MPs urge Australia to increase its support for global education
The Global Partnership for Education has recently approved $20.5 million in new grants for eight Pacific Island states including the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
© Global Partnership for Education
Senior parliamentary representatives from across the political spectrum have written to Australia’s Foreign Minister, Senator Marise Payne, calling for an increase in Australian funding for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
Writing ahead of the Global Education Summit in July they called on Australia to pledge at least $70m per year over the period 2021 - 2025.
The call was led by the Co-Chairs of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Education, Labor’s Senator Deborah O’Neill and the Hon Kevin Andrews MP of the Liberal Party, with the support of the Australian Greens.
“Australia has a proud history of supporting global progress on education and renewing Australia's support for the Global Partnership for Education is now more critical than ever,'' said Senator Deborah O’Neill, who is also the Oceania representative of the International Parliamentary Network for Education.
“The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to roll back the significant progress that has been achieved over the past two decades leading to a substantial increase in the number of out-of-school children for the first time in decades. In Asia and the Pacific more than 1.2 million girls are at risk of dropping out of school, in addition to the 15 million girls who were not enrolled in education before the pandemic,” she said.
“A fully funded GPE would add an estimated $164 billion to partner country economies - lifting millions out of poverty - and leverage billions more in domestic financing for education,” said Mr Andrews.
“An investment in GPE is also a mechanism for delivering Australia's vision of a stable, prosperous, resilient Indo-Pacific in the wake of COVID-19 as set out in the Government's development policy Partnerships for Recovery — Australia's COVID-19 Development Response.”
With support from Australia, GPE has provided more than US$1.1 billion to over twenty Indo-Pacific countries, including US$100 million through its COVID Accelerated Fund. A strong investment in GPE will ensure it can scale up its work in the region to ensure all children return to school and get a quality education when they do.
“This should not be complicated. Australia must immediately increase its funding for global education. Australia lags behind many other wealthy countries when it comes to international aid. Ensuring children across the world have universal access to good-quality education is among the most basic things we can do. There’s no time to delay,” said Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens Spokesperson for International Aid and Development who also signed the letter.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is the world’s only education partnership and fund dedicated exclusively to quality education in lower-income countries.
For nearly two decades, GPE has been delivering funds and supporting solutions to build strong and resilient education systems so that children in the poorest countries - especially those who are marginalized by gender, poverty, displacement or disability - get the education they need to fulfil their potential.
At the Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025 in July 2021, GPE aims to raise at least US$5 billion to transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, where 80% of the world’s out-of-school children live.
GPE is also advocating to protect domestic finance to pre-COVID levels and increase spending towards the 20% global benchmark or beyond.
