A shared future starts with education.

Education is the single biggest enabler of global progress – enabling economic growth, reducing inequality, improving health and reducing conflict. Since 1980, investment in education has contributed to:

• 50% of global economic growth
• 70% of income gains among the world’s poorest
• 50% of the reduction in gender income inequality
• 40% of the reduction in extreme poverty (1)

Yet, at a time of growing need, education is being deprioritised. Widening financing gaps are leaving millions of children and young people around the world without access to school, reversing decades of hard-won progress. In every context, including crisis settings, young people identify education as their top priority (2).

In 2025, African Union leaders declared a Decade of Accelerated Action for the Transformation of Education and Skills Development — a clear signal that partner countries are prioritising education as a foundation for growth.

A genuine commitment to partnership means aligning with these priorities. As global leaders shape the future of development, education must not be overlooked but instead placed at the heart of the UK’s wider development agenda.

WE ARE CALLING ON THE UK GOVERNMENT TO:

• Protect funding for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) at the same relative level as other multilateral organisations and deliver a strong, 5-year pledge to the GPE 2030 strategy.
• Support reforms on tax, debt and the international financial architecture to generate more funding and increase public spending on education, reducing dependency on ODA and sustainably addressing the funding gap.

(1) Gethin, A. (2024) Distributional Growth Accounting: Education and the Reduction of Global Poverty, 1980-2019 https://amory-gethin.fr/files/pdf/Gethin2024.pdf
(2) Save the Children, Plan International and Norwegian Refugee Council (2026): Accountability to Children and Young People https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/SC-Plan-NRC-Advocacy_report.pdf