Education First: A panacea to learning crisis?

On Sept. 26, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched Education First, a five-year initiative designed to accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goal on education and “lay the groundwork for a bold vision for education post-2015.” Ritu Sharma, founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide applauds the action but hopes that — similar to universal access to education — learning draws enough attention.

By // 01 October 2012

On Sept. 26, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched Education First, a five-year initiative designed to accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goal on education and “lay the groundwork for a bold vision for education post-2015.”

Aid advocates applaud the initiative, but will it finally address impediments to quality education? Ritu Sharma, co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide, discusses with Devex what the education community has been doing wrong and what it should do moving forward.

Lars Schwetje contributed reporting from New York.

Check out the rest of our interview with Ritu Sharma, as well as our conversations with other global development luminaries who attended this year’s Clinton Global Initiative.

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    About the author

    • Rolf Rosenkranz

      Rolf Rosenkranz

      Rolf Rosenkranz has worked as a Global Editor for Devex. Previously, Rolf was managing editor at Inside Health Policy, a subscription-based news service in Washington. He has reported from Africa for the Johannesburg-based Star and its publisher, Independent News & Media, as well as the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, a German daily.

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