During the recent UN Summit of the Future, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UN Special Envoy Gordon Brown unveiled a groundbreaking $1.5 billion investment in education and skills development for the world’s most vulnerable children and youth.
The Jacobs Foundation is proud to support this ground-breaking initiative, which represents the largest single increase in education funding in decades, powered by the transformative International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd).
Tackling the global education crisis
In the face of escalating conflicts, climate challenges, and humanitarian crises, IFFEd is set to tackle the urgent yet often overlooked global education crisis and the massive annual education funding gap – currently estimated at $97 billion per year through 2030.
Currently, 250 million children are out of school, and over 800 million young people – more than half of the global youth population – are expected to leave school without the skills needed for the modern workforce.
Supporting lower-middle income countries (LMICs)
IFFEd will support education and skills development in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) which are home to nearly half of the world’s children and youth. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Kenya are among the most populous LMICs, often referred to as the “missing middle.” These nations no longer qualify for grants but cannot afford non-concessional financing. With constrained domestic budgets, their investments in education and skills development are frequently the most affected.
Bringing together governments around the world
Founding donors Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have contributed $342 million in guarantees and capital plus $100 million in grants and the Asian Development Bank is serving as IFFEd’s founding multilateral development bank (MDB) partner. The initial $1.5bn phase will, therefore, focus on Asia and the Pacific, home to the world’s largest youth population, before expanding globally to Africa and other regions with new MDB partners.
Public-private sector collaboration
This initiative demonstrates a broad coalition of public and private sector partners who have all played a crucial role in IFFEd’s development. Other global philanthropic foundations contributing vital seed funding include the Atlassian Foundation, Porticus, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Soros Economic Development Fund, the impact investment arm of the Open Society Foundations.