in charge of the Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity
• Fuad Omer, Deputy PermanentDelegate, Permanent Delegation of Ethiopia to UNESCO (to be confirmed)
• Andreas Schleicher, Director, Directorate for Education and Skills, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• Romilly Greenhill, Team Leader on Development Finance, Overseas Development Institute
• David Archer, Head of Programme Development with ActionAid, GCE Board Member
• Teopista Birungi, founder of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, former Education International (EI) Executive Board member, Deputy Director Education Services, Kampala Capital City Authority, member of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity

Focus on education

This joint event, available by live webcast here, is organised in conjunction with this year’s Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), whose theme is “Fund the Future: Education Rights Now”, and takes place from 24 to 30 April.

The key aims of GAWE 2016 are to demand that governments:

• Individually commit to and take policy and legislative action to enable the implementation and financing of the Education 2030 Framework for Action
• Deliver their existing financial bilateral and multilateral pledges to education
• Make measurable progress towards delivering mechanisms to ensure tax justice, nationally, regionally and globally

In line with EI’s Unite for Quality Education campaign and its Global Response to privatisation and commercialisation in and of education, GAWE offers “a timely opportunity to join forces with other education stakeholders to hold governments accountable for their commitments and support full implementation of the right to universal, free quality education for all”, stressed EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.

Launch of report briefing on aid to education

In advance of the UNESCO/GCE event, the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report team will present its latest briefing focusing on very recent trends in development and humanitarian aid to education.

Fund the Future

The first year of implementation of the new Education 2030 agenda is critical, and provides civil society campaigners with an unmissable opportunity to ensure the issue of financing is firmly centre stage.

The GAWE will focus on urging governments and the international community to ‘Fund the Future’– not only during the week itself, but for the whole of 2016. It is one of the main activities organised by the GCE, a broad-based coalition uniting trade unions, non-government organisations, institutions and community-based organisations engaged in education, of which EI is a founding member.

The GCE media pack can be downloaded here