Seoul, May 23, 2015 -- Today the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education, meeting directly after the World Education Forum in Incheon, approved US$235 million in grants to Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal and Rwanda, providing critical funding and momentum toward quality education for all children. This new funding brings the total funding approved by the board since 2002 to US$4.35 billion to support education in developing countries.
While the grant for Nepal was prepared before the two recent earthquakes, the government of Nepal has the option to re-allocate the grant funding to address emergency needs in the education sector. Moreover, the reimbursement-based pooled funding mechanism used in Nepal will enable the use of funds to address the needs in a timely, efficient manner.
The Board of Directors also issued the following statement on May 23, 2015:
“The Global Partnership for Education’s Board of Directors extends its heartfelt sympathy to the government and people of Nepal following the tragic earthquakes that occurred on April 25 and May 12, 2015.
The tragic deaths of close to 10,000 people, destruction of 488,000 houses and nearly 25,000 classrooms is hard to grasp. The Board and all GPE partners stand in solidarity with our Nepalese colleagues and friends. Our collective will to provide quality education to all the children of Nepal will not be broken.
The new funding approved by the Board of US$59.3 million will support Nepal as it rebuilds schools and strives to continue to deliver its ambitious agenda of improving access and learning. “
This new grant funding for Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal and Rwanda reflects the Global Partnership's top priorities: increasing access to basic education in low-income countries, improving the quality of education, improving teachers’ effectiveness, generating measurable results and championing girls' education.
“This new round of funding is a practical demonstration of the Global Partnership’s commitment to national efforts to educate and empower our children to build a better life for themselves,” said Julia Gillard, Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education. “Children, particularly the most marginalized in these four countries, will benefit from stronger education systems, enhanced learning environments, improved teaching skills and expanded access to schooling. In 2015, as the world considers the Sustainable Development Goals, it is vital more funding is mobilized for education so more investments like these can be made in our children's future.”
Mozambique, Nepal and Rwanda receive the grants under a new funding model, which incentivizes developing countries to improve equity, efficiency and quality in education by linking a proportion of the funding to results. Seventy percent of available country funding is based on credible, evidence-based and financially sustainable education sector plans, and supports basic education components of the sector as laid out in these plans. Thirty percent of the grant amount is based on the achievement of specific results chosen by the government and national partners in the areas of learning quality, education system efficiency and equity for all children.
“The Global Partnership for Education uses finance to leverage increased resources for more targeted results,” said Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education. “The Global Partnership incentivizes partner countries to spend more domestic funding on education and the GPE funding model focuses on concrete achievements in quality of learning, equity and efficiency.”
The four new grants build on prior achievements and will help implement the national education plans of Bangladesh, Mozambique Nepal and Rwanda.
Bangladesh’s grant of US$100 million will support the country’s Third Primary Education Development Program 2011-2017. The grant will be pooled with the government’s own funding as well as funding from nine development partners, and will support the ministry of education in delivering child-friendly learning to pre-primary and primary school aged children.
Mozambique’s grant of US$57.9 million will help enhance early reading, writing and numeric skills. The grant will also improve the learning environment and strengthen service delivery through school management, local governance and accountability.
Nepal’s grant of US$59.3 million was prepared prior to the recent earthquakes. It will support the implementation of the country’s School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2016, as well as the new sector plan that will start in mid-2016. The focus is on increasing access to school and improving quality of school education, particularly basic education (grades 1 to 8), especially for children from marginalized groups. The Ministry of Education may decide to use the funding to address some of the more urgent needs related to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools following the earthquakes that occurred in April and May 2015.
Rwanda’s grant of US$17.64 million will enable the country to deliver on its education agenda, expanding access to basic education for poor and rural children while improving the quality of teaching and learning for all. A further US$ 7.56 million is expected to be approved once an agreed indicator on equity is adopted for the results-based part of the grant.
***
The Global Partnership for Education mobilizes global and national efforts to achieve quality education for all children, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable, through inclusive partnership, financing and a focus on effective education systems. The Global Partnership is an independently governed multi-stakeholder partnership with 60 developing country governments, as well as donors, civil society/non-governmental organizations, teacher organizations, international organizations, the private sector and foundations.