Promoting quality education for all.

Highlights from the 72nd UN Assembly - September 2017

Rebecca Mann, Fellow at GCE-US, 

1)  At the Financing the Future: Education 2030 Event, the Governments of Senegal and France announced that the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) replenishment conference will be held in Senegal on February 8, 2018, co-hosted by Senegal and France.

  • "Both France and Senegal are ideally positioned to urge other countries across the globe to increase investments in education," said Julia Gillard, GPE Board Chair.
  • UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake called for the world to, “foster a learning generation that won’t be left behind as digital technologies advance at a rapid speed.”
  • More information can be found here.

2) The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) put a spotlight on domestic financing for education with the Sustainably Financing Education event that we co-hosted with Education International, and the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, and in alliance with ActionAid, RESULTS, Light for the World, the Open Society Foundations, the International Council for Adult Education, and Oxfam.

  • Live videos from the event are available here.

3) RESULTS launched a new brief, Impact, Effectiveness, & Sustainability: Investing in the Global Partnership for Education.

  • In the report RESULTS calls on the governments of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States to support the GPE replenishment, specifically urging the “United States to make a three-year $337.5 million pledge to GPE’s third replenishment.”
  • The report is available here.

4) Plan International hosted the Domestic Financing for Education meeting

  • Civil society organizations planned advocacy on domestic financing to engage public, citizens, national coalitions, and youth voice ahead of GPE replenishment.

5) Global Citizen week was held from the 17th to 23rd across NYC, with:

  • A variety of events held throughout the week which led to 29 commitments, 55 announcements and 13 calls to action, that totaled $3.2 billion. More info can be found here
  • At the Movement Makers Girls’ Education event, Representative Nita Lowey spoke about passing the READ Act. See her full speech here!

6) Save The Children released their report: Losing Out on Learning: Providing Refugee Children the Education they Were Promised

  • The Report tracks the progress made in countries that pledged that Leaders’ Summit last year at the UN General Assembly, and finds that only modest advances have been made.
  • The full report can be found here.

7) The Center for Universal Education at Brookings and Girl Rising held a discussion with the Echidna Global Scholars

  • Highlighted the research being done by Dasmine Kennedy, Assistance Chief Education Officer of the Educational Planning Unit in the Ministry of Education, Armene Modi founder of Ashta No Kai, a non-profit organization to educate add empower rural women and girls, Maria Cristina Osorio Vazquez who is a professor, Universidad Anahuac Mayab and Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan in Merida, and Damaris Seleina Parsitau who is Associate Professor, Researcher, and Director of the Institute of Women, Gender, and Development Studies at Egerton University.

8) Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Relief Services co-sponsored a panel on Welcoming the Stranger: Making Lives Better for Refugees in Host Countries

  • They discussed easing pressure on host communities while improving refuges self-reliance, expanding access to resettlement in third countries and fostering conditions that enable refugees to voluntarily return home.
  • “Education is a life-saving intervention, like food, water and shelter, and it is critical to get displaced children back in school as soon as possible,” Giulia McPherson said. She is the Director of Advocacy and Operations for Jesuit Refugee Services/USA and Chair, GCE-US Education in Emergencies Advocacy Group.

9) Education Cannot Wait held a High Level Steering Group Meeting to take stock of work achieved since the World Humanitarian Summit

  • They reaffirmed UNESCO’s support for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4, encouraged a broad vison of education, and stressed the importance of communication and advocacy.
  • They put emphasis on the need for stable funding, with Lebanon’s Minister of Education, Elias Bou Saab, saying “Putting children in school is one challenge; keeping them there is another.”

10) The Council on Foreign Relations hosted US Development Priorities: Views From the Administration and Congress

  • Panelists discussed bipartisan efforts to promote development within the U.S. Administration and Congress.
  • Mark A. Green, USAID administrator advocated for aid saying, “In terms of how I think we should think about the three Ds and what I would tell my former constituents back in northeastern Wisconsin, it’s in our interest. Development is important because it’s good for our national security.”
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