The UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr Gordon Brown, on Monday, announced the establishment of
Global Emergency Education Fund for out-of-school children due to conflicts, diseases or natural disasters.
Brown, former UK Prime Minister, told reporters in New York via telephone link that the Fund would be officially unveiled during the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), scheduled to take place from May 23 to May 24 in Istanbul, Turkey.
He said “the Fund will assist Nigeria, where Boko Haram forced the closure of over 5,000 schools.
“It will also take care of funding for Nepal, where 900,000 children are out of school because of earthquake emergency and South Sudan.”
The fund, he added, would build on the recent Syrian initiative which promised one million Syrian refugees schooling in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The former British prime minister said that the Fund, to be known as “Education Cannot Wait”, was a historic, global first that would seek “substantial
sums” from government and businesses, to urgently provide for the over 30 million displaced girls and boys.
He added that “the Fund is the only chance to save a generation lost to wars, child marriage, forced labour and recruitment for violent extremism.
“I call upon Western leaders in particular, to set up the platform and act now.”
Brown said that the funding campaign, which would start on May 23, would raise 3.84 billion Dollars in the next five years.
“The Fund spent three years in the making and will fill the gap where education falls through the net, between humanitarian aid, which focuses in food and shelter and development aid, which is by definition focused on the long term.
“We will engage philanthropic companies in innovative solutions to deliver education, including bold experiments in online education to help refugees in camps and those holed up in huts and tents.
“Such bold initiative will offer millions of the world’s displaced children their first chance of schooling.” (NAN)
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