What Happened at the Global Education Summit

This post was originally published on the GPE website.

The Global Education Summit raised US$4 billion from donors for the Global Partnership for Education, putting GPE on the path to achieving its target of raising at least $5 billion over the next five years. The Summit’s success demonstrated the commitment of the international community towards ensuring children’s education in the world’s lowest-income countries.

Held on July 28 and 29, 2021 in London and online, the Summit was co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

It brought together heads of State and ministers from donor and partner countries. Leaders from businesses and private foundations, representatives from international organizations, development banks, civil society organizations, teachers' organizations and youth leaders also participated in London and virtually.

In addition to the $4 billion pledged from donors, 19 Heads of State and Government committed to spending at least 20 percent of national budgets on education, rallying behind a political declaration on education financing led by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Over the next five years, the countries endorsing this statement are committing more than $196 billion in education financing.

The Summit also mobilized more than $1 billion from partners in innovative co-financing to transform education for the world’s most vulnerable children, with the business community and private foundations collectively pledging over $100 million at the summit - the largest contribution from these communities in GPE’s history.

We have compiled the most important highlights from the Summit’s major outcomes below:

Press release highlights key outcomes

If you haven’t already, make sure to read the press release announcing the record commitments secured at the Summit. The media coverage was massive, with an audience reach of 190 million and nearly 1,600 mentions globally.

Major outlets covering the Summit included: BBC, Sky News, the Telegraph, the Independent, Financial Times, the Guardian, Radio France International, TV5 Monde, Deutsche Welle, Arab News, CNN, Washington Post, and Nikkei Shimbun, among others.

Administrator Samantha Power at the Global Partnership for Education Summit

Watch the video highlights or the full Summit

If you were not able to watch live or attend the Summit, you can find the best moments highlighted in our video. We encourage you to share it your social media platforms to spread the word.

And if you catch a specific session or speaker, please go to our summit page to check out both London Live or the four thematic sessions. You can easily access specific moments from either of the two days by simply selecting a session title below the video.

Read the Chair statement

In her post-summit statement, Julia Gillard, GPE Board Chair, discusses the major highlights and outcomes of the Global Education Summit.

Learn more about the pledges and commitments

View the commitments by partner countries and the pledges from donor government, private sector and foundations.

Pledges and commitments