Fabio Segura and Richard Hawkes on why education financing must be central to the SDGs

In an opinion piece for Impact Alpha, Fabio Segura, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation, and Richard Hawkes, CEO of the British Asian Trust, argue for putting education at the center of global financing discussions.

Despite education’s role as the backbone of healthier societies, resilient economies, and responsive governance, it remains too often overlooked in high-level conversations on development finance. The cost of this neglect is staggering: every year, an estimated USD 10 trillion is lost when children are denied access to quality learning opportunities.

The Financing for Development conference, which took place in July, offered a glimpse of momentum. A joint statement from the International Education Funders Group and the OECD Network of Foundations Working for Development, co-signed by the Jacobs Foundation, called for greater ambition, alignment, and investment in education financing. Encouragingly, the conference’s outcome document — the Compromiso de Sevilla — recognized the need for adequate funding for education, a signal that the tide may be turning.

Segura and Hawkes point to promising models already taking shape. In Ghana, the recently launched System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence (SCALE) is aligning public, private, and philanthropic resources to strengthen proven education approaches and reach millions of learners. Globally, innovative mechanisms such as the International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) are demonstrating how coordinated financing can unlock substantial public resources, reduce risk for partners, and enable countries to invest in evidence-based reforms at scale. Together, these efforts show that well-structured, collaborative approaches can unlock systemic change and provide a blueprint for financing across the SDGs.

Philanthropy has an important role to play in de-risking new models and building confidence for others to follow. Yet lasting progress will require genuine collaboration across governments, multilateral organizations, investors, and communities to ensure that education claims its rightful place at the heart of development strategies.

At the Jacobs Foundation, we believe that education financing is not only an essential investment in children’s futures but also the cornerstone for achieving inclusive and sustainable development worldwide.