On Monday, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) launched its annual Global Action Week, seven days of advocacy to raise awareness around education and encourage governments to follow through on their commitments to put 75 million children in school by 2015.

Here in Washington, GCE kicked off the week with a roundtable discussion on the state of global education and the potential for a new U.S. investment. The guest of honor was Queen Rania of Jordan, a longtime advocate for education in her home country and around the world. Queen Rania began the conversation with a timely topic: economic growth. Education, she pointed out, is central to fueling national economies and raising incomes at the family level. And as a critical input into health, gender empowerment and democracy, education is one of the highest-yield investments we can make into families and communities, especially in the world’s poorest countries. With the global financial crisis in full swing and threatening to hit poorest countries the hardest, the time is riper than ever for a bold new initiative to get every child in school.

Queen Rania was backed up by three powerful education advocates here in the U.S.: Congressional champion Representative Nita Lowey and two experts who are now serving in the Administration – Gene Sperling (who is Council to the Secretary of the Treasury) and Gayle Smith (Senior Director for Relief, Stabilization and Development and Senior Advisor to the President on the National Security Council).

Rep. Lowey spoke first, saying that the “stars are aligned” for achieving the education for all. She noted that U.S. funding for basic education has increased seven-fold since 2001 (thanks largely to her leadership on the House Appropriations Committee), an impressive scale-up but still a far cry from the U.S.’s fair share of the $11 billion price tag for meeting the Education for All goals. Rep. Lowey pointed out that strong congressional leadership is now paired with clear support from the Administration, a reference to President Obama’s commitment to contribute $2 billion to a Global Education Fund. As a result, she said, the constituency for global education has never been stronger. Gayle Smith also spoke on President Obama’s commitment to education, saying that the President remains committed to his campaign promise and that she was hopeful that “in the not-too-distant future,” he will make an announcement on the establishment of a robust, sustainable Global Fund for Education.

This discussion couldn’t have been more timely- details on President’s Obama’s budget request will be coming out in the next couple weeks. ONE and other advocates are hoping that they contain a strong boost for global education spending to indicate the Administration’s intent to fulfill its commitment to a Global Fund for Education. An investment in education by the U.S. in FY10 will ensure that any initiative in the “not-too-distant future” will have the resources it needs to be successful.

Gene Sperling (former head of the Center for Universal Education) ended the panel by outlining a few trade-offs that global policy makers cannot afford to make when it comes to education- access vs. quality, donor funding through bilateral vs. multilateral channels, and a focus on primary education (5 years) vs. eight years of basic education. He also said it was time for global leaders to step up their efforts to supporting education in countries in conflict and transition, noting that just as a dollar invested in girls’ education is one of the best-spent dollars in the world, so is a dollar invested in education for children of conflict.

To drive this point home, Sperling quoted a passage from What is the What by Dave Eggers, one of my favorite books. The scene takes place in a school in a refugee camp in the midst of the Sudanese civil war. A group of boys are writing lessons in the dirt. Their teacher looks over their work and attempts to convey to them the magnitude of what they’re doing, saying:

Many of you no longer have mothers. You have lost your fathers. Here, if you are smart enough to accept it, you will be educated. Education will be your mother. Education will be your father. While your older brothers fight this war with guns, when the bullets stop, you will fight the next war with your pens.

Stay tuned here on the ONE blog for other things going on around the Global Action Week and how you can get involved.

-Nora Coghlan

Today, ONE member Phillip Williams met with his US Congressional Representative, Jim McGovern of MA. Phillip took time to explain ONE to Rep. McGovern and let him know that in 2009, it is not only possible to fight global disease and extreme poverty, but it is a priority!

Phillip told me that Rep. McGovern was very familiar with ONE’s issues and agenda as he is already a co-sponsor of Education for All, Jubilee, and Global Child Survival Act. And as a member of the House Budget Committee, Phillip asked Rep. McGovern to hold, or increase the upcoming budget number for the international affairs account – the part of the budget that contains all of the US’s global life saving humanitarian programs. Rep. McGovern said that he understood the importance of these issues and mentioned how global development ultimately leads to greater national safely and security at home.

Today Phillip took time to let his Representative know that saving lives in the poorest parts of the world is an important issues to him and he urged action in the 111th Congress. But ONE members everywhere should follow the lead of Phillip and contact their new Senators and Representatives to let them know about ONE and our efforts to fight global disease and extreme – stupid – poverty.

-Matthew Bartlett

Following through on these commitments could go a long way towards erasing the global education gap. Currently, 75 million children (more than half of whom are girls) are not enrolled in primary school. Nearly half of these children live in Africa and one-third live in fragile states. These out-of-school children represent a serious lost opportunity in the fight against extreme poverty and disease. With its widespread impacts on health, education, democratic development and economic growth, education is one of the most critical tools available to help poor countries forge a pathway out of poverty. The case for expanding access to education is even stronger amidst the current economic climate- investments in education are long-term and will reap benefits for communities and nations for generations to come.

In FY08, the U.S. appropriated $694 million for global education (primarily through the Development Assistance account and the Economic Support Fund), a large portion of which was directed to Pakistan and also programs such as the African Education Initiative, which provides learning materials like teacher training, scholarships and textbooks. The U.S. does not currently provide significant funding to country budgets to help governments alleviate systemic costs like teacher salaries and administrative fees. As a result, many countries are forced to pass such recurrent costs on to families through school fees or testing fees, which can prevent children of the poorest families from attending.

The timing is ripe for a significant new U.S. investment in global education. In addition to Obama’s commitments on the campaign trail, bipartisan support for the Education for All Act indicates that there would be backing in Congress for a new U.S. commitment to basic education. ONE is also confident that President-Elect Obama’s appointment of EFA champion Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is an indication that basic education (and development more broadly) will be a foreign policy priority for the next Administration.

Moreover, a substantial new American commitment would inject momentum into the growing global campaign towards education for all. Donors like the UK and the Netherlands have led the way in scaling up international support for basic education- the UK, for example, has pledged to invest $15 billion in universal primary education by 2015, and last year Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a partnership with France to put 16 million children into school in Africa by 2010. A significant new commitment from the Obama Administration would not only bolster efforts such as these, but would challenge new donors to boost their contribution to basic education. Combined, these commitments could prove transformational for children and communities across the globe.

-Nora Coghlan

The Dakar agreement gave rise to the first ever global compact on education, the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (FTI), The goal of FTI is to “fast track” countries seriously committed to achieving universal primary education by providing coordinated and increased donor support. Under the FTI framework, developing countries produce national education plans and mobilize domestic funding to finance them. Once their plans have been technically vetted and endorsed, donors step in to provide coordinated and increased financial and technical assistance to help implement them.

Where developing countries and donors have delivered on their promises, remarkable progress has been made. UNESCO points to Ethiopia as an example- international aid helped Ethiopia increase its education spending from 3.6% of GNP in 1999 to 6% in 2006. Over the same period, the number of Ethiopian children out-of-school was cut nearly in half, dropping from 7 million to 3.7 million. Statistics also suggest that the FTI model is working on a broader scale- in its annual report released this past Monday, FTI announced that African FTI countries alone had seen 15 million more children go to school for the first time between 2000 and 2006, a 52 percent increase. This is compared to a 23 percent increase for non-FTI African countries.

To date, 36 countries have answered the call from Dakar by developing FTI-endorsed education plans and mobilizing over 70% of the financing to implement them. Donors, however, have not kept up their end of the bargain, and as a result many countries are struggling to fully implement their education plans. Aid to basic education has stagnated at $4 billion per year, less than half of what is needed to achieve universal primary education and only one-quarter of the $16 billion required annually to realize all the Education for All goals. Estimates are that FTI countries will face a resource gap of $1 billion in 2009. This gap will grow as more countries are endorsed- by 2010, if all thirteen expected countries receive endorsement the gap could grow $2.2 billion.

Participants here in Oslo are hopeful that the discussions this week will inject new momentum into financing education for all. There have been some signs in recent months that some donors are committed to doing this: at the launch of the Class of 2015 partnership in September, $4.5 billion in new commitments were announced by different donors. Here in the U.S., President-elect Obama has committed not only to capitalizing a $2 billion Global Education Fund, but also to endorsing the Education for All Bill (championed in the Senate by Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton) which would put $10 billion into basic education over 5 years.

The need to revive the global education compact is more critical than ever in the current financial climate. As poor countries begin to feel the effects of the global economic crisis, the temptation to cut spending on education will be high and some of the recent progress made in getting children in school could be threatened. If the world stands a real chance at education for all by 2015, donors need to renew faith in the global education compact by keeping up their end of the deal and standing by their commitments to basic education.

-Nora Coglan

It’s Global Education week – and ONE is partnering with the Global Campaign for Education to push for action on the Education for All Act – legislation that would extend access to education to the 72 million children with no access to even basic education around the world.

Right now, the legislation has 66 co-sponsors in the House, but we need many more if we want to ensure that it’ll pass when it comes up for a vote later this year.

Please take a moment to urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor this critical bill.

During my time in the US for GCE Action Week I also had the privilege to meet and spend time with some of the smartest and dedicated young people in the United States. More than 50 high school and college students came from around the country to learn about why education saves lives and about the Education For All Act of 2007. I was so impressed by watching these articulate youngsters come together for this cause and asking the “older people” some really smart questions about the sort of arguments they hear about why the US should not give financing for education overseas.

The big Congress day arrived and the buzz was infectious. The youngsters took the bull by the horns and met with 75 representatives and senators in a frenzy of 100 meetings running between the Senate and the House and back again. In the middle of it all, they participated in a press conference with the impressive Honorary Chairperson for GCE Action Week Shakira and Congresswoman Nita Lowey. However, it was the youngsters coming from 12 different organizations including a large delegation from the ONE Campaign who really made me proud. They were sharp and passionate. I felt for the first time in a few years the US might just take the leadership on Education for All in the coming years with activists such as these.

-Anne-Marie Mujica, GCE international secretariat