New Delhi:
German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze on Monday announced 200 million euros ($228 million), in new, additional funding for Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.
This new funding brings Germany’s total contributions to ECW to over 318.8 million euros. With this new multi-year announcement, Germany becomes ECW’s number one donor and Germany becomes the leading donor to commit to multi-year funding.
Multi-year financial commitments are crucial to increase the predictability and effectiveness of education responses in protracted crisis settings.
The German contribution also brings ECW’s Trust Fund to $1.1 billion; and, with over $1 billion leveraged through ECW in-country programmes, this makes ECW a $2 billion global fund in just a few short years since its establishment.
ECW’s top three donors now are Germany, the UK and Denmark.
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif joined Minister Schulze in Geneva to announce the new funding on the International Day of Education while highlighting the urgent need to mobilize additional resources to support the millions of crisis-impacted children and adolescents worldwide whom today are denied their inherent human right to an education because of armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters and protracted crises.
“We warmly thank the people of Germany and the German government for this generous, ground-breaking contribution. Education provides safety, hope and opportunity for the millions of children and adolescents worldwide impacted by conflicts, COVID-19 and climate change,” said Sherif.
ECW was launched in 2016, benefitting 42 crisis countries to date. IANS