Svenja Schulze, a Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany, has recently announced $228.3 million (€200 million) in funding for ECW (Education Cannot Wait). ECW is the United Nations global fund for protracted crises and education in emergencies.
With the latest multi-year contribution, Germany will become ECW’s top donor, with nearly $362.7 million (€318.8 million) in total contributions. In addition, this global fund has reached the milestone of around $1 billion mobilized from private and public donors in just five years of operations, making it a fast-growing initiative in the UN.
For the record, Yasmine Sherif, Education Cannot Wait’s Director, joined Minister Schulze in Geneva to announce the recent contribution on the International Day of Education.
As per the statement made by Minister Schulze, education is considered a key to breaking the cycle of poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has emerged as a risk factor that may wipe out decades of educational success, especially among children and girls with disabilities.
According to the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, the latest funding will help achieve the goals of providing quality education to COVID-19 crisis-affected girls and boys. The UN officials also call on all private sector partners and governments to support ECW’s mission with $1 billion in urgent funding, he added.
Yasmine Sherif has seemingly cited that ECW has shown appreciation to Germany and the government for the recent, ground-breaking contribution. The global fund is committed to ensuring consistent delivery of Sustainable Development Goal 4: work, quality education, equitable, and inclusive for generations to come.
It is also estimated that between 11 million-20 million girls will never return to school following the coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening the progress made in terms of gender equality over the past decades. The new funding will significantly help ECW reach over 128 million children caught in humanitarian crises with education.
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