From February 1 until February 2, 2018 the Global Partnership for Education Financing Conference (GPE) takes place in Dakar, co-hosted by Presidents Macky Sall (Senegal) and Emmanuel Macron (France). It will be the first time a donor and developing country co-host such an event, symbolizing the spirit of true partnership, which is the essence of GPE.
The conference will gather heads of states and representatives from developing and donor countries, international organizations, private businesses and foundations, civil society organizations, all re-committing to place education at the top of their development priorities.
The conference aims to achieve the goals of the GPE replenishment for 2018-2020, and make GPE a US$2 billion a year organization by 2020.
At the panel for private foundations, Sandro Giuliani, Managing Director at the Jacobs Foundation, describes the engagement and key outcomes of the rural livelihoods program TRECC (Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities) in Côte d’Ivoire. The CHF 60 million commitment of the Jacobs Foundation, Bernard Van Leer Foundation and the UBS Optimus Foundation strives to improve the quality of education at national level and in the cocoa growing regions.
FLTR: Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education; Randa Grob-Zachary, Special Advisor to the CEO, Porticus; Sandro Giuliani, Managing Director, Jacobs Foundation.
Being the only foundation with operations in Côte d’Ivoire, the Jacobs Foundation also brings diversity to the Local Education Group. The specificity compared to other donors of the LEG is that the Jacobs Foundation is ready to take on more risks to pilot innovations to address the challenges in the education sector which is highly appreciated by the Government and respective Ministry staff.
The CEO of the Global Partnership for Education, Alice Albright, stressed the important role philanthropic foundations should play in the GPE, not only in terms of financial contribution, but also to share their expertise, their drives for results and their way of doing things differently.