After years of campaigning, consultation and research by 蜜桃导航 alongside other education experts and partners, world leaders launched the at Transforming Education Summit in New York in September, 2022. The new fund will unlock billions of dollars for the education of excluded and marginalised children.
Around the world, education is starved of funding. But the crisis is particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which are home to 80% of the world鈥檚 children. Two-thirds of 10-year-olds in these countries cannot read a simple text.
The problem is particularly pronounced in these countries because LMICs – including India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia – fall into a 鈥渕issing middle鈥: as they develop, they lose access to funds designed for developing countries.
LIMC countries increase their tax yield as their economies grow but still require external funding to provide education to every child. But funding is not increasing as aid budgets have become increasingly stretched or reduced.
Urgent action is needed to support children in LMICs and prevent those out of school falling into child labour, early marriage, and extreme poverty. These are also the countries carrying the heaviest burden of supporting refugee children settled in their countries.
Two-thirds
of 10-year-olds in these countries cannot read a simple text
IFFEd will address education funding in 鈥渕issing middle鈥 countries听听
The International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) is a ground-breaking fund that is specifically designed to create new, affordable pools of funding for LMICs.听听听
It complements other funding mechanisms and bodies such as the Global Partnership for Education (focused on the poorest countries) and Education Cannot Wait (focused on education in humanitarian crisis).听
It uses a mixture of guarantees and donor grants to provide affordable education financing for governments, and has a multiplying effect on donor contributions, unlocking up to $7 for every dollar paid into the fund.听
This innovative way of working will allow IFFEd to unlock at least $10 billion in new education funding over the next five years.听听
蜜桃导航 kicks off the campaign for IFFEd in 2016听听
World leaders launched IFFEd at the Transforming Education Summit in New York. This was the result of years of campaigning, research and consultations by 蜜桃导航, education experts, partner organisationsand our Global Youth Ambassadors.听听
Our campaign began in 2016, when the idea was first proposed in the Education Commission鈥檚 major 2016 report, , led by Liesbet Steer, the Commission鈥檚 Executive Director,听 and 蜜桃导航 President Justin van Fleet, then Director of the Education Commission. A major group of experts and leaders contributed to this landmark study, including Gordon Brown, the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Jos茅 Manuel Barroso, the former President of the European Commission; and Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia; Theo Sowa,the former CEO of the African Women鈥檚 Development Fund and 蜜桃导航 Trustee; Gra莽a Machel. the international rights advocate and former Mozambique education minister; Jakaya Kikwete, the former President of Tanzania, and others.听
Pressure mounts on world leaders to set up the new fund听
听鈥淎 transformational shift is needed in the way we invest in education systems if we want a safe, secure and prosperous future for the next generation,鈥 said the letter, which Ben Hewitt, 蜜桃导航鈥檚 Head of Campaigns, delivered to Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.听听
Alongside 蜜桃导航, the letter was signed by ANCEFA, Avaaz, Camfed, FinnChurchAid, Freedom United, Global Citizen, Global Education Monitoring Report, International Rescue Committee, Islamic Relief, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, Malala Fund, ONE, Save the Children, SHOFCO, Plan International, Right to Play, University of Arizona, VSO, World Vision and Youth Envision.听
Global Citizen and Avaaz back the call for IFFEd听听
Just a few months later, in July 2017, for IFFEd at the first-ever Global Citizen Festival Hamburg in 2017.听听
It said: 鈥淪imply put, there are three education platforms that Global Citizens have been supporting to achieve the vision of a quality education for all: the Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait, and a new that, if fully funded, would be able to provide resources for 264 million children who are currently out of school.鈥听
At the same time global campaign network Avaaz also took up the campaign mobilising thousands of people in support around the world.听
In 2018, plans for IFFEd took a giant leap forward when it was backed at the United by world leaders, the business community and international donors. Speaking at the Make Impossible Possible event, Shafqat Mahmood, Education Minister for Pakistan, said: 鈥淲e fully support the creation of IFFEd and we strongly believe that an investment in the facility is an investment in the future.鈥听
Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, said: 鈥淚FFEd can help us to uphold our commitments to equitable and inclusive quality education for all.鈥听
蜜桃导航 Global Youth Ambassadors presented a petition to the United Nations Secretary General听听
蜜桃导航 Global Youth Ambassadors, who met with UN Secretary General Ant贸nio Guterres, said: 鈥淥n behalf of 1.5 million young people, we present the IFFEd petition. The message from all the youth is to make the impossible possible.鈥听听
After the Global Youth Ambassadors met Guterres, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown gave a briefing on the need to establish IFFEd.听听听
Brown said: 鈥淭he International Finance Facility for Education, that the Secretary-General has endorsed today, has the support of the United Nations, the World Bank and the Regional Development Banks. It is backed by the addition today of 1.5 million signatures to our already 10-million strong petition. Now 11.5 million young people are demanding change.鈥听
Throughout the pandemic, 蜜桃导航 worked to support public communications,听campaigning and brand identity for IFFEd.听 蜜桃导航 also published the Education Finance Playbook demonstrating how IFFEd could help fill the global education finance gap.听 Partners at the Education Commission worked听 to make IFFEd ready, engaging with donor governments like the UK, Netherlands, and Sweden, alongside multilateral development banks.听听
More than 100 world leaders and economists back call for IFFEd听
As the Transforming Education Summit approached,听 more than 100 former presidents, prime ministers and other top government officials signed an open letter, calling for leaders to commit to a bold new education finance plan, to transform the lives of millions of young people.听听
Signatories included Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and current UN Special Envoy for Global Education; Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil; Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi; and Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General.听
蜜桃导航 coordinated the #LetMeLearn campaign, taking the views of young people directly to world leaders听
蜜桃导航鈥檚 efforts culminated in our #LetMeLearn campaign, which took the experiences of young people from over 160 countries directly to world leaders at the summit.听 Sharing a stage with the UN Secretary-General, our activists demanded urgent action on education funding, and made passionate pleas on behalf of the millions of children around the world locked out of education.听
Donor governments worked together to make IFFEd a reality听听
Donor governments 鈥 chiefly Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands 鈥 multilateral development banks, foundations and philanthropists have come together to make IFFEd a reality. With an initial commitment of creating $2 billion in funds, the facility has the potential to unlock an additional $10 billion to educate tomorrow鈥檚 generation of young people.听
Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan said: 鈥渢he new stream of affordable education financing from IFFEd will be crucial to help meet our financing needs to provide an inclusive and quality education for our most vulnerable children and youth.鈥听
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, said: 鈥淚nnovations like the International Finance Facility for Education can help ensure we are getting maximum leverage out of each dollar of education funding. By expanding such funding, this facility will scale the solutions humanity needs to make opportunity universal and sustainable.鈥澨听
Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, said: 鈥淭o truly transform education, we need a fundamental shift. Business as usual will not suffice. This is why the International Finance Facility for Education 鈥 IFFEd 鈥 is such an exciting development for our future generations. IFFEd has the potential to unlock $10 billion in new resources to support half of the world鈥檚 most vulnerable children whose pleas to 鈥淟et Me Learn鈥 must be heard.鈥澨听听
IFFEd鈥檚 launch represents a major step forward in the fight to offer every child a place in school. For lower-middle-income countries shut out of affordable education financing IFFEd will be a crucial lifeline.听听
At a time when budgets are growing ever tighter, and the world is looking for ways to respond creatively economic setbacks,鈥疘FFEd鈥痺ill help developing countries unlock large-scale and long-lasting education change to improve the lives and futures of millions of disadvantaged children.听
