Top aid donors failing to invest enough in global education

Top aid donors are failing to invest enough in global education and should act urgently to meet a 2015 goal for all children to attend primary school, global education campaigner Sarah Brown has said. The spouse of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke to Devex following the launch of research that shows nine of the world’s largest bilateral donors to basic education have decreased spending on the area since 2010. Brown called for the countries to “stop making excuses” and address why 58 million children remained out of school so close to the Millennium Development Goals deadline. A World at School, which Brown co-founded, also revealed in the report that the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands had all scaled back their contributions. Based on publically available data, particularly from UNESCO, the donor scorecard shows Norway is the only country to have progressively spent more on education over the past five years. Donors should keep their promises Brown said although some donors were investing “significant levels” of funding in education, the research revealed a discrepancy in comparison with health. Since 2008, donors have invested 58 percent more in health but 19 percent less in education. The education advocate stressed that given donor promises to “get every single child into primary education by the end of this year,” they should step up the investment, and not see it decline. “It is so clear to me that education is saving lives and it’s the same lives we’re working to support through health and other aid, so we need a greater sense of outrage over that,” Brown stressed. “We know that resources exist to invest in education and it’s in the interest of all development professionals to see education targets reached, including health and environment people.” Brown suggested donors were investing less in education was its impact was less immediately visible. “When you look at images of children who are really suffering in a crisis where you can act with a vaccination or health treatment, where you can visibly see it changed their lives — it’s much easier to take that option,” she said. “Education is harder to see — it’s harder for a public to see sometimes too. But it saves lives in the same way, both today and year in, year out.” Educated populations, she added, tended to be healthier and have more economic opportunities. Primary education for all is ‘not rocket science’ Brown called on global development professionals to keep campaigning to ensure attention is drawn to the benefits of investing in education. In particular, she said recent attacks on schoolchildren, schools and teachers, such as the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 female students from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, had not received the same “global response or outrage” she believed they should do. She also urged U.N. member states not to give up on the 2015 goal and postpone progress in line with plans for the forthcoming set of sustainable development goals. “Pushing that target into 2030 is not acceptable, because the lives of children are on the line now, and they’re on the line in exactly the same way they are with any other kind of crisis,” Brown said. Asked how nontraditional donors might play a role in delivering education, Brown said professionals focused on the issue should consider partnerships with businesses. As executive chair of the Global Business Coalition, a nonprofit formed of member companies focused on improving education, she described how this group worked with business leaders in the wake of the Chibok attack. “It was actually the business leaders that came forward in Nigeria and put forward the first tranche of funding that allowed the Safe Schools program to be created,” Brown said. The World Economic Forum Abuja announced the initiative, which aims to protect education with community and school-based interventions. The Nigerian government later matched the $10 million business contribution, raising $20 million. “Those sort of innovations that bring together different partners in different groups is something we should be exploring more and more,” Brown added. She also recommended global development professionals do more to help countries develop education infrastructure. While unlocking political will and funding among donor agencies was necessary, Brown said this needed to be converted into action on the ground. “One of the biggest gaps is strategies for countries to map out exactly how you’re going to organize your budgets, your management systems and teacher training systems to get larger numbers of kids in schools,” she said. Brown added that implementing education was inexpensive and was “not rocket science.” “You’re talking a few hundred dollars a year to educate a child in sub-Saharan Africa or some of the most remote parts of Southeast Asia, which are some of the hardest to reach,” she suggested. What key steps could expedite progress on meeting the goal of having all children attend primary school by the end of the year? Have your say by leaving a comment below. 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