- International Activities -

17 September 2006

Joint statement from Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the UK on education

Today and every day more than 100 million of the world's children do not go to school. Most are in Africa, more are girls, all are denied the most basic chance to reach their potential.

Education benefits not just children, but families, communities and whole countries. It is key to the eradication of extreme poverty and diseases such as AIDS and is one of the most cost-effective investments donors can make. It is particularly important for girls' health and economic prospects.

Urgent and concerted action is needed if we are to meet the Millennium Development Goal of all children completing primary education by 2015. Meeting this goal requires a long-term compact between developing countries and donor countries on which both sides need to deliver. Only with predictable resources over the long term will developing countries be able to make essential investments such as building schools and training teachers and to meet recurrent costs such as teachers' salaries and continue to improve the quality of primary education.

In Abuja, Nigeria, on May 21 and 22 2006, 22 African countries committed to preparing comprehensive and costed 10 year plans to meet the education goals. In Singapore, on 17 September, at a ministerial roundtable chaired by Presidents Wolfowitz and Kaberuka, 15 countries will present progress reports on these plans. A summary synthesis of these plans is attached. 

The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Canada and the UK welcome the progress African countries have made and fully support their efforts to develop long-term, ambitious and costed education plans. Taken together, if these plans were implemented, 25 million children, who would otherwise be denied a primary education, would be in school by 2015. 

Following the Singapore meeting, we look forward to countries continuing to develop and refine their plans and encourage countries to seek endorsement through the Fast Track Initiative. As leading contributors to the FTI, we welcome what it has achieved to date and endorse it as an effective mechanism for supporting education planning and harmonising donor support. We now encourage the FTI to build on this success, reinforcing its emphasis on the quality of education, and heightening its focus on mobilising resources, including increasing domestic revenue to meet not just short term but also long term financing gaps.

The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Canada and the UK agree on the need for broad-based, long-term predictable financing which will allow developing countries to fulfil their ambitions on education for all and call on the international community to rise to this challenge and support this education partnership.