HH Sheikha Moza urges new alliances in push to achieve MDG2

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser today spoke in New York at the 2015 Education Countdown: Failure is Not an Option high-level plenary session to urge the global community to drive further targeted efforts for innovative funding models and increase focus towards universal primary education for millions of disadvantaged children. 

The high-level plenary session is the first of a number of events Her Highness will be speaking at during the 69th United Nations General Assembly as discussions are evolving post the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expiration at the end of 2015. Her Highness will urge the international community accomplish its goal to support all children into education by 2015. 

Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education invited Her Highness as a panelist to address the summit as he moderated the forum of high-level representatives from governments, business, NGOs, UN agencies and foundations to discuss the activities and momentum taking place to accelerate progress on access and learning in the final sprint towards the MDG2 deadline at the end of 2015.

In her remarks, Her Highness argued that universal primary education has not been prioritised. “Education has been forgotten and has been a policy orphan. We are now seeing the impact of this neglect and for the first time since the MDGs were launched in 2000, UNESCO reported an increase in the numbers of out-of-school children to 58 million. Half of these are living in conflict zones. Just this summer over 116 schools have been bombed and destroyed in Gaza, and statistics from Save the Children are showing that 2.8 million Syrian children are now out of school.”

UNESCO reported that the funding gap to achieve basic education in low-income countries has increased from an annual $16 billion to $26 billion in just three years. Her Highness appealed to the international and business community to realise the potential of education as an enabler of sustainable global development.

Her Highness asked the audience why basic education has been unable to mobilise more support from the business sector. She said; “Education benefits all areas of development. Education makes good economic and business sense; every dollar invested in primary education generates $10-$15 in economic returns. The costs of not educating out of school children far outweigh the investment needed”.

Gordon Brown echoed Her Highnesses’ views on increased focus on universal primary education. He also praised the work of Educate a Child; “It is tempting to talk about the future goals between 2015 and 2030, but in my view, the credibility depends on us doing everything in our power to achieve the existing ones. I am very fortunate to chair the best panel to talk about these issues to move things forward. Educate a Child is the biggest foundation outside government to do the most to achieve the goals of universal education.”

Other speakers and respondents at the event included: Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development, Elias Bou Saab, Education Minister, Lebanon, Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle, Rovio Entertainment Ltd. António Gutteres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, Geeta Rao Gupta, Deputy Executive Director (Programmes), UNICEF, Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie Canada, Holiday Reinhorn, Author and Co-Founder, Lide Haiti and Alice Albright, CEO, Global Partnership for Education.