Record USD 28.5 bln pledged at Brussels conf for global education

BRUSSELS, June 26 (KUNA) -- The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Replenishment Conference held in Brussels Thursday received new pledges of more than US 28.5 billion in additional funding for education for millions of children in more than 60 developing countries.
A statement by the EU, the host of the conference, noted that this unprecedented outcome was driven by extraordinary commitments by 27 developing countries to increase their own education budgets by USD 26 billion, which represents an increase of 25 percent between 2015 and 2018.
These funds will boost the education resources available to tens of millions of children in developing countries, it said.
Donors including the European Union, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Britain also pledged over USD 2.1 billion for the GPE Fund, an increase of USD 600 million or 40 percent on the last replenishment pledging conference in Copenhagen in 2011.
Pledges were also received from multilateral organizations, NGO partners and the private sector.
In addition, the Islamic Development Bank will contribute USD 400 million in loan buy-down arrangements.
The conference marks the start of the GPE's four-year replenishment period (2015-18), which aims to raise a total of USD 3.5 billion in donor commitments.
Today's result takes the Global Partnership more than half way towards that ultimate goal, it added. (end) nk.bs