Last night we held our June conference call – click on the link to listen to a recording. We were joined by David Archer, who is the Head of Education at ActionAid International and is on the Board of the Global Campaign for Education. As a Board member, he has been involved with overseeing the strategic direction of the 1GOAL campaign.
David reiterated how important it is to maintain focus on global education and emphasised that we must hold the new coalition government accountable for maintaining the UK’s strong record of funding education, including the need to ensure that only appropriate expenditure is counted towards the target of 0.7% of GDP in aid.
David cited the Education for All: Fast Track Initiative (FTI) as the best multilateral organisation giving aid to education, because the FTI coordinates aid efforts behind national government plans. David believes current reform processes at the FTI will result in a stronger global partnership on education for all emerging later this year.
David went on to outline three upcoming opportunities to put pressure on world leaders to commit to funding education. As the only campaign associated with the World Cup that is officially endorsed by FIFA, the 1GOAL campaign will draw international attention to education for all during the World Cup as 350 broadcasters around the globe televise the 1GOAL: Education for All message. While 1GOAL’s mass supporter base adds strength to the campaign, it is vital that we effectively use this publicity to secure policy gains, for example through taking the action we were discussing on the call.
The other two opportunities to secure commitment to financing education mentioned were the upcoming Millennium Development Goals review summit in September and the G20 meeting to be held in South Korea in November.
1GOAL has just released a manifesto with a ten-point plan for reaching education for all. The manifesto focuses on global issues and is not specific to the UK context (for example it does not mention the £1 billion UK pledge for aid to education), but it gives an excellent overall picture of what needs to happen to achieve universal access. The manifesto states that rich countries like the UK need to target those countries that are struggling the most to provide education, back a global plan to achieve better results, channel aid directly into education systems, and pay their fair share of the funding needed to achieve education for all – all messages that tie in closely with what was said on the conference call yesterday.
You can access a recording of the call on our website. Please do take the action for this month, which is to write directly to David Cameron, asking him to reaffirm or increase the pledge of £1 billion per year for basic education, to push other countries to increase their aid, and to ensure that efforts to reform the education aid architecture, especially the FTI are included in discussions at the MDG summit and the G20. You could also include 1GOAL’s ten-point plan for education for all to provide background information if you would find this helpful. If you need any help with taking the action you can contact the RESULTS office – our contact details are on our website.
RESULTS UK - The Power to End Poverty 