Last year, GPE marked its 20^th anniversary. It was an important milestone for an organization that has continued growing, adapting and evolving since 2002 to best respond to the needs of partner countries, but that has also kept a sharp focus on its vision: a quality education for every child.

Since GPE started, 160 million more children have been able to go to school in partner countries. These are 160 million individual lives that have been impacted by the power of education.

Education is a crucial springboard for stronger economies and fairer, more stable societies. Without a quality education, millions will be condemned to unfulfilling lives, leaving the world to face dire consequences socially, politically and economically.

Our just published 2022 Annual Report highlights the past year’s achievements, including:

• Ministers of Education representing 80 partner countries signed the Ministerial communiqué on transforming education at scale at the Transforming Education pre-summit in Paris in June, and 14 Ministers of Education from sub‑Saharan Africa had also signed the Freetown manifesto for gender transformative leadership in education in May.
• Bolstered by these urgent calls from ministers, GPE called on world leaders to urgently commit more and better financing for education at the Transforming Education Summit in New York in September.
• 9 countries joined GPE: Angola, El Salvador, Eswatini, Fiji, Guatemala, Indonesia, the Philippines, Tunisia and Ukraine. Qatar joined the partnership with a pledge through Education Above All.
• Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo was appointed the new GPE champion on education financing.
• GPE approved close to US$300 million in new grants to 41 countries. The GPE active grant portfolio reached nearly US$3 billion. Moreover, Multiplier grants were approved in 9 countries totaling $156 million and leveraging US$786 million from 26 partners.
• The GPE Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) and Education Out Loud were both extended to 2027, with an additional US$80 million and US$60 million respectively. The creation of a dedicated KIX window between the LEGO Foundation, GPE and the International Development Research Centre led to five new research initiatives. Education Out Loud so far has provided 70 grants in 63 countries to support the work of civil society in the education space.
• The Girls’ Education Awareness Program launched in Kenya with the government and private sector partners Ecobank Foundation, Avanti Communications and Rotary International.

In the face of multiple crises, education is still the answer

I am proud of these achievements. As GPE CEO since last December, my role is to ensure that GPE continues on this path to galvanize global support for education and to unblock the barriers to making quality education a reality for all children.

In 2022, GPE continued to refine its approach to align support behind the priority reforms chosen by partner countries to transform their education systems. Thirteen partner countries drew up new partnership compacts under the GPE 2025 framework to set out how they will improve learning, early childhood education, teacher development and training based on specific, coordinated support from GPE and others.

The landmark Transforming Education Summit at the United Nations last September focused global attention on the scale of the education crisis and on the scope of the response needed to meet it.

Our efforts are complicated by overlapping crises including natural disasters, food shortages, economic downturn and the displacement of millions of people due to conflict and climate change.

But I am convinced that education should be at the forefront of our collective efforts to achieve equitable growth and sustained social and political stability. GPE will be even more effective in the years ahead thanks to the lessons we’ve learned, and the growth and strength of our partnership.

---------

Read the 2022 Annual Report.