Innovative Financing and Partnerships for Education
According to a recent joint World Bank – UNESCO report, “despite additional funding needs, two-thirds of low- and lower-middle-income countries have, in fact, cut their public education budgets since the onset of the pandemic.” While these cuts are not as large as expected, these budget declines could increase as countries’ fiscal positions worsen with time. This could hurt the most marginalized communities in their efforts to access quality education. While sound governance and planning will play a key role in stabilizing each country’s fiscal position, other members of the global education development community (such as philanthropic foundations, the private sector, multilateral development organizations and others) can play a vital role in mitigating such challenges in coordination and partnership with the developing countries and other stakeholders. Experience of the Education Above All Foundation shows that through partnerships and interaction of different countries and different types of institutions and communities, impressive results can be achieved and even the most intractable global challenges can be addressed. The key outcome of this session is to analyse and highlight innovative partnership models and financing approaches by key stakeholders from different regions in a joint effort to find an answer to one of the Sustainable Development Goals - access to quality education.
