Innovative financing to unlock critical education investments
Education Commission and UN Special Envoy for Global Education
Fifty lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are home to the largest number of out-of-school children and youth, as well as the largest number of children not learning of any income group. The International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) has been designed to address the critical needs of LMICs at this urgent time. By maximizing scarce donor resources in an unprecedented way, IFFEd allows LMICs to finance education priorities more affordably, without having to make difficult trade-offs. This session showcased a moderated panel discussion by key IFFEd partners to introduce IFFEd to a broad audience ahead of the launch at TES in September 2022.
Fifty lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are home to more than 700 million children and youth the largest number of out-of-school children, and the largest number not learning of any income group. Even under the most optimistic pre-pandemic scenarios of increased domestic budgets and more efficient spending, it was estimated that LMICs will face a financial shortfall to address these challenges, likely rising to 80 percent of the total global financing gap by 2030. The pandemic has further compounded fiscal pressures, forcing some governments to cut education investments at exactly the time they are most needed for recovery and growth.
The financing gap in LMICs is much too large to be solved by traditional grant aid, which is not even enough to address the needs of the poorest countries. A global financing compact is needed to resolve underlying tension for both lower income and lower-middle-income countries.
The International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) has been designed to address the critical needs of LMICs at this urgent time. By maximizing scarce donor resources in an unprecedented way, IFFEd allows LMICs to finance education priorities more affordably, without having to make difficult trade-offs. IFFEd is currently under final development with a core group of donor, MDB and recipient partners, and will launch at the Transforming Education Summit this September 2022 as called for by the UN Secretary-General and other global leaders.
The session objective was to introduce IFFEd to a broad audience ahead of the anticipated IFFEd launch at TES in September 2022, leveraging direct perspectives from key IFFEd partners
The session was a moderated panel discussion by key IFFEd partners, including representatives of sovereign and philanthropic donors, MDBs and potential partner countries. This was followed by open discussion (Q&A) with participants.
Speakers: Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary General; Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education; Liesbet Steer, Executive Director, Education Commission (panel moderator); panel members: Dipu Moni, Minister of Education, Bangladesh; Tarek Shawki, Minister of Education Egypt; Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Nigeria; Mr. Usman Sharifkhodjaev, First Deputy Minister of Public Education, Uzbekistan; Helen Grant, UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls Education, UK; Woochong Um, Managing Director General, ADB (virtual); Fabio Segura, co-CEO, Jacobs Foundation.