UN chief encourages philanthropists to invest more in education
"The world needs you to do even more: more giving, more advocacy, more sharing best practices and more teamwork, including with the United Nations," the Secretary-General said in a speech delivered on his behalf by his Chef de Cabinet, Vijay Nambiar, to a special event in New York to strengthen partnership between the United Nations and the philanthropic community.
The event, "Partnering with the philanthropic community to promote education for all," organized by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), brought together four hundred philanthropists, corporate and civil society leaders to UN Headquarters to share best practices and lessons to boost global private funding for the education of boys and girls.
In his remarks to the event, the Secretary-General paid tribute to the role played by philanthropic investments in spearheading innovation and providing the impetus for wider reforms.
"They are leveraging technology and providing new models of community involvement; they are bringing added value to your companies and society alike," the Secretary-General said, while also thanking the philanthropic community for its wide-ranging engagement.
He outlined three ways in which more could be done: first, by making multi-year commitments to investments in education that address the root of the education deficit; second, by joining existing multi-partner efforts; and thirdly, by solving critical bottlenecks such as in teacher preparation, the monitoring of school and student performance and finding alternatives for scarce school supplies such as textbooks.
Mr. Ban noted that the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has said that achieving the Education for All goals will require a global investment of $16 billion. Launched in 1990, the Education for All movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults, through six key education goals which aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.
The Secretary-General also noted that nearly two million teachers will be needed by 2015 to achieve the global goal of universal primary education. "All of this requires greater investment. That is where the philanthropic community can play such a critical role," he said, the UN News Centre informs.
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