Education must come first in our global efforts to defeat
poverty, defend the planet and demand equity.
NEW
YORK, Sept. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At this
weekend's Global Citizen Festival, Education Cannot Wait (ECW)
Executive Director Yasmine Sherif
lit up the stage in New York's
Central Park with her passionate call to expand support for
education for crisis-affected girls and boys around the world.
Sherif joined Rachel Brosnahan
onstage in calling for expanded action to ensure education for all
– especially children and adolescents impacted by armed conflicts,
climate-induced disasters and protracted crises.
ECW's partnership with Global Citizen and other key champions
has brought together citizens from across the globe to accelerate
ECW's resource mobilization efforts, resulting in over US$1.6 billion mobilized to date. Leading up to
the festival, thousands of individuals took action through Global
Citizen's campaign to support education for all through Education
Cannot Wait. Throughout the day, a wide range of world leaders,
celebrities and advocates – including headliners such as LISA from
Blackpink, Post Malone, Doja Cat, Jelly Roll, RAYE, Hugh Jackman and Dr. Jane Goodall – took to the Global Citizen stage
with a common goal to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand
equity.
"Every child deserves a future irrespective of race, religion,
ethnicity or politics – no matter who or where they are. This is a
human imperative. Every child deserves an education. Every child
deserves to reach their potential in safety, be it in Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan or Chad," said Sherif. "We are proud today to be
committing US$90 million towards
quality education for children in Ukraine, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Iraq and Syria to ensure that they are equipped to
realize their dreams and build a future, just like all of us. We
are also committing US$27 million for
emergency education support for the children of Haiti, Gaza,
Lebanon, Eastern Congo and Sudan. Thank-you Global Citizen – and all of
you – for being part of our mission to deliver education to
children in crisis, for making the world a better, fairer and more
humane place."
When Education Cannot Wait was founded in 2017, it was estimated
that 75 million crisis-impacted children needed ECW's support in
accessing quality, holistic education opportunities. That number
has tripled to 224 million today – that's more than the populations
of Australia, France, Italy
and the United Kingdom
combined.
Brutal wars have exacerbated the issue, stretched foreign aid
budgets, and derailed progress toward the Sustainable Development
Goals. Without additional measures, by 2030 an astonishing 300
million children will lack basic numeracy and literacy skills
worldwide. Just as concerning, 1 in 4 young people are either out
of school, out of a job, or out of a training programme to join the
work force, and girls are twice as likely as boys to be impacted by
this critical situation.
The challenges are especially strong in the world's forgotten
crises. Approximately half of all out-of-school children in
emergencies are concentrated in only eight countries: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan. In Nigeria alone 20 million children are out of
school; in Sudan, 18 million
children are out of school. Without the safety and protection of a
quality education they face an uncertain future, recruitment into
armed groups, child marriage and other grave violations of their
human rights. Even when they are in school, millions more children
are falling further behind.
Despite the growing needs, overall humanitarian funding for
education dropped for the first time in over a decade last year,
decreasing by 3%, from US$1.2 billion
in 2022 to US$1.17 in 2023, according
to ECW's Annual Results Report.
Against all odds, ECW and its strategic partners are
achieving significant results. Since ECW became operational in
2017, ECW's investments have reached 11 million children and
adolescents, including 5.6 million girls and boys in 2023 alone.
The global fund is calling on world leaders, businesses,
philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals to provide
US$600 million in urgent funding to
reach 20 million children through the Fund's four-year strategic
plan. Financing education is an investment in all of humanity
without discrimination.
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SOURCE Education Cannot Wait