Bombs vs books: Military spending soars as support for education is slashed
IPNEd Executive Director, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly speaking during the IPU’s 151st Assembly General Debate in Geneva.
Addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 151st Assembly, IPNEd Executive Director Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly warned that a collapse in international solidarity, combined with armed violence, displacement, and climate-related emergencies, is creating a "toxic cocktail" of suffering for the world's most vulnerable, with children’s education a casualty of the crisis.
A war on childrens’ futures
Speaking to over 600 MPs from 120 countries, Mr. Nhan-O’Reilly highlighted how education is now "the first casualty" in a perfect storm of crises—ranging from armed conflict and forced displacement (affecting over 122 million people) to climate change and food insecurity.
234 million crisis-affected children and adolescents are in urgent need of educational support.
Official development assistance for education is projected to drop by $3.2 billion by 2026—a nearly 25% decrease that threatens to put six million more children out of school.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has been forced to slash its education budget by over one-third due to a massive funding shortfall.
He sharply criticized wealthy nations for cutting development assistance—citing the UK’s abandonment of the 0.7% GNI target—to funnel the savings into "more guns and missiles."
“The idea that depriving the world’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens of funding to pay for more guns and missiles will make us safer would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic,” said Mr. Nhan-O’Reilly.
“With crises and conflicts multiplying around the world, it is more necessary than ever to strengthen international solidarity, and I hope that parliaments as representatives of the people, can lead their governments to renew their commitment to solidarity through development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.”
Adding to the funding crisis, he said that humanitarian norms are being openly challenged in war zones.
Current conflicts show, in appalling and devastating ways, the significant challenges facing international humanitarian law in providing effective and meaningful protection for people affected by armed conflicts.
Once again, education proves the point.
In 2022 and 2023, there were roughly 6,000 reported attacks on schools and incidents of military use of educational facilities, harming more than 10,000 students and educators—a 20% increase from the previous two years.
“But there is a different way.
In 2015, Argentina and Norway launched the Safe Schools Declaration with the objective of avoiding military use of schools and strengthening the protection of children and education in conflict. It has since been adopted by 121 states.
Meanwhile, just last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross launched a global initiative to galvanize political commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL). Some 89 states have signed up to support the initiative.
International cooperation, like these initiatives, to address global challenges, has never been more critical. “
Mr Nhan-O’Reilly concluded with an urgent call for parliaments—as representatives of the people—to challenge these priorities, champion global solidarity, and reinforce international humanitarian law.