The G20, under the Presidency of Brazil, has brought critical focus to people, the planet, and fighting inequality to build a more just world. I welcome the G20 Leader’s Declaration, which recognizes that education is an “enabler for human dignity and empowerment; equity, equality, and inclusiveness; sustainable and socio-economic growth; active citizenship, prosperity, peace and well-being," and draws attention to the global teacher shortage.

An educated and skilled young generation is humanity’s most powerful tool to combat the interconnected global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change and fragility.

But this potential can only be unlocked through bold action to secure more and better funding for education in the regions where the majority of the world’s children and youth live. 

I urge world leaders to urgently prioritize financial reforms that will enable lower-income countries to increase investments in quality education as the foundation for more prosperous stable and equitable societies, including by scaling up proven approaches such as debt-for-education swaps.

I call on Canada and South Africa, as the upcoming G7 and G20 presidents, to put children and young people at the heart of their agendas and champion bold investments in education, especially for girls and the most marginalized.

GPE joins the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty

I also welcome the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. GPE is proud to be a founding member of the Alliance and is pleased to announce its commitments to the 2030 Sprints. The Sprints are a range of commitments to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty through large-scale, evidence-based policies and programs.

As part of its commitment to the Alliance’s Integrated Maternal and Early Childhood Sprint, GPE will build on the $272 million it has invested in early learning since 2023—representing 11% of its grant portfolio—to help partner countries educate their youngest children. 

GPE will continue to support quality and equitable early learning, generate evidence and drive innovation to sustainably scale national early learning policies. Leveraging the strength of our partnership, we will promote increased investments in early learning to reach the SDG target of at least one year of pre-primary education for all children.

GPE is equally committed to the Global Alliance’s 2030 Sprints on School Meals, which aims to expand high-quality school meals to an additional 150 million children. Working with the World Food Programme and the School Meals Coalition, GPE has launched the School Health and Nutrition Technical Assistance Facility. 

This will help countries implement nationally owned school meal programs, so that children can access safe, diverse, nutritious and locally-sourced food. School feeding programs, when embedded in strong education systems, can help get children into school and stay there, as well as learn better. 

GPE has committed $3 million to pilot this effort, with the potential to increase resources in collaboration with the School Meals Coalition.