Africa

Increased cases of violence against women and children have been reported in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 lockdown. The loss of income because of the COVID-19 lockdown has made some more vulnerable to abuse. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS.

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 19 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the escalation of violence against women and children in Sri Lanka.

A recent survey by CARE Consortium, a collection of three organisations including Delivery and Solitary Trust (DAST), Young Out Here and National Transgender Network, found that 26 percent of respondents experienced violence during the COVID-19 curfew. The COVID-19 curfew was imposed in March and lifted in June in an effort by the government to curb its spread.

The survey titled COVID19 Impact on Key Populations PLHIV and SR Organisations shows that 76.8 percent of the respondents experienced verbal abuse, while 7.8 percent encountered physical and 5.6 percent sexual violence. The survey further reveals that the main perpetrators were neighbours at 49 percent followed by parents at 25 percent, intimate partners at 24 percent and the police at 10 percent.

Out of the 329 respondents, 56 percent were men, 16 percent transgender women, 16 percent sex workers, 32 percent people who use drugs and 3 percent beach boys.

According to Niluka Perera, a consultant from CARE Consortium, most of the respondents did not seek support after experiencing the violence because they did not know where to go.

“There is no safety net when key populations face violence because they cannot go to the police,” Perera told IPS. “The violence is based on their identity which is stigmatised and even the police tend not to care.”

For example, he said, a sex worker who gets beaten up by someone is not likely to report the incident to the police because, although sex work is not criminalised, it is not practised in the open.

“It gets worse with men because they’re expected to be strong such that men who have sex with men find it difficult to report abuse because they are supposed to be strong [as well as] the fact that they are supposed to operate in private,” said Perera.

He attributed the escalation of violence during COVID-19 lockdown to the fact that members of the key populations had to be confined to their homes with their abusers who maybe their family members. Some of them lost their sources of income which exposed them to further abuse.

“The abuse further contributed to mental health concerns,” said Perera. The survey found that out of 248 respondents, 174 expressed hopelessness, 159 said they were stressed, 95 suffered from anxiety and 34 experienced depression.     

He told IPS it is acceptable that the focus is on women and children when talking about gender-based violence because they are the ones who experience it the most. However, Pereira said it is important to address violence against men as well because it is often overlooked.

“The issue is not who is perpetrating violence against men but it is how the status quo normalises that kind of violence. The same applies to violence against women,” said Pereira.

He said trillions, that could help to reduce poverty and hunger, are invested in activities that perpetuate violence such as buying guns for the army or supporting wars. Army budgets across the world are always increasing.

“The systems we have, not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world, are too happy to invest in things that perpetuate violence,” said Perera.

Shelani Palihawadana, the coordinator of the sexual and reproductive health access to youth with disabilities at the Youth Advocacy Network Sri Lanka, concurs, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened police violence. She argued that most of the violence meted by police is against men which is referred to as police brutality and not GBV.

“Police tend to be violent when arresting men compared to when they’re arresting women,” Palihawadana told IPS. “There needs to be awareness around GBV against men because men then take the violence they experience to their families.”

She said men who are members of the Lesbian Gays Bisexual Transgender Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) are ignored even when they go to report GBV cases at the police because they are expected to be tough.

Like Perera, Palihawadana said some forms of GBV have been normalised in Sri Lankan society such that complaining about them does not attract any action. For example, she said, women are always exposed to sexual harassment when using public transport, something that is no longer considered an issue because it happens all the time.

According to Desaree Soysa, the chairperson of the youth technical advisory committee at Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, the government is not making enough effort towards meeting the commitments made at the Nairobi Summit to end GBV and eliminate any discrimination against vulnerable groups including key populations.

She said, since the 25th International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) where the promise to accelerate progress towards meeting the target of SDG5 by 2030, nothing much has been done.

The Japan Parliamentary Federation for Population and its secretariat, the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), has committed to endorse the ICPD25 agenda. As part of its work in Asia, APDA has focused its work on the prevention of violence against women and girls.

“Attention is given to COVID-19 and during the curfew period we couldn’t even meet,” Soysa told IPS.

Besides, she said, ministers are not interested in GBV issues in the middle of a pandemic and hoped that more work will be done once COVID-19 has been put under control.

Soysa said Sri Lanka has made progress in reducing its maternal mortality rate to 1 percent, the lowest in Asia. But she said more needs to be done in giving women access to safe abortions.

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A small-scale Tanzanian mining company finds three of the rare gemstones in as many months.

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 19 2020 (IPS)

There are moments when the world has no choice but to come together. Those moments become historic turning points. This is one of them. We are now faced with the greatest education emergency of our time. Over one billion children are out of school. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis of such magnitude and depth that the next generation might neither have the capacity and tools, nor the will, to rebuild – let alone build back better.

Yasmine Sherif

The world has not planned well for the future. At its worst, education has for too long been underprioritized, and at its best, has been viewed as just one among many competing priorities. Before COVID-19, the funding gap for education in low-income and middle-low income countries – many already plagued with extreme poverty, weak infrastructure, armed conflicts, climate-induced disasters and forced displacement – amounted to $148 billion. This funding gap is now estimated to increase by up to one-third.

COVID-19 has laid bare our collective failure to prioritize education. “The pandemic has exacerbated inequalities and magnified the global learning crisis. The future of an entire generation is at risk,” warned United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres when launching his Policy Brief on Education earlier this month, “The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history.”

The number of out-of-school children who may never set foot in a school again is now rapidly escalating. An estimated 30 million children and youth are of immediate concern, according to UNESCO’s assessment. In a letter to the international community, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the Education Cannot Wait’s High Level Steering Group, the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, together with 275 world leaders, politicians, academics and civil society, calls for urgent action to address the global education crisis triggered by COVID-19.

In support of the mission of Education Cannot Wait, they state: “We cannot stand by and allow these young people to be robbed of their education and a fair chance in life. Instead we should be redoubling our efforts to get all children into school – including the 260 million already out of school and the 75 million children affected by protracted conflicts and forced displacement, including 35 million children living as refugees or internally – with the comprehensive help they need – and to make it possible for young people to start or resume their studies in school further and higher education.”

Similarly, the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, composed of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, has issued an urgent call for firm political action to make financial investments in education for those left furthest behind in armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters, calling on the international community to “act fast and keep recovery and preparedness in sight.”

In the same spirit, the global education community has come together to Save Our Future, a coalition composed of the UN, the World Bank and civil society, raising the alarm of an entire generation at risk due to the rapidly escalating learning crisis, as a result of the massive funding gap, “The Covid-19 pandemic brought about the biggest cataclysm to education any of us have seen!”

On the ground, joint programming supported by pooled funding keeps delivering results. Education Cannot Wait’s 2019 Annual Results Report, Stronger Together in Crisis, launched on 11 August, illustrates that it is possible to deliver quality education to those left furthest behind – provided we come together, politically, strategically, programmatically and financially.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, ECW’s joint investments are rolling out the New Way of Working and ensuring humanitarian-development coherence, bringing together all partners: host-governments, affected populations, UN agencies, civil society, private sector, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, and the International Facility for Financing Education, among others. Stronger together, we share a sense of absolute urgency and uncompromising commitment to results, which is put into action thanks to sustained funding by our strategic donor partners.

As a result, Education Cannot Wait has already reached 3.5 million children and youth since its inception. Yet, the scale and the depth of the education emergency in crisis-affected countries needs to be matched by adequate and scaled up financial investments to end the learning crisis for those left furthest behind, and to swiftly shift the course towards the SDGs. With 20 times more funding, the estimated 75 million children and youth can be reached. Indeed, financing stands between what is possible and what is not for these vulnerable girls and boys.

This truly is the defining moment in our time. There can be no sustainable development goals without education. “Education is a fundamental human right, the bedrock of just, equal and inclusive societies and a main driver of sustainable development,” the UN Secretary-General stated at the launch of his Policy Brief on Education, “As the world faces unsustainable levels of inequality, we need education – the great equalizer – more than ever. We must take bold steps now, to create inclusive, resilient, quality education systems fit for the future.”

We now have a chance to learn from the past by acting in the present, and, as the Secretary-General concluded, recognize the fact that: “The future of education is here!”

 

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Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

The post Future of Education Is Here appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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A performance at a photo show in El Fasher, Sudan, 2018. The new transitional government of Sudan criminalized female genital mutilation this spring, but the practice has not ended. Credit: MOHAMAD ALMAHADY/UNAMID

By Rhona Scullion, PassBlue*
Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

Just four months ago, Sudan took the monumental step to ban female genital mutilation, a painful, unnecessary and dangerous procedure that leaves lasting scars. Generally carried out on girls before they reach puberty, genital mutilation is now punishable in Sudan by up to three years in prison and subject to a fine.

In a country where 88 percent of women between 15 and 49 years old have undergone some form of genital mutilation, according to the United Nations Population Fund, the new law is considered a huge progressive step toward democratic reforms a year after a revolution ousted the dictator, Omar al-Bashir.

But any law is only as good as its enforcement, and this one faces challenges that include not only cultural resistance but also the effects of a pandemic that enable abuse to happen behind closed doors.

The new law became enforceable upon final ratification, on July 10, 2020, almost three months after it passed. In the interim period, those caught performing FGM, as it is known, risked only confiscation of medical equipment and required educational training.

Then came the pandemic. As it began ravaging the globe, Sudanese schools closed early, and it appears that many families took this moment to have girls cut.

According to the World Health Organization, FGM is a procedure that intentionally alters or causes injury to female genital organs and has no medical basis. There are three main types, ranging from removing the clitoris (type one) to partly sewing up the vaginal opening by cutting and repositioning the labia (type three). The practice is not condoned by any religious texts but is carried out mostly in Muslim communities in parts of Africa, the Middle East and sections of Asia.

In many communities, it is regarded as a prerequisite for marriage. It is generally performed without anesthetics by traditional “cutters” with no medical training or equipment, and the girls are often forcibly restrained.

FGM’s effects are significant and enduring. Tamador Ahmed Abdalla, a child protection specialist with Unicef in Sudan, told PassBlue in a phone interview that cutting leaves both physical and mental scars. In the most severe cases, she said, “They lose their lives because of the bleeding or maybe they get tetanus from the things the midwife uses.” More often, they experience intense pain when they start their period, have sex and go through pregnancy and give birth.

The mental trauma is equally severe. “That moment of your life which has been physically violent on your body — two women physically holding you down, keeping you on the bed and trying to do something to you that you are not aware of . . . it lives with you,” Abdalla said.

Efforts to outlaw the practice in Sudan started in 1946, when legislation banned some forms of FGM but went largely unenforced. With the reintroduction of Sharia law under the regime of President Bashir, attempts to criminalize FGM in 2002, 2009 and 2015 failed. (Bashir is now in prison in Sudan for corruption charges and awaiting other trials.)

Women’s advocates say the new law could face the same fate, regardless of Bashir’s ouster and a new, more progressive “sovereignty council,” chaired by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leading the country.

Sufian Abdul-Mouty, a representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sudan, told PassBlue via email that although there is “no precise data” on instances of FGM since the pandemic began in March, there are “anecdotal reports from UNFPA’s partners . . . that show an increase in received reports of cases in Khartoum and other states.” (Khartoum is Sudan’s capital.)

Abdalla echoed this view, telling PassBlue that Unicef’s information shows numbers rising in the Sudanese states of White Nile, Khartoum and Jazeera. The reported increase led many advocates who track the practice to think the surge was due to people taking advantage of children being out of school during the pandemic, as was widely reported to be the case in Somalia.

However, Jarai Sabally, a program officer from Donor Direct Action, which promotes women’s rights, suggested that the pandemic only jump-started an FGM season that takes place each summer in Somalia as well as Sudan. According to Hawa Aden Mohamed, the founder of the fund’s Somali partner, the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development, when schools are closed parents traditionally take their children to rural areas where FGM usually occurs.

“The only difference is, this time around schools closed early due to the Covid-19 outbreak,” Mohamed said. “Therefore, many parents living in the urban areas sent their children to rural areas earlier than usual, which resulted in the girls getting cut, and that is why we are seeing this sudden increase early in the summer.” The UNFPA and Unicef confirmed that it is normal for families to perform FGM on girls during school holidays.

If the new law had been enforceable earlier, it would likely have prevented many girls from being cut and the perpetrators remaining at large during this peak time for FGM.

For Sudan’s new law to be useful, it must be supported by robust educational and cultural reforms, experts say, a challenge made more difficult by the pandemic. (Sudan currently has 12,033 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 786 deaths in a population of 43 million.)

Abdul Mounty of the UNFPA highlighted the difficulties to PassBlue: “Advocacy and awareness on the enforcement of the law can cause an increase in the practice because of the fear of social exclusion or social stigma for not conforming to the norm, which may be stronger than the fear of fines and imprisonment. The government needs to be very careful, focusing first on intensive community awareness to increase the acceptance and demand for the law.”

There is still a large stigma attached to girls who have not undergone FGM. According to Abdalla of Unicef, if a husband finds that his new wife has not been cut, he will sometimes try to return her to her family and ask for her to undergo FGM. Conversely, anecdotal surveys conducted by Unicef with university students in Sudan suggest that a younger generation of men prefer to have a relationship with an uncut girl. While this may, as Abdalla suggested, affect the prevalence rate of FGM in ensuing years, it could also create a new stigma for those girls who have been cut.

Raising awareness of FGM’s lasting damage is particularly important for advocates who are trying to dispel myths about the practice. But with the news media now dominated by pandemic updates, it’s hard to get mention of the new law.

“Every single thing is about coronavirus, and that is shrinking the space for other programs and other advocacy messaging,” Abdalla said. “We need to work closely with the media, NGOs and even in the schools to orient teachers and parent councils in the community.

“We need to work with them to introduce them to the law and to help them understand what it means to have this law in place because there are some people who might misuse this opportunity and misinform communities that the law is coming to criminalize parents.”

Similarly, Nahid Jabralla, the founder and director of the SEEMA Center for the Training and Protection of Women and Children’s Rights, based in Sudan, pointed out that FGM is not part of the national education curriculum, which she thinks needs to change.

“Ending FGM is not only a matter of the law,” she said. “We need efficient mechanisms, we need resources, we need proper partnerships that include governmental bodies, civil society, community-based organizations, people on the ground . . . [and] international actors [UN agencies and other NGOs]. We need to go for it and push for it, taking the initiative — and this includes academic institutions. This has to be part of the curricula, in general and higher education.”

Another problem is the lack of official data and research that would enable risk-mapping and help campaigners target areas with the highest rates of the practice.

Abdalla pointed out that while the overall rate of FGM is high in Sudan, it varies among communities and states. This disparity often results in parents traveling to certain states to have their children cut. In one case, Abdalla said a woman in Khartoum wanted to have her five daughters cut. The midwife she went to refused, so the mother took the girls to a different state, White Nile, to find someone who would do the job. Fortunately, several officials challenged the mother with the new law and prevented it from taking place.

Such official intervention shows a sea-change in the government approach, giving activists hope that this new law is more than empty words. Jabralla of SEEMA thinks the new approach will succeed in Sudan because of a reframing of FGM as a human-rights violation rather than as a cultural practice. A technical adviser for the National Program for Abolition of FGM (a joint program with the Sudanese government and Unicef) from 2004 to 2010, she knows the issue well.

Previous governments in Sudan had used FGM as “a tool of suppression,” she told PassBlue, and even the UN was slow to recognize the practice as a human-rights violation. In 2008, however, she said, human-rights campaigners in Sudan pushed back against fundamental Islamist groups that had attempted to legalize certain forms of FGM, leading to the creation of the national anti-FGM agenda.
Since then, the momentum for change, extending to efforts to stamp out child marriage, has been growing.

Jabralla admitted to being “exhausted” from the battles but still positive. “We have the space, we do not need any permission from anyone, even the government,” she said. “Now the law is there because of our will as civil society, as actors, we have the law, and of course it standing alone will not solve anything, but taking it with a genuine campaign I think we can join the world at the UN Sustainable Development Goals summit in ending FGM in 2030.”

This story was originally published by PassBlue

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By External Source
Aug 18 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Despite the significant challenges presented by COVID-19, the Pacific Community (SPC) 7-week research expedition to monitor the health of world’s largest tuna fishery will depart from Honolulu on Saturday 15 August 2020.

Half of the world’s tuna catch comes from the Western & Central Pacific, providing a critical source of protein and export revenue for Pacific Island Nations.

With most research and fisheries observer programmes currently suspended due to COVID-19, Graham Pilling, the SPC Deputy Director for the Oceanic Fisheries Programme, said the importance of this cruise cannot be overstated.

“These tuna fisheries are worth approximately USD6 billion annually and, along with tourism, are the main income for most Pacific Island Nations. With global tourism effectively shutdown due to COVID-19, the income derived from tuna is even more critical for Pacific economies,” he said.

To avoid any potential for COVID-19 transmission to the remote communities of the Pacific the cruise will not make any port calls to Pacific Island Nations. The crew members, including the scientific team, are in isolation for 14 days prior to departure and have undergone COVID-19 virus testing. The vessel will then return directly to Honolulu on October 5, 2020 – 50 days after departure.

The expedition will only sample from the tropical waters of the high seas and the vast Kiribati Exclusive Economic Zone. The cruise will also provide the first opportunity to collect data on tuna sustainability from the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, which was established in 2008.

From 2006 to 2019, SPC has tagged 452,489 tuna and 81,402 tags have been retrieved, generating the most comprehensive data set for tuna management in the world. In addition to monitoring the health of the tuna stocks, Dr Simon Nicol, SPC Principle Fisheries Scientist said the electronic tags inserted into the tuna are also being used to monitor the health of the Pacific Ocean.

Dr Stuart Minchin, the Director-General of the Pacific Community, said this continued research is critical to ensure that the region remains a global leader in sustainable use of its fisheries resources.

“Around 70% of the catch is taken by international fleets and the fees generated by these licenses provides major source of revenue for Pacific governments to support their development goals. The tagging of bigeye and yellowfin tuna in this region is critical for researchers to understand the impacts of the fisheries on these species,” he said.

According to SPC’s 2019 Tuna assessment report, four key tuna stocks of yellowfin, big eye, skipjack, albacore are in a healthy state in the Western Central Pacific Ocean region.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

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In Latin America, indigenous teenage girls, together with their rural counterparts, are the group most discriminated against in terms of opportunities and access to education. Credit: Rajesh Krishnan/UN Women

By External Source
WASHINGTON, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

In 1990, Latin America’s average GDP per capita was a little over a quarter of the United States’ income level, while emerging and developing Asian countries’ GDP per capita was only 5 percent. In 2019, Asian countries had grown fourfold, but Latin America was still at the same level.

What explains this weak relative income growth? Since Asia has twice the investment level of Latin America, it is tempting to blame low growth on low investment. But Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe casts doubt on this narrative, having achieved faster growth than Latin America with lower investment than Asia.

 

 

In a new working paper, we compare the experiences of these three regions (before COVID-19) and conclude that Latin America is poorer because of lower levels of human capital and productivity, not investment.

 

Temporary boost

Take Mexico and Poland. In the last 25 years, Mexico has had more investment (as a percent of GDP), but its growth per capita has been much slower. What explains that?

Investment does raise income. A higher so-called capital stock per worker increases GDP per capita. But only up to a certain point, after which the return on investment starts to decrease. A pizza deliverer with a motorcycle will do more deliveries than one who has to walk. But giving the same deliverer two motorcycles, or a more expensive one, will not do much to increase his output.

 

 

 

Productivity growth, human capital, and institutions

In the long run, it is not more input (labor and capital) that generates growth, but productivity (how much more output can be produced with the same input) in the same amount of time.

Productivity growth depends only partially on technological progress. In Charles Dickens’ time, letters were written with goose-feather quills. A century ago, with typewriters. Today, with computers. No wonder current office workers are much more productive! But it also depends on human capital. The same computer will make a college graduate much more productive than someone who has only finished elementary school.

We studied the different components of GDP growth for Poland and Mexico since 1995 and the picture is very clear: the combination of human capital and productivity is a major contributor for the European country, while often a negative factor for the North American one.

Strong governance and good business climate matter for productivity growth. In countries where property rights are not secure and governance is poor, firms will remain small and productivity low. In well-run countries, successful firms can become large and more efficient.

 

Cross-country differences in income levels

Our paper shows that countries with higher human capital and better governance and business climate tend to be richer than those with low scores on these variables. High human capital alone is not sufficient: our analysis shows that countries become rich only when governance also improves.

Not surprisingly, Mexico has worse readings in both areas than Poland. In general, Latin America scores poorly on both dimensions, compared to advanced countries or emerging Europe, which helps explain why it is relatively poorer. Of course, there are exceptions: Chile’s governance ranks well against some advanced economies and is better than most of emerging Asia.

Our paper argues that countries won’t grow faster and close the income gap with richer parts of the world without improving human capital, governance, and business environment.

 

Eastern Europe’s success factor

In 1989, on the eve of the fall of the Berlin wall, countries behind the Iron Curtain were much poorer than Western Europe. Now, some of them have income levels similar to Spain and Italy.

They converged rapidly because their human capital was already similar to Western Europe’s, while income was much lower in the early 1990s. Strengthening of institutions helped the process, and here the European Union (EU) played an important role. The prospect of EU membership led to more reforms and higher growth. Countries that joined, or worked toward that objective, saw significant improvements.

 

Why has Latin America not converged?

Latin America fell behind in the convergence process mostly for two reasons. First, it did not have that same combination of high human capital and low income of former communist countries. In fact, in the mid-1990s, GDP per capita was somewhat above what could be expected for the level of human capital. Second, the strong institutional improvement seen in Europe also didn’t happen in Latin America. Governance indicators actually deteriorated in many countries.

The same factors that hold back growth also make investment less attractive. Our conclusion is that low investment in Latin America is not the cause, but the result of low growth. Governments solely focused on boosting investment might want to look at the problem from a different perspective.

 

By Bas B. Bakker, Manuk Ghazanchyan, Alex Ho, and Vibha Nanda IMF Western Hemisphere Department

 

This story was originally posted by IMF NEWS

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Credit: UNICEF Mali / Dicko

By External Source
NEW YORK, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

We write to call for urgent action to address the global education emergency triggered by COVID-19. With over 1 billion children still out of school because of the lockdown, there is now a real and present danger that the public health crisis will create a COVID generation who lose out on schooling and whose opportunities are permanently damaged. While the more fortunate have had access to alternatives, the world’s poorest children have been locked out of learning, denied internet access, and with the loss of free school meals – once a lifeline for 300 million boys and girls – hunger has grown.

An immediate concern, as we bring the lockdown to an end, is the fate of an estimated 30 million children who according to UNESCO may never return to school. For these, the world’s least advantaged children, education is often the only escape from poverty – a route that is in danger of closing. Many of these children are adolescent girls for whom being in school is the best defence against forced marriage and the best hope for a life of expanded opportunity.

Many more are young children who risk being forced into exploitative and dangerous labour. And because education is linked to progress in virtually every area of human development – from child survival to maternal health, gender equality, job creation and inclusive economic growth – the education emergency will undermine the prospects for achieving all our 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and potentially set back progress on gender equity by years. According to the World Bank the long-term economic cost of lost schooling could be as much as $10 trillion in lost productive output.

We cannot stand by and allow these young people to be robbed of their education and a fair chance in life. Instead we should be redoubling our efforts to get all children into school – including the 260 million already out of school and the 75 million children affected by protracted conflicts and forced displacement, including 35 million children living as refugees or internally displaced – with the comprehensive help they need – and to make it possible for young people to start or resume their studies in school further and higher
education.

There is a longer-term challenge we must also meet. Even before COVID-19, the world faced a learning crisis. Over half of the children in developing countries suffering ‘learning poverty’ and even at age 11 had little or no basic literacy and numeracy skills. As a result, 800 million of today’s young people leave education with no qualifications whatsoever. If we are to avoid this, millions of children who are now preparing to return to school, who have lost over half a year of education, need their governments to invest in catch-up programmes and proper learning assessment. When schools reopened after Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake attendance recovered, but four years later children had lost the equivalent of 1.5 years of schooling.

Resources are now urgently needed to get young people back into education and enable them to catch-up. What is more, we should rebuild better: more support for online learning, personalised learning, teacher training, conditional cash transfers for poor families and safer schools that meet ‘distancing’ rules, building on the enormous community effort that has been displayed during the pandemic. And to spur global momentum in support of progress in education, a coalition of global organisations has now joined forces in the ‘Save our Future’ initiative launched on August 4.

Yet at the very time we need extra resources, education funding is in danger on three fronts:

1. As slower or negative growth undermines tax revenues, less money may be available in almost every country for public services, including education.
2. When allocating limited funds, some governments may leave education crowded out and underfunded as they prioritise expenditure on health and economic recovery.
3. Intensifying fiscal pressure in developed countries will result in reductions in international development aid, including aid for education, which has already been losing out to other priorities in the allocation of bilateral and multilateral aid. There is also a danger that multilateral donors, who already under-invest in education, will reallocate funds.

The World Bank now estimates that, over the next year, overall education spending in low and middle-income countries could be $100-150 billion lower than previously planned.

This funding crisis will not resolve itself.

We call on the G20, the IMF, World Bank and regional development banks and all countries to recognise the scale of the crisis and support three initiatives to enable catch-up to happen, and progress towards SDG4 to be resumed:

– First, every country should pledge to protect front line education spending, prioritising the needs of the most disadvantaged children through where possible, conditional and unconditional cash transfers to promote school participation.
– Second, the international community must increase aid for education, focusing on the most vulnerable, including the poor, girls, children in conflict situations and the disabled. The quickest way to free up resources for education is through debt relief. The 76 poorest
countries have to pay $86 billion in debt-service costs over the next two years. We call for debt suspension with a requirement that the
money for debt servicing be reallocated to education and other priority investments for children.
– Third, the IMF should issue $1.2 trillion in Special Drawing Rights (its global reserve asset) and its membership should agree to channel
these resources toward the countries that need them most, creating a platform for recovery.

And the World Bank should unlock more support for low income countries through a supplementary International Development Association budget, and, following the lead of the UK and Netherlands which have now pledged $650 million to the new International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) to help unlock billions in extra finance for education in lower middle income countries, invite guarantees and grants from donors. This is in addition to – and compliments – over the next 2 years the replenishment of GPE (Global Partnership for Education) and scaled up investment in ECW (Education Cannot Wait) and continued support for the UN agencies focused on education and children led by UNESCO and UNICEF. We call on private sector corporations and foundations to make support for global education a greater priority.

Sustainable human development can only be built upon a foundation of quality education. While the challenges are momentous, the impact of the crisis on children has made us even more determined to realise our ambition contained in Sustainable Development Goal 4, that ours can be the first generation in history in which every child is at school and has the chance to develop their potential to the full. Now is the time for national governments and the international community to come together to give children and young people the opportunities they deserve and to which they are entitled.

Signed,

María Elena Agüero – Secretary General of the WLA-Club de Madrid

Esko Aho – Prime Minister of Finland (1991-1995)¹

Dr Shamshad Akhtar – UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP & Assistant Secretary-General at UN DESA (2013-2018); Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (2006-2009)²

Dr Farida Allaghi – Ambassador of Libya to the European Union (2015-2016)³

HE Dr Abdulaziz Altwaijri – Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (1991-2019)³

Mohamed Amersi – Founder & Chairman, The Amersi Foundation

Dr Roger Ames – Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii

Dr Kwame Anthony Appiah – Professor of Philosophy and Law, NYU

Shaukat Aziz – Prime Minister of Pakistan (2004-2007)³⁴

Professor Julian Baggini – Academic Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy

Gordon Bajnai – Prime Minister of Hungary (2009-2010)

Harriett Baldwin MP – Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; Founding Co-Chair, International Parliamentary Network for Education

Jan Peter Balkenende – Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2002-2010)¹

HE Joyce Banda – President of Malawi (2012-2014)¹

Kaushik Basu – President of the International Economic Association; Chief Economist of the World Bank (2012-2016)

Carol Bellamy – Executive Director of UNICEF (1995-2005)²

Nicolas Berggruen – Chairman of the Berggruen Institute⁴

Suman Bery – Chief Economist at Royal Dutch Shell (2012-2016); Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi

Sir Tim Besley – President of the International Economic Association (2014-2017); Professor of Economics and Political Science, LSE

Valdis Birkavs – Prime Minister of Latvia (1993-1994)¹

Tony Blair – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007)

Dr Mario Blejer – Governor of the Central Bank of Argentina (2002); Director of the Centre for Central Banking Studies, Bank of England (2003-2008)

Irina Bokova – Director-General of UNESCO (2009-2017)²

Patrick Bolton – Professor of Finance and Economics, Imperial College London; Professor, Columbia University

Kjell Magne Bondevik – Prime Minister of Norway (1997-2000; 2001-2005)¹

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz – Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge (2010-2017)

Ouided Bouchamaoui – President of UTICA (2011-2018); Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2015)³

Dumitru Braghiș – Prime Minister of Moldova (1999-2001)³

María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila – Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador (1999-2004)²

Gordon Brown – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2007-2010)

John Bruton – Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (1994-1997)¹⁵

Robin Burgess – Professor of Economics, LSE

Kim Campbell – Prime Minister of Canada (1993)¹

Fernando Henrique Cardoso – President of Brazil (1995-2003)¹

Wendy Carlin – Professor of Economics, University College London

Dr Vinton G. Cerf – Co-Inventor of the Internet³

Hikmet Çetin – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey (1991-1994), Speaker of the Grand National Assembly (1997-1999)³⁵

Baroness Lynda Chalker – Minister of Overseas Development of the United Kingdom (1989-1997)⁵

Professor Bai Chong-En – Dean, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

Helen Clark – Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008); UNDP Administrator (2009-2017)¹³⁵

Joe Clark – Prime Minister of Canada (1979-1980)⁵

Emil Constantinescu – President of Romania (1996-2000)³

Radhika Coomaraswamy – UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-2012); UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (1994-2003)²

Chester Crocker – Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, United States (1981-1989)⁵

Mirko Cvetković – Prime Minister of Serbia (2008-2012)³

Dr Antonio Damasio – David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy; Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, USC

Dr Hanna Damasio – Dana Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology; Director, Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, USC

Marzuki Darusman – Attorney General of Indonesia (1999-2001)⁵

Frederik Willem de Klerk – State President of South Africa (1989-1994)⁵

Kemal Derviş – Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey (2001-2002); Administrator of UNDP (2005-2009); Senior Fellow Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institute

Beatrice Weder di Mauro – President, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Professor of International Economics, Graduate Institute in Geneva

Dr Victor J. Dzau – President of the National Academy of Medicine

Gareth Evans – Foreign Minister of Australia (1988-1996); President and CEO of International Crisis Group (2000-2009)⁵

Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar – Director of the Wellcome Trust

Jan Fischer – Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (2009-2010); Finance Minister (2013-2014)³

Professor Tom Fletcher CMG – UK Ambassador to Lebanon (2011-2015); Principal-Elect of Hertford College, University of Oxford

Vicente Fox – President of Mexico (2000-2006)¹

Franco Frattini – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy (2002-2004; 2008-2011); European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security (2004-2008)³

Dr Anton Friedrich Koch – Professor of Philosophy, Universität Heidelberg

Chiril Gaburici – Prime Minister of Moldova (2015); Minister of Economy and Infrastructure (2018-2019)³

Ahmed Galal – Finance Minister of Egypt (2013-2014)

Nathalie de Gaulle – Chairwoman & Co-founder of NB-INOV; Founder of Under 40³

Lord Anthony Giddens – Director of the London School of Economics (1996–2003); Professor, Department of Sociology, LSE

Dr Lawrence Gonzi – Prime Minister of Malta (2004-2013)⁵

Dr Alexander Görlach – Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Relations, University of Cambridge

Dalia Grybauskaitė – President of the Republic of Lithuania (2009-2019)¹

Rebeca Grynspan – Ibero-American Secretary-General; Second Vice President of Costa Rica (1994-1998); UN Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of UNDP (2010-2014)²

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim – President of Mauritius (2015-2018)³

Sergei Guriev – Chief Economist of the EBRD (2016-2019); Professor of Economics, Sciences Po

Dr Han Seung-soo – Prime Minister of South Korea (2008-2009)¹

Senator Robert M. Hertzberg – Majority Leader of the California State Senate, United States

Dr Noeleen Heyzer – UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP (2007-2015)²³

Bengt Holmström – Nobel Laureate for Economics (2016); Professor of Economics, MIT

Wang Hui – Professor of Chinese Language, Literature, and History, Tsinghua University

Mo Ibrahim – Founder fo Celtel; Chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation⁴

Enrique Iglesias – Foreign Minister of Uruguay (1985-1988); President of the Inter-American Development Bank (1988-2005)¹⁵

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu – Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (2004-2014)³

Dalia Itzik – Interim President of Israel (2007); President of the Knesset (2006-2009)³

Mladen Ivanić – Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014-2018)³

Pico Iyer – Distinguished Presidential Fellow, Chapman University; Writer & Essayist, TIME

Garry Jacobs – President & Chief Executive Officer of the World Academy of Art and Science³

HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – President of Liberia (2006-2018); Member of The Elders⁵

T. Anthony Jones – Vice-President and Executive Director of the Gorbachev Foundation of North America¹

Ivo Josipović – President of Croatia (2010-2015)¹³

Jean-Claude Juncker – Prime Minister of Luxembourg (1995-2013); President of the European Commission (2014-2019)¹

Mats Karlsson – Vice President, External Affairs at the World Bank (1999-2002)³

Caroline Kende-Robb – Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel (2011-2017); Secretary General of CARE International (2018-2019)

Rima Khalaf – Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (2010-2017)²

Dr Moushira Khattab – Executive President, Kemet Boutros Boutros Ghali Foundation for Peace and Knowledge; Minister of Family and Population of Egypt (2009-2011)³

Ban Ki-moon – UN Secretary General (2007-2016); Deputy Chair of The Elders¹

Horst Köhler – President of the Federal Republic of Germany (2004-2010)¹

Jadranka Kosor – Prime Minister of Croatia (2009-2011)³

Professor Anne Krueger – First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF (2001-2006); Senior Research Professor of International Economics, School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

HE John Kufuor – President of Ghana (2001-2009)¹

Chandrika Kumaratunga – President of Sri Lanka (1994-2005)¹³

Aleksander Kwaśniewski – President of Poland (1995-2005)¹

Rachel Kyte – Dean of The Fletcher School, Tufts University; UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (2016-2019); World Bank Group VP & Special Envoy (2012-2015)²

Ricardo Lagos – President of Chile (2000-2006); Member of the Elders¹⁴

Zlatko Lagumdzija – Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2001- 2002); Foreign Affairs Minister (2012-2015)¹³

Yves Leterme – Prime Minister of Belgium (2008; 2009-2011)¹³

Dr Margaret Levi – Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences & Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Professor Justin Yifu Lin – Chief Economist & Senior Vice-President of the World Bank (2008-2012); Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics, Peking University³

Tzipi Livni – Vice Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel (2006-2009); Minister of Justice (2013-2014)³

Petru Lucinschi – President of Moldova (1997-2001)³

Ricardo Luna – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru (2016-2018)⁵

Nora Lustig – President Emeritus of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association; Professor of Latin American Economics, Tulane University

Graça Machel – Education & Culture Minister of Mozambique (1975-1986); Deputy Chair of The Elders

Sir John Major – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1990-1997)

Susana Malcorra – UN Under-Secretary-General for Field Support (2008-2012); Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary-General (2012-2015); Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina (2015-2017)²

Purnima Mane – UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director UNFPA (2007-2012)²

Moussa Mara – Prime Minister of Mali (2014-2015)³

Paul Martin – Prime Minister of Canada (2003-2006)⁴

Colin Mayer CBE – Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Péter Medgyessy – Prime Minister of Hungary (2002-2004)³

Rexhep Meidani – President of Albania (1997-2002)¹³

Mario Monti – Prime Minister of Italy (2011-2013)¹⁴

Rovshan Muradov – Secretary General of NGIC

Joseph Muscat – Prime Minister of Malta (2013-2020)³

Mustapha Kamel Nabli – Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (2011-2012)

Piroska Nagy-Mohácsi – Programme Director of the Institute of Global Affairs, LSE; Director of Policy, EBRD (2009-2015)

Dawn Nakagawa – Executive Vice President, Berggruen Institute

Dr Rebecca Newberger Goldstein – Philosopher

Bujar Nishani – President of Albania (2012-2017)³

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo – President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999-2007)¹

Josiah Ober – Professor of Political Science and Classics, Stanford University

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – Board Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation; Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2011-2015)

Djoomart Otorbaev – Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan (2014-2015)³

Ana Palacio – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain (2002-2004)²³⁵

Elsa Papademetriou – Vice President of the Hellenic Parliament (2007-2009)³

George Papandreou – Prime Minister of Greece (2009-2011)³

Andrés Pastrana – President of Colombia (1998-2002)¹

P. J. Patterson – Prime Minister of Jamaica (1992-2005)¹⁵

Dr Philip Pettit – L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University

Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering – United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1997-2000); Ambassador to the UN (1989-1992)⁵

Sir Christopher Pissarides – Nobel Laureate for Economics (2010); Professor of Economics & Political Science, LSE

Rosen Plevneliev – President of Bulgaria (2012-2017)³

Richard Portes CBE – Professor of Economics, London Business School; Founder and Honorary President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca – President of Malta (2014-2019)³

Romano Prodi – Prime Minister of Italy (2006-2008); President of the European Commission (1999-2004)¹

Michael Puett – Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilization, Harvard University

Jorge Quiroga – President of Bolivia (2001-2002)¹

Iveta Radičová – Prime Minister of Slovakia (2010-2012)¹

José Ramos Horta – President of Timor Leste (2007-2012)¹⁵

Òscar Ribas Reig – Prime Minister of Andorra (1982-1984; 1990-1994)¹³

Lord George Robertson – Secretary General of NATO (1999-2003)⁵

Mary Robinson – President of Ireland (19990-1997); UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Chair of the Elders¹

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – Prime Minister of Spain (2004-2011)¹

Dani Rodrik – President-Elect of the International Economic Association; Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard University

Gérard Roland – Professor of Economics & Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Petre Roman – Prime Minister of Romania (1989-1991)¹³

Dr Michael Roth – President of Wesleyan University

Nouriel Roubini – Chairman & CEO, Roubini Macro Associates LLC

Ruslana – World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist; Special Envoy of NGIC

Isabel Saint Malo – Vice President of Panama (2014-2019)²

Juan Manuel Santos – President of Colombia (2010-2018); Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2016); Member of The Elders

Amartya Sen – Nobel Laureate for Economics (1998); Professor of Economics & Philosophy, Harvard University

Ismail Serageldin – Vice President of the World Bank (1992-2000); Co-Chair of NGIC

Fatiha Serour – Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Somalia (2013-2014)²

Rosalía Arteaga Serrano – President of Ecuador (1997)³

Dame Jenny Shipley – Prime Minister of New Zealand (1997-1999)¹

Javier Solana – Secretary General of the Council of the EU (1999-2009); Secretary General of NATO (1995-1999)¹⁵

Professor Sir Richard Sorabji – Honorary Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford

Michael Spence – Nobel Laureate for Economics (2001); William R. Berkley Professor in Economics & Business, NYU⁴

Devi Sridhar – Professor of Global Public Health, University of Edinburgh

Dr Eduardo Stein – Vice President of Guatemala (2004-2008)⁵

Lord Nicholas Stern – Chief Economist & Senior Vice-President of the World Bank (2000-2003); Chief Economist of the EBRD (1994-1999) & Professor of Economics and Government, LSE

Joseph Stiglitz – Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000); Nobel Laureate for Economics (2001); Professor, Columbia University⁴

Petar Stoyanov – President of Bulgaria (1997-2002)³

Laimdota Straujuma – Prime Minister of Latvia (2014-2016)³

Lawrence Summers – United States Secretary of the Treasury (1999-2001); Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1995-1999); Chief Economist of the World Bank (1991-1993); Director of the National Economic Council (2009-2010)⁴

Boris Tadić – President of Serbia (2004-2012)¹³

Jigme Y. Thinley – Prime Minister of Bhutan (2008-2013)¹

Helle Thorning-Schmidt – Prime Minister of Denmark (2011-2015)⁴

Eka Tkeshelashvili – Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia (2010-2012)³

Danilo Türk – President of Slovenia (2007-2012); President of WLA-Club de Madrid

Professor Laura D’Andrea Tyson – Director of the United States National Economic Council (1995-1996); Faculty Director, Haas Institute for Business & Social Impact, University of California, Berkeley⁴

Cassam Uteem – President of Mauritius (1992-2002); Vice-President of WLA-Club de Madrid⁵

Juan Gabriel Valdés – Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chile (1999); Ambassador to the UN (2000-2003)⁵

Marianna Vardinoyannis – UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador; Board Member of NGIC

Emiliana Vegas – Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution

Andrés Velasco – Finance Minister of Chile (2006-2010); Dean of the School of Public Policy, LSE

Vaira Vike-Freiberga – President of Latvia (1999-2007)¹; Co-Chair of NGIC

Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden – President, Mannheim University (2012-2019); Professor, Economics Department

Filip Vujanović – President of Montenegro (2003-2018)³

Leonard Wantchekon – Founder & President of the African School of Economics; Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

Shang-Jin Wei – Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank (2014-2016); Professor of Chinese Business and Economy & Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School

Rebecca Winthrop – Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution

R. Bin Wong – Distinguished Professor of History; Director of the Asia Institute, UCLA (2004-2016)

Kateryna Yushchenko – First Lady of Ukraine (2005-2010); Board Member of NGIC

Viktor Yushchenko – President of Ukraine (2005-2010)³

Fareed Zakaria – Host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN⁴

Valdis Zatlers – President of Latvia (2007-2011)³

Ernesto Zedillo – President of Mexico (1994-2000); Member of The Elders¹⁴

Min Zhu – Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (2011-2016)⁴

ActionAid UK – Girish Menon, CEO

African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) – Dr K.Y. Amoako, President and Founder

BRAC International – Dr Muhammad Musa, Executive Director

CARE International UK – Laurie Lee, CEO

Catholic Agency for Oversees Development (CAFOD) – Christine Allen, Director

Save the Childr
en International – Inger Ashing, CEO

Save the Children UK – Kevin Watkins, CEO

The Education Commission – Dr Liesbet Steer, Director

Theirworld – Dr Justin van Fleet, President

WaterAid UK – Tim Wainwright, CEO
¹ Member of the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid
² Member of Global Women Leaders: Voices for Change and Inclusion
³ Member of Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC)
⁴ Member of the Berggruen Institute 21st Century Council
⁵ Member of Global Leadership Foundation

Members of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank & IMF

Denis Kpwang Abbé – Senator of the Republic of Cameroon (2013-2018)

Francisco Ashley L. Acedillo – Member, House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines (2013-2016)

Mohammed Jawad Ahmed – Advisor to the Speaker, Parliament of the Republic of Iraq

Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya

Shamsul Iskandar Bin Mohd Akin – Member of Parliament of Malaysia

Iqbal Abdul Hussein Almadhy MP – Member of Parliament, Parliament of the Republic of Iraq; President of the PN Chapter in Iraq

Njume Peter Ambang – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Cameroon; Member of the Education and Youth Affairs Committee

Ecaterina Andronescu – Senator, Parliament of Romania; Minister of Education (2018-2019); Professor, University Politehnica of Bucharest

Ibtissame Azzaoui – Member of the Parliament of Morocco

Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin – Second Deputy Speaker, Parliament of Ghana

Alpha Bah – Vice President, National Assembly of Guinea

Hafida Benchahida – Senator of the Republic of Algeria; Founding Member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network

Hervé Berville – Member of the National Assembly of the French Republic

Nozha Beyaoui – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Tunisia

Sunjeev Kour Birdi – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya

Gary Bodeau – President of the Chamber of Deputies, National Assembly of the Republic of Haiti (2018-2020)

Peter M. Boehm – Senator, Senate of Canada

Mārtiņš Bondars – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Latvia

Liam Byrne MP – Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; Chair of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF

Professor Alejandro Cacace – Representative, National Congress of Argentina

Yunus Carrim – Member of Parliament, National Council of Provinces of Parliament, Republic of South Africa; Chairperson of the Select Committee on Finance

Giulio Centemero MP – Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy; Member of the Finance Committee; Co-Chair, PAM Panel on Trade and Investments

Sarah Champion MP – Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom

Olfa Soukri Cherif – Member of Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania

Sven Clement – Member of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies

Gordana Comic – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (2001-2020)

Shiddi Usman Danjuma – Member of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Colin Deacon – Senator, Senate of Canada

Issa Mardo Djabir MP – Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Chad

Percy E. Downe – Senator, Senate of Canada

Worlea-Saywah Dunah – Founder and Chairman of the Board, Center for Africa Development and Democracy

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith – Member of Parliament of Canada

Marouan Felfel – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Tunisia

Cedric Thomas Frolick – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa

Mahmut Celadet Gaydalı – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Turkey

Hajia Alijata sulemana Gbentie – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Ghana (2013-2016)

Najeeb Ghanem – Member of the House of Representatives, Parliament of Yemen

Hawa Abdulrahman Ghasia – Member of Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania (2005-2020)

Preet Kaur Gill MP – Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; Shadow Secretary of State for International Development

Patrick Grady MP – Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom

Dr Lahcen Haddad – Member of the Parliament of Morocco; Minister of Tourism, Government of Morocco (2012-2016); Vice President of the SID International Governing Council

Laura Angélica Rojas Hernández – Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico

Anthony Kimani Ichung’Wah – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya

Eunice Kabiru – Member of Parliament of Estonia

Rebecca Yei Kamara – Member of Parliament, Parliament of Sierra Leone

Abdul Kargbo – Member of Parliament, Parliament of Sierra Leone

Gideon Keter – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya

Volkmar Klein – Member of the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany

John Muiruri Makuno – Director, Action for Children in Conflict UK

Doruntinë E. Maloku – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo; Chair of the Committee on Economic Development

Teodomiro Nzé Mangué – Senator, Senate of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea

Janet Zebedayo Mbene – Member of Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania

Betty McCollum – Congresswoman, United States House of Representatives

Hayat Meziani – Member of Parliament of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria (2012-2017)

Dr Ammar Moussi – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Algeria

Ruzanna Muradyan – Founder, Education Without Boundaries

Irene Wairimu Mwangi – Public Policy Specialist, Kenya

Cornelius Mweetwa – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Zambia

Adamou Namata – Member of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Bekono Ebah epse Ndoumou – Member of Parliament of the Republic of Cameroon

Professor George Bureng V. Nyombe – Chairperson of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), Republic of South Sudan

Hassan Omar Mohamed – Member of Parliament, National Assembly of the Republic of Djibouti; President of the Parliamentary Group of Population and Development

Margaret Mary Quirk MLA – Member of the Parliament of Western Australia

Niki Rattle – Speaker of Parliament of the Cook Islands

Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia – Senator, Senate of Canada

Dharma Raj Regmi – Parliamentarian, Federal Parliament of Nepal

Dr Azmi Shuaibi – Anti-Corruption Advisor, TI Palestine, Transparency International

Amanda Simard MPP – Member of the Provincial Parliament, Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Andres Sutt – Member of Parliament of Estonia; Deputy Governor and Member of the Executive Board, Bank of Estonia (2001-2009)

Catherine Zainab Tarawally – Member of Parliament, Parliament of Sierra Leone; Deputy Whip, All People’s Congress Party

Dr Olanrewaju Adeyemi Tejuoso – Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2015-2019)

Umayya Toukan – Senator, Parliament of Jordan

Nguyen Tuong Van – Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly

 

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The post Call for Urgent Action by 275 World Leaders on Global Education Emergency In Face of Covid19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

275 World Leaders Letter to G20, IMF, World Bank, Regional Development Banks and Governments

The post Call for Urgent Action by 275 World Leaders on Global Education Emergency In Face of Covid19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

With the Covid-19 contagion from late 2019 spreading internationally this year, governments have responded, often in desperation. Meanwhile, predatory international law firms are encouraging multimillion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits citing Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery measures.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Sharing the pain
Most governments failed to introduce sufficient precautionary measures early enough to prevent Covid-19 contagions from spreading. And when they did act, they often believed they had little choice but to impose nationwide ‘stay in shelter’ lockdowns to enforce preventive physical distancing.

To enable businesses and households to survive the adverse effects of such lockdowns, governments have provided relief measures, for at least some of those believed to have been adversely affected, especially for businesses better able to lobby effectively.

Meanwhile, there are already thousands of mainly bilateral investment treaties as well as bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements worldwide, enabling foreign investors to sue governments before private arbitration tribunals to profit from their wide-ranging treaty rights.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) can claim staggering sums in damages for alleged investment losses, for either alleged expropriation, or more typically, indirect ‘damage’ caused by regulatory changes, in this case, Covid-19 government response measures.

As some such measures try to share the burden of the crisis, e.g., with asset owners and other contracting parties, the international law firm Shearman & Sterling advises financial firms, “While helping debtors, these measures would inevitably impact creditors by causing loss of income”, referring to debt relief and restructuring efforts among others.

Foreign registered real estate or property companies can also sue governments that protect lessees or tenants who cannot make their lease or rent payments as contractually scheduled after their operations are shut down or disrupted by emergency regulations imposed.

Pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies can also appeal to such arbitration tribunals to claim losses due to price controls and ‘violated’ intellectual property rights for Covid-19 tests, treatments, medical and protective equipment as well as vaccines.

Lucrative ISDS lawsuits
In recent months, international law firms have been encouraging ISDS lawsuits citing government measures to check contagion and mitigate their economic consequences, urging clients to invoke investment and trade agreements to claim for allegedly lost income or additional losses or costs due to new government policy measures.

Another firm Ropes & Gray advises: “Governments have responded to COVID-19 with a panoply of measures, including…limitations on business operations, and tax benefits. Notwithstanding their legitimacy, these measures can negatively impact businesses by reducing profitability, delaying operations or being excluded from government benefits…For companies with foreign investments, investment agreements could be a powerful tool to recover or prevent loss resulting from COVID-19 related government actions.” [my italics]

Shearman & Sterling advises, “Some interventions will be protectionist—they will seek to support or benefit domestic enterprises (strategic or otherwise) but not foreign investors”, without mentioning their generally far lower tax contributions and generous investment incentives enjoyed.

Profiting from the pandemic
After advising clients to look out for discriminatory measures which could become the bases for such claims, law firm Sidley warns governments that proceedings can be very costly as “it is not only the actually invested amounts that can be considered recoverable damages, but also lost future profits”.

Such law firms remind their clientele that many of the more than thousand ISDS lawsuits filed worldwide have arisen during political or economic crises. Covid-19 pandemic response measures are now being widely studied as possible pretexts for another round of lawsuits.

These corporate lawsuits can impose massive fiscal burdens on governments. As Pia Eberhardt shows, legal costs average well over US$6 million per party, but can be much higher. Hence, such suits can drain government fiscal resources.

Although it becomes much more expensive if governments lose, they still have to cover their own legal expenses even if they do not lose. As of 2018, governments had been ordered to pay US$88 billion for settlements made public.

There is considerable scope for such cases given the still growing, broad range of government Covid-19 measures, e.g., foreign-owned water supply companies can sue governments for insisting that more public water supply sources be provided, or household water supplies remain uninterrupted, even if water bills are not settled, to enable more regular hand washing.

ISDS undemocratic, illegitimate
International investment law is generally independent of national legislatures and biased toward TNC interests. Investment agreements prescribe foreign investor rights and privileges very broadly, but their duties and obligations, usually rather minimally.

Sovereign national societies, parliaments and governments have considerable scope for discretion in addressing complex political issues involving diverse social and economic interests. Also, national courts generally do not award damages for lost future profits as these are considered completely conjectural.

But ISDS provides much more favourable treatment to powerful TNCs. Also, international arbitration tribunals ignore and undermine the legitimate scope for national courts, law-making and democratic government decision-making.

The typically transnational arbitration tribunals that interpret such law generally ignore recent legal developments, which take more account of the rights and responsibilities of various other stakeholders in national societies. Thus, arbitration awards tend to be much more lucrative, for both TNCs and their lawyers, than ordinary national court decisions.

A South Centre Southview urges considering various measures in response to the threat such as terminating or suspending investment treaties, withdrawing consent to arbitration, statutorily prohibiting recourse to arbitration and appealing to TNCs’ corporate moral responsibility

Already, there are growing appeals for an immediate moratorium on ISDS lawsuits and to end ISDS proceedings involving Covid-19 emergency measures, while some countries, e.g., India, South Africa and Indonesia, had scrapped some of their bilateral investment treaties even before the crisis.

The Southview opinion also chides the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for trifling with marginal reforms, instead of radically reconsidering the very illegitimacy of international investment arbitration itself.

As the world struggles to cope with an unprecedented ‘black swan’ public health threat, the prospect of a world recession taking the planet into depression is greater than ever in the last eight decades. The need to end ISDS provisions and lawsuits is more urgent than ever.

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Credit: UN News

By Ritah Nansereko
KAMPALA, Uganda, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

World Humanitarian Day is the perfect time to refresh our push to localize humanitarian aid for COVID-19 and all the challenges we face. Celebrating #RealLifeHeroes!

I’ll never forget the day when the Palabek refugee settlement officially became home to South Sudanese refugees in the Acholi Sub-region of Northern Uganda. The year before, I had visited the area in Lamwo District with my team from the African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD).

We were shocked to find hundreds of refugees, mainly women and children, living under trees. They had no protection and told us that cross-border attacks by rebels were frequent. Still, they refused to move on to the closest designated Refugee settlement in West Nile.

I remember them telling us repeatedly, ‘we will not be safe there; our people are fighting there too’. One woman pointed to a watering hole and said, ‘we’d rather drink water here with the cattle than go there’.

After we left and I got back to the coordination office in Kampala, their words continued to dance in my mind. I had to do something.

Immediately my team and I joined hands with Lamwo District Local Government officials, the Wanainchi, together with the refugee representatives, and we began to lobby the central government asking for the establishment of the refugee settlement in Lamwo District.

In less than a year, the Ugandan government responded to our appeal and in April 2017, Palabek became the official home to over 20,000 of refugees at the time of its inception. My heart filled with pride that once again, we Ugandans had answered when our neighbors knocked on our door. Currently Palabek hosts more than 53,000 refugees.

I use this case as just one example of how, over the years, local leaders and organizations have increasingly become the first responders when disaster hits. Refugees in Uganda, always receive their first emergency support from the local actors.

Uganda is the largest refugee hosting country in Africa. The country hosts about 1.4 million refugees, the majority from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ritah Nansereko

Uganda’s progressive refugee policy has enabled its nationals to stand with refugees and share their limited resources with them. Northern Uganda is one of the country’s poorest region, but it hosts over 60% of the refugees. All are settled on citizens’ land.

The great contribution of the hosting communities, the local NGOs and the government has meant that many refugees have been given a second home after being forcibly being displaced from their country of origin. Unlike other hosting countries, Uganda’s refugees, especially the majority in the northern part of the country, are integrated within the hosting communities.

And yet, time and again, local actors and communities, who have shown that they are part of the solution, are sidelined when the international actors arrive. Suddenly, we ‘lack capacity’ and our indigenous knowledge and physical proximity are undervalued.

Debates on localization and the balance of power between the so-called Global North and Global South have been gaining traction in humanitarian discourse over the last decade. The first UN World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 in Istanbul was intended to fundamentally reform the humanitarian sector so that it could react more effectively to today’s many crises.

Among the major things emphasized was the need to adapt to new challenges through local, inclusive, and context specific responses.

This need to re-think global humanitarian response has to a large extent been driven by escalating humanitarian needs – over 168 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide today, coupled with protracted crises around the globe, which call for a more diverse thinking.

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has posed yet another threat to the already shrinking humanitarian basket. It has exposed once again the need for more country-based systems that are able to address emergencies and mitigate future risks, using locally available solutions.

But on the ground, the shift to valuing local actors as critical part of the solution is still not being felt enough. The rhetoric has not translated into action. And I have been forced to face up to the reality that the humanitarian system was built by and for international actors, multilateral organisations and international NGOs. Not for us to find local solutions to global problems.

What does this side-lining look like in practical terms to those of us who are local actors? It means not being asked to participate in key policy debates. It means not being part of the planning process for major interventions. It means that funding to local actors is still below 10% of total humanitarian funding.

In the case of Uganda, although it is one of the first countries to adopt the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and has further integrated refugee response in the National Development Plan Three (NDPIII), local groups are still left in the periphery during the planning and implementation of refugee response programs.

There is a persistent misinterpretation of localization by many international agencies that limits localization to local-staff recruitment and one-off project-based community consultations.

This is not enough, especially as we are responding to a protracted refugee crisis. Response programmes need to speak to each other at every stage, if not there is a great risk that we end up with parallel response strategies which in the long term means that there is a gap between the emergency and the recovery phase.

Local groups must be included in order to manage smooth transitions from the emergency and recovery phases, where host communities play a fundamental role.

Closer to home, in Palabek, after mobilizing for the establishment of the settlement alongside fellow local groups, we received no support to continue our work. You cannot imagine my disappointment when after fighting so hard for its opening, only INGOs received funding.

The reason given was that none of us local organizations had “the capacity” to offer humanitarian services. It felt like once again, the commitment made in Istanbul, to “empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing available to them” was mere lip service.

So today, we continue work at the service of implementing partners. The set structures within the settlement themselves are skewed towards giving INGOs more power. Everything we do, must be approved by them. More often than not, they do not support our innovative ideas, claiming that they are not up to standard!

This paternalistic attitude needs to change. INGOs need to be willing to have real partnerships with local actors. And yes, this also means giving up some of the jobs and some of the money so that we have the “capacity” to help find long lasting solutions to emergencies like the refugee crisis.

We’ve talked enough. We’ve shown that we can lead humanitarian interventions. Now we need more action from all those concerned. And I think that change needs to start from those who currently hold the power, INGOs. They must:

– Develop strategies that will support local actors to regain the space to operate where we are needed.
– Meaningfully engage local groups in all processes of planning and implementation of response programs in our countries, through our national disaster management and humanitarian response plans.
– Develop a new Global Humanitarian Response Plan that includes local and national NGOs directly, recognizing that our perspectives and contributions are not always reflected in Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs) and in clusters.
– Support and encourage unconventional, alternative and creative responses that go beyond standard sectoral approaches. These must empower local people and organizations, including the faith community and women-led organizations, to take active leadership roles.
– Work in collaboration and coordination with us and local authorities, to address and ensure humanitarian principles and standards are met.
– Provide flexible funding, including adequate and consistent support for organizational overhead and staff
– Provide greater direct funding to local and national groups under the new COVID-19 funding mechanisms, opening up calls for new partners, with simplified and fast-tracked partner assessment processes, wherever possible. Grants should be allocated directly to Local and National NGOs, rather than via intermediaries.
– Track the Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID 19 funding through International Aid Tracking Initiative (IATI) reporting, so there is transparency and accountability of the funds being raised in the names of populations in Crisis.

I firmly believe that localization will not be achieved until the application of the historical westernized humanitarian systems are regulated, to give room for local context-based solutions.

As we celebrate #RealLifeHeroes on World Humanitarian Day, we shouldn’t leave it as a one-off ceremony, but rather use it as an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to local actors so that they can in turn continue to support populations in need.

It is a chance to work in earnest to remove the bottlenecks that have hindered their ability to access humanitarian funding and operational space.

African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD) is a local woman-centered humanitarian and development organisation in Uganda that works in refugee protection response; education in emergency and women’s rights advocacy.

The post We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ritah Nansereko, Executive Director – African Women and Youth Action for Development

The post We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The fall of Col Gaddafi nine years ago unleased chaos in North Africa, which Egypt fears could spill over.

By External Source
Aug 17 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The European Commission (EC) is one of the founders of Education Cannot Wait, which was established at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 and aims at increasing funding and efficiency in delivering quality education to some 75 million children and youth affected by conflicts, natural disasters and forced displacement. EC plays a major role since in advancing education in the humanitarian-development nexus during crisis. Please elaborate on the EC vision in driving education to achieve humanitarian-development coherence and deliver quality education in situations of crisis, for refugees, for girls, and other stakeholders who are left furthest behind.

The Commissioner Lenarčič: Education is an essential part of EU humanitarian assistance. It is a powerful tool to bring positive changes to individuals and to wider society and bring hope for a better and more sustainable future. Schools also protect children from violence and provide food, water, health care and hygiene supplies. They provide children with safe space and help them cope with traumatic experiences.

We need to remember that half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries. When a child’s education is disrupted by an emergency, there is a high possibility that they will never return to school. Just over half of refugees of primary school age attend school, and less than a quarter of the equivalent age group is in secondary school. We are deeply committed to bringing those girls and boys back into education and ensure their return to safe and quality learning within three months of their education disruption, so they have the rights and opportunities they deserve.

I am an advocate for greater investment in education, and we have set our own target at 10% of EU’s humanitarian aid budget. We support the education system reform to provide for greater quality and resilience, and capacity building of education actors. The protection of education against attacks is another important objective. Education needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner, we take seriously our global responsibilities and contribute to coordinated multi-stakeholder education actions that create added value and enhance impact.

Commissioner Urpilainen: Beyond the initial emergency response, education is and will remain a top priority for EU development assistance, particularly for children living in fragile contexts.

Strengthening education systems is at the core of our development programmes. We work through long-term partnerships with national governments to expand education services, to re-build infrastructure destroyed by disasters, and to strengthen the resilience of education systems to withstand future shocks. We improve governance systems to ensure that education services are equitably distributed, staff are paid regularly, and finances are managed efficiently.

In 2018, the European Commission produced a Communication on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises, which sets out our vision of shared responsibility. We use the term ‘nexus’ to describe the shared space of humanitarian, development and political instruments to achieve education for all. Within the European Commission, and among EU Member States, we have the different tools needed to address these different needs.

1- You jointly visited Burkina Faso earlier this year to assess the ongoing crisis. What were your main takeaways from the trip? What left you feeling hopeful about the work we are doing and the role of education in protracted crisis to achieve peace, stability and sustainable development?

Commissioner Urpilainen:

I was deeply impressed by the resilience of the families I met. Long-term poverty, poor infrastructure and weak social services have prevailed for many years. The current security and forced displacement crisis is worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises risk undermining the education gains made in Burkina Faso in recent years, in terms of access to education and the quality of teaching and learning.

The national education system in Burkina Faso has significant development needs to improve the infrastructure, system management and quality of education. Girls are more likely to be out of school, and some 52% of girls are subject to early marriage.

During the visit I had an opportunity to talk with Burkinabe youth who emphasised the importance of accessibility in vocational education and training (VET). This point was raised also by President Kaboré in our meeting. Skills acquired through quality training help support smooth transition to labour market. In the long term, skilled labour force is a key element of sustainable economic growth and stability.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Unfortunately, hundreds of schools have been closed in Burkina even before COVID-19 pandemic. Many have been under attack, affecting thousands of children and teachers. Out-of-school and vulnerable girls and boys face violence and exploitation, including gender-based sexual violence, child labour and forced recruitment.

Scaling up and improving humanitarian assistance to Burkina Faso has become an imperative. More, better and faster humanitarian aid requires adequate coordination. Only an integrated approach can ensure communities’ security, the ability to meet their needs and aspirations, and to restore trust.

Education is crucial in this respect. To intensify our efforts, we recently decided to support two large multi-annual partnerships to address broad education and protection needs in the Sahel region with the EU’s humanitarian aid budget.

2- What motivates you to be part of the Education Cannot Wait, and as members of the ECW High-Level Steering Group? What do you hope to achieve through supporting this rapidly growing global fund?

Commissioner Urpilainen: I strongly believe in the power of collective action. Education Cannot Wait was formed to mobilise a collective response to urgent needs in education in emergencies, bringing together traditional and new actors. The European Union was part of ECW’s inception, bringing development funding to allow multi-year, predictable support.

From a development perspective, I place great importance in the Multi-Year Resilience Programming window of the fund, which incentivises humanitarian and development actors to come together in joint response.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Following the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, ECW created an impressive dynamic around the importance of education in emergency contexts. It rallied in an unprecedented way donors from around the world to support initiatives to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality education.

The sense of urgency, strong collective action, enhanced prioritisation and capacity to respond are our shared goals. From the humanitarian perspective, I would like to highlight the First Emergency Response Window. The EU has been strengthening in the past years the work of education clusters and working groups, as well as systematic inclusion of education in the rapid response mechanism. Together, we can continue to be a vocal advocate for the strengthening of clusters, improving coordination, needs assessments and localisation. We can also better identify and develop innovative approaches and build partnerships at the systemic level.

3- How do your different departments, the DG for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid and the DG for International Cooperation and Development, work together strategically and practically to promote quality education in the humanitarian-development nexus for girls, boys and youth caught in protracted crises?

Commissioner Lenarčič: Working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus is at the core of our efforts. The first step was to develop a joint policy framework, making sure we have clear, shared objectives and goals. This is provided by the 2018 Communication on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises, in which we jointly commit to four common goals (access to education, quality education, protection of education, coordination and partnerships). The EU Member States also endorsed this policy framework through Council Conclusions in 2018.

At country level, we have joint planning and review processes. EU Delegation staff and ECHO staff sit together at important moments, such as the formulation of the Humanitarian Implementation Plans (HIP), or the annual reviews of Multiannual Indicative Plans (MIP). Processes are often shared, such as monitoring visits, reviews, planning workshops. There is a regular exchange of information.

Our presence in the field is mutually reinforcing, with humanitarian actors operating in contexts where development instruments are not present, e.g. active conflicts or hard to reach areas.

Commissioner Urpilainen: Our EU Delegations have strong credibility with education ministries, based on years of partnership through budget support, technical assistance and policy dialogue. When appropriate, information from our humanitarian teams can be channelled into policy dialogue with national authorities. This is an effective way of influencing policy dialogue and improving coordination among actors, who may be trying to tackle the same issue from different angles.

Within the ‘nexus’ space we operate in different ways according to our mandates, but we share the same goals. We promote equity and equality, especially gender equality. We focus on the poorest and most vulnerable, striving for inclusive education systems. Peace, tolerance, good governance and non-violence are essential values in all education support.

4-What are the EU’s main priorities for education in emergencies and protracted crises in your new strategy for 2021-2027?

Commissioner Lenarčič: The EU’s policy framework for education in emergencies of 2018 will continue to guide our actions and offering children affected by humanitarian crises access to safe, quality, and accredited education.

Yet, we know that COVID-19 has disrupted education for 1.2 billion learners globally and added a new layer of complexity for education in humanitarian settings, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities.

I am deeply concerned about the most vulnerable children, at risk of never returning to school. If even a small percentage do not return to education, this translates into millions of children. We will strive to forge even closer links between child protection and education and promote integrated and comprehensive approaches to children’s needs.

To build up better education systems, we should focus more on the equity and quality aspects. Innovative, digital-based solutions are key but they should be accompanied with adequate attention to connectivity, skills and knowledge of teachers and caregivers, accelerated education programmes to bridge the education gaps, and development of alternative remote learning channels, such as pre-registered offline content or TV/radio-based teaching.

The scale of needs is unprecedented and requires sustained, timely and coordinated financing. Our key commitment to dedicate 10% of EU’s humanitarian aid budget to education remains for the years to come and will guide our policy, advocacy and funding support.

I was struck by the findings of the recently released report “Education under Attack 2020” by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. Much remains to be done to protect students, educators and personnel and schools from attack. Protection of education will also feature high on my agenda as Commissioner.

Commissioner Urpilainen: The current crisis risks reversing decades of progress towards education for all. We must re-focus attention towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 as education is part of the solution.

I have decided to boost the share of education expenditure in the upcoming EU Development Financing between 2021-2027. As a former teacher, I am convinced that investments in education will bring great returns in terms of human development, poverty eradication and reducing inequalities.

We know how important teachers are. For children caught up in cycles of violence and crisis, a reliable teacher can be the anchor that keeps them on track, helping them find their best future. We will support teachers’ professional development programmes and curriculum reform, so education teachers have the tools needed to provide 21st century skills to children.

Furthermore, qitting in school is not enough. Students need to graduate with strong skills. We are preparing students to live in a new world, to work in jobs that do not exist yet, with technology that has not been invented yet. Strengthening education systems to meet these needs is our main priority over the next seven years.

5- In 2019 and 2020 ECW increased its engagement in the Sahel and the Middle East as two regions in crisis. How do you see ECW making a difference for children’s education, particularly girls in these regions in trouble?

Commissioner Lenarčič: ECW plays a major role in advancing education in the humanitarian-development nexus during crises. ECW has been an important voice, highlighting the dire and worsening situation in the Sahel region and in the Middle East. ECW operates at an impressive speed – we saw this for the COVID-19 First Education Response funding, which reached 26 countries in March.

Furthermore, ECW has a clear targeting – focusing on vulnerable children affected by crises. This combination holds great potential for children in the Sahel and in the Middle East. In these regions, children are affected by multiple crises, often overlapping, and it is the most vulnerable, particularly girls and displaced children, who are left behind. The emphasis that ECW places on girls is much needed, considering for example the huge disparities in gross enrolment rates and literacy levels, e.g. in the Sahel region, girls are on average 17% behind boys.

The weight that ECW has as a donor allows it to push for more integrated actions, understanding that the educational needs of girls and boys cannot find their solutions only in education but require a more holistic view of the multifaceted barriers to education, which is particularly valid for regions like Sahel or the Middle East.

Commissioner Urpilainen: ECW’s plans to start Multi-Year Resilience Programmes throughout the Sahel in 2020 offers much hope. Countries like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali require medium and long-term planning. The multi-year framework aims to improve coordination and incentivise joint planning and financing.

We are proud to be part of Education Cannot Wait’s drive to improve coordination and joint planning for children affected by crises.

6- The EU/EC plays an instrumental role at the global level and in its partnership with the United Nations, the World Bank and other regional and international and multilateral institutions. How do you see EU/EC’s role in supporting the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals, not the least Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education, as we face COVID-19 and a continued uncertainty of the future. What can we all do to build back better?

Commissioner Urpilainen: In these extraordinary circumstances, the Sustainable Development Goals and the agenda of ‘leaving no one behind’ are more important than ever.

We need to draw a joint roadmap that considers COVID-19 and we need to harmonise the aid architecture for education. But above all, the education community must come together with a clear message: education is a top priority. Education for all will enable the achievement of the other SDGs, and it is especially in times of crisis that we realise its power.

People on the move take their education and skills with them, helping them to adapt to and thrive in new settings. Educated people are quicker to take up technology solutions to access information, such as health messages or remote learning programmes. Science and technology offer innovative solutions. We depend more than ever on highly skilled healthcare providers and data analysts. Educated agriculturalists can take up new opportunities in green farming.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Furthermore, we need to use our collective voice to speak to the wider global community, to ensure all decision-makers are convinced of the importance and power of education.

The agenda of building back better requires appropriate consideration to equity and quality, and lessons learnt from diversified strategies to address distance learning, especially in low-income countries and in humanitarian contexts. A people-centred approach that focuses on the most vulnerable groups and on people in vulnerable contexts should remain at the heart of our actions.

 

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