The African Development Bank (AfDB) has joined the Global Partnership for Education and other multilateral development banks during the Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025
It called for stronger strategic partnerships to build innovative financing mechanisms in support of quality education and skills development. The summit was co-hosted by the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The bank’s vice-president of agriculture, human and social development Dr Beth Dunford, participated in a session on the leadership of multilateral development banks in financing education. Participants in this session discussed the rising priority of investing in education, the challenges of growing education portfolios and the economic impacts of COVID-19, as well as the efforts of multilateral banks to help countries transform their education systems.
“The overall financing gap is enormous. Prior to COVID-19, estimates show that in Africa we need US$40bn a year to bridge the education financing gap by 2030, and this figure is going to increase post pandemic,” Dunford said. “That is why, at the international level, and in a time of mounting debt and fiscal constraints, we join the Global Partnership for Education in emphasising domestic financing and complementarity within the global financing architecture,” she added.
Dunford stressed the role of the Bank in leading from the front to create innovative financing mechanisms for education. She underscored the Bank and the African Union Commission partnership to develop a US$300mn African Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Fund, to boost investments in Africa’s human capital development, including technical and vocational education, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The goal of the summit was to provide an opportunity for leaders to make five-year pledges to support the Global Partnership for Education’s work and help transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, where 80% of the world’s out-of-school children live. Participants discussed member countries’ appetite for education sector projects, particularly given the impact of indebtedness and COVID-19 and made the case for education by underlining the clear links between learning and economic growth.
