At an EducAid event in Brussels on May 18, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation, Alexander De Croo, announced that Belgium will commit €26 million to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for the period 2017-2020. GPE launched its third replenishment campaign with the aim to reach US$2 billion a year by 2020 to support up to 870 million children in the world's poorest countries.
“The right to education is a human right. Without access to proper education, we will never succeed in banning extreme poverty,” said De Croo. “Certainly now, while the 4th industrial revolution is reaching worldwide cruising speed, the role of education cannot be underestimated.”
De Croo was speaking alongside Julia Gillard, Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, at an annual conference of education partners and they both highlighted the urgent need for increased funding to education to build a more prosperous and stable future.
Belgium has been a GPE donor partner since 2005, and has contributed a total of US$75.6 million to the GPE fund.
“We are very pleased by this announcement from Belgium, the first pledge in what we hope will be a successful replenishment for GPE,” said Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partnership for Education. “We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with the Belgian government by identifying new opportunities to increase their investment in GPE.”
“With GPE’s ambitious financing and funding framework approved recently, both traditional and new donors will now be able to target their financing to issues that they care about, such as girls’ education or innovation,” said Julia Gillard. “The time to invest in education is now, so that the young generations can gain the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.”
The third GPE replenishment seeks to raise US$3.1 billion from donor governments over 2018-2020 and marks the beginning of a new era in education financing. It is an opportunity for a step change in investment in education and to show a new commitment not just to the children of the developing world but to global security and prosperity. Since GPE’s start in 2002, 64 million more children are in school in partner countries.