Global Partnership for Education

(asked on 21st February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, for what reasons her Department's recent financial commitment to the Global Partnership for Education was less than the International Development Committee's recommendation.


Answered by
Harriett Baldwin Portrait
Harriett Baldwin
This question was answered on 28th February 2018

The UKs pledge of £225 million over three years compares to the £210 million we spent over the previous four year period. Our annual contribution to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will increase by almost 50% to £75 million per year. We are the largest bilateral funder. The funding will be used to keep 850,000 children in school each year and train 170,000 teachers. This significant increase in funding reflects the results that GPE has achieved to date and our continued strong commitment to this mechanism.

Our support for GPE goes beyond funding. We will continue to play an active role on the GPE board and we are committed to further increasing our engagement in developing countries to drive improvements in GPE’s delivery.

Our pledge was less than that of the International Development Committee’s recommendation for three reasons. Whilst we are proud to remain GPE’s largest bilateral funder, it is important that other donors also pay their fair share. Secondly, GPE has made significant progress over the last replenishment period, but can continue to improve and demonstrate results. In particular, there is scope for GPE to drive greater improvements in teaching, deliver more for marginalised groups, and strengthen its country model to focus more robustly on quality and learning. Finally, we also invest significantly in other education programmes, and want to maintain a balanced portfolio across bilateral and multilateral spending.

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