COPENHAGEN, October 6, 2023 – The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) welcomed today a yearly contribution of EUR 33,500,000 from Denmark for the financing period covering 2022-2025.
“Denmark is a long-standing partner to GPE and we are pleased to announce this significant contribution to GPE’s current strategic period. We fully support GPE’s mission to strengthen education systems, making sure that they are inclusive and equitable and contribute to sustainable development. A quality education also generates resilience,” said Dan Jørgensen, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy. “This is needed more than ever, not least in light of the impact of climate change, especially in the world’s most affected and fragile contexts. Denmark strongly welcomes GPE’s ambition to make education systems ‘climate smart’. Schools and learners must be protected from the destructive impact of climate change, and children and young people must be equipped with the knowledge and skills required to contribute to mitigation and adaptation,” added Jørgensen.
The pledge is Denmark’s contribution towards GPE’s current financing period which seeks to raise at least US$5 billion over five years to help transform education systems in up to 90 low-income countries and territories, which are home to more than 1 billion children.
“We thank Denmark for this contribution, which is testimony to its steadfast engagement in responding to the twin global education and climate crises. Education is an underestimated but critical pillar of climate action,” said Laura Frigenti, GPE Chief Executive Officer. “A quality education can equip people with knowledge to advance climate adaptation and action, promote more sustainable ecosystem practices and develop skills to build green societies,” added Frigenti.
Approximately one billion boys and girls – nearly half of the world’s children – live in countries that are at ‘extremely high risk’ for the impacts of climate change. The Danish contribution comes as the lasting impact of COVID-19, conflict and climate change threaten to erase decades of hard-won progress in education, increasing the chance that the most vulnerable children including girls, children from poor families, and children with disabilities, will drop out permanently. The global number of out-of-school children has risen in the last year from 244 million to 250 million.
Half of all lower-income countries have seen their education budgets cut by an average of 14% since 2020. Additional resources are urgently required to make sure that all children are in school and learning.
GPE support will help countries make transformative reforms in their education systems, train teachers, invest in new and innovative curricula and find new ways of delivering education to the most marginalized children.
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About the Global Partnership for Education
GPE is a shared commitment to ending the world’s learning crisis. We mobilize partners and funds to support nearly 90 lower-income countries to transform their education systems so that every girl and boy can get the quality education they need to unlock their full potential and contribute to building a better world.
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