The Zambia National Education Coalition joins the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)[1]  and other campaigners in calling for adequate aid to fund education ahead of the Pledging Conference which opens tomorrow (8^th November)  in Copenhagen,  Denmark. The pledging Conference is a fundraising initiative of the GPE aimed at raising at least $2.5 billion to support education in developing countries for the next three years (2012-2014).  The conference will be attended by over 200 delegates drawn from Development Partners (donor governments and multilateral agencies), Private Sector/ Foundations, Ministers of Education and Civil Society from across the globe. Public commitments to education are expected to be made at the event hosted by the Danish Government in collaboration with other partner countries. The funds to be raised are intended to fund the GPE strategy which focuses on increased support for education in fragile states, improved learning outcomes and girls’ education, with the view to supporting the GPE’s goal of reducing the number of out-of-school children.

ZANEC, which is a representative of the civil society in developing countries on the GPE’s Board of Directors, is in full support of the strategic directions adopted by the GPE because its constituent members contribute significantly to the global statistics where at least 67 million are still unable to attend primary education, and those that are in school are not able to read or write. Gender disparities are also characteristic of the higher levels of the education systems. In Sub-Sahara, for example, the completion rate for girls is only 46% while that of boys is at 56%, with girls having less than a 50% chance of proceeding to upper secondary.

During the Pledging Conference, ZANEC will also join other civil society actors, led by the Global Campaign for Education, in the “Fund the Future” campaign to call for the best quality aid to education. Referred to   as a ten point plan for transforming aid to education, the campaign calls for developed countries to pay a fair share for basic education, to untie aid and ensure it addresses priorities of recipient countries, and to deliver predictable aid.  The campaign also calls for a holistic focus on all EFA goals, the use of most aligned aid modalities (with a preference for sector budget support), the need for hiring of qualified teacher and engagement with civil society, among other issues.   Donor governments are also being called on, not just to pledge but to deliver on their promises.

Since the turn of the millennium, forty million more children go to primary school. Even as development pundits debate on the contours of the post-2015 world, access to basic education is widely recognized as one of the most successful MDG achievements of the last decade.

But much of this commitment for universal schooling has in fact emerged from developing countries themselves. The Global Campaign for Education in its recent Fund the Future report shows that, even low income countries dedicate almost 9 percent of their sparse national budgets to basic education. Developed countries, on the other hand, invest on an average a meager 4 percent of their aid monies!

To make matters worse, in the current recessionary world economy, donors are pulling back even more. The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution in a research report last month highlighted that the future of bilateral aid to basic education is at risk. Burkina Faso, for example, is set to lose 5 of its major donors accounting for more than half of its external aid, which supports a third of its school expenditure. This withdrawal will sharply affect the education prospects of children in a country where 37 percent are already out of primary school.

To reverse this regressive trend, the newly re-branded Global Partnership for Education is trying to make far-reaching amends to ensure a brighter future for the 67 million children who remain out of school. Next week, it has organized a massive replenishment initiative in Copenhagen as an opportunity for countries to renew their financial and political commitment to basic education.

As the only multi-stakeholder international education fund to directly support low-income countries, the GPE has a modest target of $2.5 billion for the replenishment — but this alone will ensure an additional 25 million children are able to enroll in schools, 50 million new textbooks are distributed and 600,000 new teachers trained. And for the first time, bilateral, multilateral, private sector and civil society leaders are also being encouraged to raise their own pledges and commitment.

And in the run-up to the event, the momentum of civil society education coalitions across the most remote corners of the globe has been truly unprecedented — from televised debates in Afghanistan to fax machines in Kenya churning out letters to World Bank executives and half a dozen donor country ambassadors.

All eyes are especially on the United States for the largest chunk of pledges, which could make all the difference — to whether the next week in Copenhagen proves to be a watershed in our dream of quality education for all.

In recent weeks we’ve seen an amazing coming together of civil society calling for the success of the Global Partnership for Education meeting in Copenhagen.  Now we can only hope that education and finance ministries show the same commitment and help make this meeting a success.

It’s a pleasure to introduce the Fund-the-future blog, a space that we hope to create attention, dialogue and share the latest information as it happens in the run up and during the GPE meeting.

Please use this space to share your stories, links to other sites, coverage, findings and debate – by using your log-in, or emailing your news or links to alex@campaignforeducation.org or kjersti@campaignforeducation.org

GCE team