Ministerial Statement on Education Financing

May 21, 2015

1.            We, Ministers of Education from countries that have held office in the Global Partnership for Education, met on 21 May 2015 in Incheon, Korea. The meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Julia Gillard, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education, and H.E. Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Minister of Education from Senegal and Chair of the Governance, Ethics, Risk and Finance Committee of the Global Partnership for Education. 

2.            We assembled under the theme of “Education Financing for the Future” at the margins of the World Education Forum at an important moment for education around the world, and in our countries. We express our appreciation for the important support that the Global Partnership for Education has provided to our national education efforts, and to the help of donors provided through the Global Partnership for Education since its establishment in 2002. 

3.            As members of the Global Partnership for Education, we are committed to taking concrete steps and joint actions to deliver a better quality education for all of our populations, including the most marginalized and vulnerable.

4.            We note that the global community is increasingly recognizing the benefits of investing in education and is likely to endorse an ambitious education Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda, including universal access to primary and secondary school. Lifting ambition means at least an additional US$39 billion per year will be needed from all external funding sources in order to provide the financing required to achieve these goals. 

5.            We are committed to increasing our domestic financing significantly in order to achieve equitable and inclusive quality education for all, as evidenced by the outcome of the Global Partnership for Education Replenishment Conference held in June 2014 in Brussels, hosted by the European Union, where partner developing countries committed to increase education financing by US$26 billion over four years.

6.            However we believe that the total resource gap cannot be closed without dramatically increased efforts in external financing for education and we are deeply concerned that the Global Partnership for Education Fund target of US$3.5 billion over four years has not been met. The Global Partnership for Education is key to mobilizing global and national efforts to achieve quality education for all children, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable, through inclusive partnership, financing and a focus on effective education systems.

7.            We welcome the ambition contained in the political declaration of the World Education Forum, and the call for increased global efforts to ensure that the education Sustainable Development Goals are achieved.

8.            We further welcome the language contained in the proposed Outcome Document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July 2015. It recognizes the importance of delivering quality education to all children, including in situations of conflict and fragility, and which calls for the Global Partnership for Education to be strengthened and scaled up to ensure that all girls and boys, including children with disabilities, complete free, equitable and quality early childhood, primary and secondary education leading to the relevant and effective learning outcomes. 

9.            We call on all governments to support an ambitious Financing for Sustainable Development Agenda for Education. We furthermore call on the international community to increase significantly its ambition and financial support for the Global Partnership for Education.