Governments have been encouraged to increase domestic financing for education by the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. And the international community has been called to help address national funding shortfalls for education.
By early 2020 The International Finance Facility for Education is anticipated to become operational and provide 200 million new school places. This will help in promoting the achievement of SDG 4.
Donor resources and using of public-sector financing to leverage private-sector funds can be pooled by the Facility. It will help in the generation of around USD 10 billion in additional funding for children’s education.
Anticipated to become operational in early 2020 and provide 200 million new school places, the blended finance Facility can help promoting the achievement of SDG 4 (quality education for all). Originally a recommendation of the UN and World Bank’s Education Commission, the Facility was proposed in September 2016.
Mohammed, in her remarks, insisted upon countries to prioritize education from early childhood to adulthood; while traditional official development assistance (ODA) has stagnant in real terms since 2010, and declined in relative terms and thereby noting that funding shortfalls for education are projected to rise to USD 90 billion by 2030.
Mohammed cautioned that countries should be supported by a mix of financing that does not result in unmanageable levels of debt while she is looking forward to the operationalization of the Facility. Mohammed welcomed wholeheartedly the Facility’s requirement that multilateral development banks conduct such analysis before issuing any form of loans. She also said, concerning the work of other international partnerships for education, fragmentation of efforts must be avoided, including the Global Partnership for Education and the Education Cannot Wait for the fund.
Representatives of the World Bank, Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait, UN agencies and governments endorsed the Facility as the arrangement that completes the international financial architecture supporting global education financing at the World Bank 2019 Spring Meetings in Washington DC. The EU, Netherlands and the UK have been key players in supporting the design of the Facility. The Rockefeller Foundation and Echidna Giving, as well as pro bono contributions from law and the financial advisory firm, have also been of immense additional help.
At the July 2019 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) countries will review progress toward SDG 4.
